Show and tell

Ink technology

Perhaps the biggest bit of news at the Fespa Digital show came from Mimaki with its move into latex printing. Its new JV400 machines use the latest Gen5 printheads from Ricoh, so it was perhaps less of a surprise that Ricoh should announce at Drupa that its first wide-format machine would be a latex printer. Ricoh’s L400 is a rebadged version of the Mimaki printer, also available in both 1.3m and 1.6m wide versions. Ricoh will sell the Mimaki latex ink, having no plans to develop its own latex ink. However, it seems highly likely that other manufacturers will also look at latex, and given that Mimaki appears to be selling a lot of these printers, we can expect to see other vendors also bringing out latex printers, possibly later this year.

Mimaki has also demonstrated a version of the JV400 using SUV ink. These SUV inks mix solvent and UV inks together for a glossy colourful print finish that is said to be extremely durable and flexible. The SUV machine is due to ship later this year, though higher demand for the latex machine may delay this, as the two are produced on the same line. Again, if the SUV inks prove popular then other vendors are likely to follow suit.

Mimaki followed up its Fespa announcements with another new printer at Drupa. The UV LED JFX500-2131 is a 2.1 x 3.1m flatbed printer using six of Ricoh’s Gen5 printheads and runs at 60m2/hr in four-colour mode, though this drops to 50m2/hr with white ink. It’s designed to go head to head with Océ’s Arizona machines, hardly any surprise given that the Arizona dominates the market.

Printer automation

There does also appear to be a trend towards bigger machines with a much higher level of automation. Durst, for example, has been demonstrating its new Rho P10 platform, which includes two flatbed models, and a 3.2m wide roll-to-roll version. These use Durst’s Quadro Array printhead with a small 10 picolitre drop size. The two flatbeds will run at 175m2/hr for the 2m wide P10 200, and 200m2/hr for the 2.5m wide P10 250 model, both taking substrates up to 40mm thick. The roll fed 320R can print at up to 153m2/hr at 800 x 600dpi resolution, though this speed drops to 57m2/hr at 1000 x 800dpi.

EFI launched its own production machine at Drupa, the HS100, targeted at the screenprint replacement market. This 3.2m wide beast is capable of producing up to 100 boards per hour, or 50 boards in a high quality POP mode. It uses UV-curable ink and a greyscale print head. EFI also launched the QS2 Pro, a mid-range 2m printer with six colours and three layers of white.

Both of these printers also include a new operating system, Orion, which EFI will use in all its future wide-format printers. It will work in conjunction with the Fiery Rip and provides features such as remote diagnostics, better colour handling and control of the printheads.

Matan has launched its new Barak 8Q, an eight colour UV hybrid machine capable of 353m2/hr. It features automatic double-sided printing, and an automatic flatbed loader and unloader, as well as inline finishing. Fujifilm has rebadged this as the Uvistar Pro8.

Fujifilm also launched a new version of Inca Digital’s Onset high speed UV flatbed at Drupa. The Onset S40i replaces the original S40 and should be available later this year. It has a newer generation Dimatix printhead, with a 28 picolitre drop size offering 600dpi image quality. The bed size is 3.14 x 1.6m and it can print up to 94 sheets of this size per hour. There’s a new 15-zone vacuum table that should make it easier to work with thinner substrates, and a mechanical system for detecting the height of the substrates.

Inca itself showed off its latest printer, which largely appears to be an evolution of its successful Spyder series, but will be sold by Screen rather than Fujifilm. It seems highly likely that while Inca will continue to work with Fujifilm for the printheads and inks, future machines will be sold through Screen, which owns Inca.

Entry-level developments

It’s also worth noting that at the entry-level end of the market there’s a determined effort to develop machines that are solid and reliable and offer relatively low ink consumption using grey scale heads to produce good images with just four colours. Thus Epson has launched a new series of lite solvent machines, starting with the four-colour SureColour SC 30600, though there is also the SC70600 which uses eight colours plus white and metallic.

Mutoh has also continued to revamp its line-up, concentrating its efforts on the ValueJet range. This includes the 64ins ValueJet 1638, a four-colour model offering 720 x 720dpi resolution at a speed of up to 36m2/hr. There’s also a textile version using water based disperse dye inks that can run at up to 65m2/hr.

Memjet hits the mainstream

Both Fuji Xerox and Océ demonstrated Memjet-powered wide-format machines at Drupa, surely marking a mainstream acceptance for these printheads. Memjet has been described as a disruptive technology because it offers very fast speeds for relatively little cost. The secret behind this is that the Memjet printhead uses a staggering 70,000 nozzles enabling it to jet an image in a single pass. But Memjet doesn’t just sell the printhead, preferring instead to sell a complete solution tailored for each market sector. For wide-format, that means a 42in wide array, made up of five heads stitched together and complete with all the electronics necessary to control the printheads as well as the channels supplying the ink. All the vendors have to do is integrate this into a paper transport system.

There are some drawbacks. Firstly, the current generation of Memjet heads only use water-based inks, making them unsuitable for outdoor print use although the next generation should be compatible with solvent inks. Also, it’s a thermal head, so it has a limited life span. Memjet is working on a piezo version which will be capable of jetting UV-curable inks.

For now all the vendors are using the same head, so that all the Memjet machines have similar specifications though there are some notable differences. Some vendors subsidise the cost of the machine through the ink prices, others through the printheads. The heads and printers are chipped so that customers can only buy heads and inks from their own vendor. Each head supports five channels, with everyone opting for CMY plus two blacks though Memjet has said that in the future the fifth channel could support another colour.

Fuji Xerox has opted to partner with Caldera, which provides the Rip. The machine is roll-fed and targeted at the technical drawing markets. On the stand at Drupa it was demonstrated running on 85gsm coated stock as well as polyester-based media and canvas. It runs at around 540m2/hr at a resolution of 1600 x 1600dpi, which doubles if the resolution is halved.

For now it’s just a technology demonstration with no pricing available, though Fuji Xerox clearly expects to sell this in the near future in the Asia Pacific region. This in turn could see Xerox offering this to European customers next year, though Xerox is more interested in the graphic arts market.

Océ meanwhile has shown off Project Velocity, for which it has essentially married the Memjet technology with the chassis and paper loading trays from one of its technical drawing systems printers, targeted mainly at CAD applications. Océ is using five of the Memjet printbars, and is claiming a speed of around 500 A0 prints per hour at 1600 x 800dpi. Océ has said that it views this as a first step and is clearly looking at developing a Memjet printer for graphic arts use.

Cutting tables

We’ve also seen a number of new cutting tables launched, hardly surprising given that most dealers report that they are selling a cutting table alongside every new flatbed printer. Perhaps the most significant of these has been the new S3 series from Zund. These entry-level tables are smaller than Zund’s standard G3 tables. They can handle a wide range of materials, including textiles, vinyls, films, thinner plastics, and cardboard, and are said to be very fast. There are optional creasing tools and a 300W router insert. The series starts with six machines, ranging from 1330x800mm, up to the top of the range 1800 x 1600mm. These tables will be a good fit for the hybrid and cheaper flatbed printers that have become quite common in recent years.

Also worth mentioning is a new 5.2m-wide cutter, the PremiumCut ELC, from German manufacturer Topcut Bullmer. This is one of the biggest such tables around, taking substrates up to 5 x 7m. It will cut through most board stocks as well as kevlar and glass fibre. It can run at up to 120m/min. It has an optical alignment system, OptiScout7 for precision die-cutting.

Workflow

There is clearly a trend in wide format towards the kind of all-encompassing production workflows that are common in the commercial print sector. Four Pees already has such a system in its PrintFactory and at Fespa we saw two more such systems demonstrated. Both GMG’s ProductionSuite and SAi’s PixelBlaster are based on technology from Aurelon, as is PrintFactory. Not surprisingly, all three systems offer similar features covering the entire workflow from job submission and preflighting through to production and output. They all include colour management and the ability to edit jobs to add finishing marks and cutting lines.

GMG has the edge over the others, partly because it owns Aurelon, having bought the company last year specifically for its workflow technology. But GMG has also successfully integrated its proven colour management know-how into ProductionSuite.

At Drupa, Agfa also dropped hints that it would develop its own workflow for the wide-format sector, but based on its own technology. Agfa already has two highly regarded workflow products: Apogee is one of the best of the prepress workflows for the general commercial market; Arkitex is widely used in the newspaper sector, where Agfa is a strong player through its CTP and printing plates.

Staying with the software theme, there have been a number of cloud-based solutions demonstrated, including several MIS. This offers a relatively low cost way of using these systems as there’s no need to buy hardware or to pay for updates and the system is accessible from anywhere, including tablets and in some cases, mobile phones.

Optimus, for example, has been showing off its Dash MIS, which is easily configured around different processes. There’s also Optimus Cloud, which integrates with Adobe’s InDesign to let customers order jobs online.

HP has been demonstrating its newly acquired HiFlex MIS, another cloud-based system. HiFlex also has a cloud-based Web-to-print, as does Fujifilm with XMF Print Centre. HP has just announced a new cloud-based extension to its DesignJet printers. It’s mainly aimed at CAD users and means that architects can store drawings online and control printing from smartphones and tablets.

Colour management

Alongside the growth in workflow products, there is also a growing interest in colour management, long overlooked in the wide-format sector, but absolutely essential for increasing production. X-rite, arguably the market leader in spectrophotometers, used Drupa to launch its latest device, the i1Pro 2. This builds on the previous i1Pro but uses a new illuminant design allowing for three standard measurement conditions including D50 light conditions, typically found in light booths and known as M1, as well as tungsten light, known as MO, and UV Cut, or M2, in the parlance of the ISO 13655 standard that governs spectral measurements.

The new device also features compensation for optical brighteners, making it suitable for working with a wider range of substrates. It also has better diagnostics and self-calibration capability and better protection from dust and dirt. In addition, X-rite has updated the i1Profiler software to support the new device and its D50 M1 measuring.

Barbieri has also used the shows to demonstrate its new spectrophotomer, the SpectroPad, which also supports the new M1 measuring standard. This is a battery operated wireless device designed for easily measuring large-format substrates without needing to be next to a computer. It has a small 6mm measuring aperture and is proving popular amongst sign makers.

Overview

It’s tempting to see new equipment as largely being an evolution of what’s gone before but in all the new kit we’ve covered here there is a definite trend towards bigger, faster machines, with more automation. Increasingly wide-format is being seen as part of the wider print market and certainly no longer niche. Wide-format equipment is being sold into commercial printers, and is expected to fit into unified production workflows. Moreover, customers expect their wide-format prints to have the same colours and image quality as their packaging and document prints so this trend will continue to drive new workflow practices.