Product category:
Inkjet, Laser, Digital, Thermal, Graphics, Wide Format Printing Systems
News Release from: Sun Chemical Europe | Subject: Fastjet
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 21 December 2005
Sun's Installs First Digital Printer At
Pack Firm
Sun Chemical Digital, a newly created division of Sun Chemical, has installed its first digital high-speed printer for corrugated packaging at Jardin Corrugated Cases in Ely (UK).
Sun Chemical Digital, a newly created division of Sun Chemical, has installed its first digital high-speed printer for corrugated packaging at Jardin Corrugated Cases in Ely (UK) The press, which is called Fastjet, is claimed to be the fastest digital press available
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 24 Jun 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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It is said to be capable of producing at up to 6,000 square metres of board printed in four colours, with a spot varnish at a resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi).
The targeted market is transport boxes that have a display function.
Fastjet has been developed together with Inca Digital Printers.
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It is a single-pass printer with 480 print heads fixed in stationary arrays, which are 1,040mm wide.
The board makes a single pass under the print head array and emerges fully printed.
The printer is said to offer all the advantages of digital printing, such as personalised images, mass customisation, lower costs on short runs and virtually no variation in printing.
The inks are UV ink jet inks made by Sun Chemical's Sunjet division.
The inks were developed specifically for this application to avoid nozzle drops and to achieve full cure at very high speed, said Sun.
The press installed at Jardin Corrugated Cases is a prototype for testing the reliability of the technology in an industrial environment.
However, Kevin Hennessy, managing director of Jardin, plans to immediately use the press for regular production.
He said the first orders already are being processed and one job was produced before the printer was shipped from Inca.
Hennessy added: "Many of the prints we have seen are of superb quality and we have already produced images that can even be used as displays." Digital single pass printing in 1,040mm width at a 100-metre linear speed is a technological advance, claimed Sun.
But Heather Kendle, marketing director at Inca, said it has always been the company's business objective to produce single-pass printers.
Consequently, many of the components and designs integrated in Fastjet have already been tested in other Inca products.
Kendle added: "The testing over three months at Inca has been so successful that we have begun building a second machine." Sun Chemical plans the first installation of commercial digital presses at the end of 2006 in Europe and North America.
The printers will cost about 2.5 million Euros, which is comparable to the price of a multicolour flexographic press, added Sun.
Stefan Slembrouck, director of digital packaging solutions at the company, explained: "Sun Chemical will offer each potential customer a calculation scheme to help compare the cost of digital versus flexo or offset printing." The calculated cross-over points are at 1,500 square metres to 2,500 square metres, depending on how often flexo plates are normally used.
"This will make it a very interesting economic alternative for many print jobs since the average print run in the corrugated industry has dropped below 3,000 square metres," he added.
Since there are no costs preparing films and plates, any interested customer can place orders at Jardin and introduce samples or sell digitally printed boxes to promote the advantages of digital printing before deciding to buy a Fastjet printer, said Sun.
It also can be used to make design changes in packaging prototypes.
"With Fastjet, we have produced the first industrial digital printer for packaging, and market responses are very encouraging," Slembrouck said.
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