Newtech launches ceramic tile printing system

Newtech, an Italian manufacturer of machinery for the ceramics industry, is to hold a worldwide launch of its drop on demand inkjet system for printing directly on to ceramic tiles.

The four-colour digital Keramagic printer is the first digital printer developed by Newtech and has been designed to print durable, high quality, high resolution images directly on to tiles.

It features the greyscale Xaar 1001 inkjet printheads, which can jet pigmented and non-pigmented ceramics inks and suspensions in a single-pass with ease and accuracy.

The Keramagic printer gives the ceramics industry an industrial strength inkjet printer that can handle a variety of fluids to produce short run volumes of bespoke tiles.

Two models are available: the 350mm width KeraMagic 350 and the 700mm width KeraMagic 700.

Both print at up to 25m/min at 360dpi with eight levels of greyscale to produce clarity.

Compared with analogue devices that handle a maximum image length of 1.4m, the Keramagic software can handle an image length of up to 20m.

Designed for high-speed, single-pass applications, the Xaar 1001 provides drop formation and drop placement accuracy with operational durability, said Xaar.

The head's XaarDot technology allows variable-sized drops to be produced, giving users the ability to select drop size depending upon the application.

Fine drops give smooth tones, contrasting shades and sharp-edged text, while larger drops ensure good ink coverage at maximum print speed.

The result is the replication of natural materials such as stone and marble.

The Xaar 1001 printhead also incorporates HSS head technology, which provides through-flow operation.

With Xaar's through-flow design, ink flows past each nozzle opening, keeping the channels primed and operational.

This results in lower maintenance cycles and high nozzle reliability.

'The Xaar 1001 printhead enables digitisation of what has been a traditionally analogue process and delivers everything the market needs to make digital printing onto ceramic tiles a commercial reality,' said Steve Knight, European sales manager at Xaar.

The launch of the Keramagic will take place at Tecnargilla in Rimini from 30 September - 4 October.

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