Inkjet Printer For Rigid And Flexible Roll Stock

MacDermid Colorspan has introduced its third flatbed and roll-fed hybrid, piezo-electric UV inkjet printer, the Displaymaker 98UVX.

MacDermid Colorspan has introduced its third flatbed and roll-fed hybrid, piezo-electric UV inkjet printer, the Displaymaker 98UVX.

The new Displaymaker 98UVX is claimed to offer the ability to print on rigid sheets or flexible roll stock up to 98.5" (250cm) wide and 0.5" (12.7mm) thick.

Designed around 16 600-dpi Micro-Quad piezo-electric printheads, the 72UVX provides true 600 dots per inch (dpi) x 600dpi quality at print speeds up to 438 square feet per hour.

Bruce Butler, director of marketing at MacDermid Colorspan, said: "The fact that we have installed over 400 72-inch UV inkjet printers in the past 12 months is a strong indicator of the acceptance of our technology and the value it provides to a broad group of sign and screen print shops.

Now, with the new Displaymaker 98UVX, our customers will have the ability to print full width on two-metre wide and eight-foot wide boards." Butler went on to say; "The 98UVX combines a 438 square foot per hour production speed with award-winning quality, ease-of-use and low cost of operation.

And, at just over US$100,000, it is affordable to many shops that are looking to increase productivity, whilst saving material and labour costs." The Displaymaker 98UVX uses an open, non-obstructive design that reduces the footprint space requirements whilst making it easy to use, said the company.

When configured for printing rigid materials, two 36-inch (91cm) x 101-inch (257cm) roller tables are attached to the front and rear of the printer to accommodate sheets up to 60" (152cm) in length.

Optionally, two additional tables can be added for sheets up to 120" (305cm).

The tables can be removed for printing of roll-to-roll flexible media.

The loading of rigid materials has been made easier in a number of ways, added the company.

First, the 98UVX features a releasable pinch roller system for easy insertion.

Once in place, the pinch rollers are engaged with a variable force adjustment to work with a wide variety of materials.

Pressing the load button causes the printer to use its integrated Automation Eye to sense the right, left and front edges, whilst also checking for media skew.

It then automatically accurately positions the media for printing.

MacDermid Colorspan added that the Media Wizard feature stores many of the characteristics of a particular media, such as media feed advance rate, UV Lamp intensity and platen vacuum force.

When changing media type, the Media Wizard restores the proper values, reducing the time to switch from one type of media to another.

Sixteen Micro-Quad industrial-quality, long-life piezo-electric printheads are configured as four interlaced heads using 384 jets per colour.

The 600dpi printheads jet a micro-sized 25picolitre droplet.

The result is higher quality prints at lower production costs when compared to typical 360dpi, 70picolitre, six-colour printers, added the company.

The Displaymaker 98UVX uses 16 piezo-electric printheads with 1,536 total jets.

The printer is claimed to have a 600dpi x 600dpi print speed of 438 square feet (40.7 square metres) per hour in its billboard quality print mode.

Its production quality mode has two print resolutions that turn out sellable graphics at 225 square feet (20.9 square metres) per hour at 600dpi x 600dpi and 438 square feet (40.7 square metres) per hour at 600dpi x 300dpi.

A 600dpi x 600dpi high quality mode is also available at 112 square feet (10.4 square metres) per hour.

The printer uses Solachrome UV-curable, pigmented inks available in cyan, magenta, yellow and black.

Each comes in a sealed three-litre container that allows for no-mess ink changes whilst protecting the ink from light exposure.

Solachrome-UV inks, which have no solvent odours, are said to be designed for reliable jetting, low maintenance, extended head life, low cost of operation and an outdoor display life of two - three years, depending on application.

The inks are also said to cure instantly and print directly on inexpensive uncoated rigid and flexible substrates for durable, indoor and outdoor graphic applications.

Only found on Colorspan printers, the Advanced Automation Eyeit consists of a high-resolution imaging sensor, colourimetric spectrophotometer and embedded software to automate the set-up and calibration steps critical for achieving and maintaining print quality, said MacDermid Colorspan.

The Autoset Calibration analyses dot placement of printed patterns and automatically sets the head-to-head alignment and bi-directional (bi-di) dot placement alignment to compensate for variable print speeds, head height settings and media thickness, added the company.

At the same time, the Autojet Calibration is claimed to eliminate banding in prints and extends the useful life of the printheads by mapping out jets that are not up to performance standards and compensating by using another jet in their place.

Also, the Autotune Scheduler schedules the AutoJet calibration to occur during unattended print runs to ensure maximum print quality and minimise waste or reprints.

Auto Edge Detection uses the image sensor to aid in the loading of rigid materials by detecting right, left and leading edges, allowing the printer to move the material in to an exact position for printing.

It also checks for and warns the user if the board appears to be loaded askew.

The system's on-board spectrophotometer supplies colour and density data to the external RIP's colour management software.

The colour management system then linearises the colour curves to ensure accurate and consistent colour.

Meanwhile the Displaymaker 98UVX prints and automatically reads hundreds of colour swatches to allow the RIP and Colormark Plus colour management software to create custom ICC and Colormark profiles for third party media.

The company said that the Displaymaker 98UVX is suitable for sign makers, screen printers and other print-for-pay service providers that produce indoor and outdoor signs, banners, POP and exhibition displays by reducing their finishing and labour costs.

In addition, the Displaymaker 98UVX prints on flexible roll stock for the production of outdoor signs, banners, floor graphics and other high volume work.

The Displaymaker 98UVX has a US retail price of US$104,995, including four litres of Solachrome-UV ink, three litres of printhead cleaning solution, 600 square feet of banner vinyl, installation and on-site training.

The printer is available through MacDermid ColorSpan's worldwide network of value-added distributors and resellers.

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