Digital White Printer Produces One-Way Graphics

The ability to print one-way, see-through large format graphics from digital UV inkjet systems for display on transparent surfaces is being fulfilled by Inca Digital.

Contra Vision, a developer of large format flatbed UV printers, is taking advantage of the digital inkjet flexibility and quality results from its Inca Digital Spyder 320+White printer.

The company has developed a patent-protected system to enable such surfaces as glass or Perspex to be printed.

The effect produces a graphic on one side of the material with the ability to see through the graphic from the other side.

Typical applications include car showrooms, entrance doors, bus shelters and, in the UK, public telephone boxes.

Contra Vision Digital UV can be made by Contra Vision licensees with virtually any UV printer equipped with white ink but Roland Hill, who invented the system, said that Inca Digital's Spyder 320+White printer is particularly well suited to the job.

He explained: "I can say without any doubt that everyone I have shown these Inca samples to has been amazed and agrees with me that the results are better than we ever anticipated." Other Contra Vision licensed technologies for see-through graphics include perforated vinyl films but they do not have the same durability or visual quality as those produced using the Inca equipment.

The new Contra Vision system allows see-through graphics to be printed either on to transparent films, such as polyester, or directly on to rigid substrates, such as glass, acrylic or polycarbonate, cutting out several stages in the process.

The system works by laying down a print pattern of shapes, usually lines, across the surface.

Contra Vision provides two basic products.

In the first, an opaque print pattern is made up of a sequence of a black layer, a white layer and the image layer.

Light can penetrate between the printed lines so that people can see through the reverse (black) side, whilst the front (white) layer has the image printed on it so that it can be clearly seen from the front.

The second product, Contra Vision Backlite, Digital UV, is a backlit version where the print pattern comprises a translucent white layer, with the image superimposed on one or both sides of that, producing a graphic that can be backlit from either side.

Inca believes that the key is to be able to print the image layer in as near perfect position as possible on top of the white and black layers.

Hill said: "It's the good edge definition and registration that the Inca achieves that is amazing.

The Inca machine is superbly engineered and the best I have seen to achieve a high quality result.

I only expect to see others approaching or equalling the same standard in the future." Damian Middleton, applications specialist for Inca Digital, commented: "Our aim is to provide users with the ability to create a wide variety of effects and Contra Vision is a perfect added value application for the Inca printer.

By working closely with Roland and his team we have produced a very effective and easy to use interface with the Inca Spyder, which provides companies with a flexible choice of Contra Vision products." He continued: "This application also widens the range of digital display products that Contra Vision can produce cost-effectively and relatively quickly for its customers.

The Inca Spyder 320 is available in a number of variants, all of which are built to this high engineering specification.

The Spyder 320 +white is the most suitable for this application.".

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