Roland DGA Corp. has announced that the company's Metallic Silver ECO-SOL MAX ink received the Best of 2010 Award at Viscom Frankfurt, held recently in Germany.
The award follows several prestigious industry honours for Metallic Silver ECO-SOL MAX ink including EDP and DPI awards. It also recognises the innovative technology behind VersaCAMM VS and SOLJET PRO III XC-540MT wide-format inkjet printer/cutters and Roland VersaWorks RIP software which together optimise the ink's performance across a wide range of media and applications.
"All of us at Roland are honoured to receive this award," said Rick Scrimger, vice president and general manager of Roland DGA Corp. "Metallic Silver ECO-SOL MAX ink allows Roland customers to differentiate their businesses by adding dramatic effects and premium value to graphics. Users can print thousands of metallic and pearlescent colors for custom signs, banners, photographic reproductions, window graphics, posters, POP, labels, decals, decorated apparel, vehicle graphics and wraps of all kinds."
Metallic Silver ECO-SOL MAX ink is the industry's first metallic silver eco-solvent ink and produces metallic graphics previously only possible through screen printing, offset printing and hot stamping processes. To meet a variety of business demands, Roland's metallic inkjet line includes 64," 54" and 42" VersaCAMM VS models and the 54" SOLJET XC-540MT. VersaWorks RIP software is included in all models and features the Roland Metallic Color Library of 512 metallic spot colors.
Sepiax Ink Technology, a member of the Gernot Langes-Swarovski Group and maker of the world's first digital print-on-anything water based, resin, inks, is moving its HQ to new premises in Austria.
To cope with increased demand for visits from dealers, equipment manufacturers and industrial clients, Sepiax has moved to new premises in Klagenfurt, Austria. This not only gives a larger premises for customer visits, but also moves Sepiax in amongst the hi-tech environment of the Lakeside Science & Technology Park in the campus of Klagenfurt University.
This science park is home to many "green" companies, with a focus on ecologically-sound, sustainable, products, designed to show a respect for our global environment. This location is perfectly in tune with the Sepiax business ethic.
Franz Aigner, managing director, says "We are excited by this move, it really takes us into a new and exciting location, with an academic history, and alongside fellow companies using high technology to benefit the environment. This, in conjunction with it being a beautiful place to work, with a view of Lake Wörthersee, and being close to Klagenfurt Airport, makes it a great place for our partners to visit."
Leading ink manufacturer InkTec Europe has launched a brand new website to provide information on InkTec’s range of large format consumable products. The site, www.inktec-europe.com is customer-focused and designed to give the consumer all the product and technical information they may need, as well as the chance to keep up-to-date with all the latest news and products from InkTec.
Marketing Manager Tristan Park says, “The website is designed to be a one-stop shop for current and potential InkTec consumers to quickly find out any relevant product information they require. InkTec ink users will soon also be able to download free ICC colour profiles from the database that we are currently building.”
The site is now live and to celebrate the launch, InkTec Europe is giving away one IPOD TOUCH and three IPOD NANO’S to the winning names which are drawn from their free-to-enter competition on December 3rd.
To enter the competition, simply visit the site: www.inktec-europe.com and follow the instructions. But be quick as the competition closes on December 3rd.
Wide format inkjet printer manufacturer Mutoh Belgium nv announces immediate availability of a new set of CMYK mild solvent inks, called MS Ultra, for its Blizzard, Spitfire 65/90 Extreme and Spitfire 100 Extreme printers. This third generation Mutoh mild solvent ink will increase productivity through more efficient printing.
“Our new MS Ultra inks have been tuned specifically to our Spitfire Extreme and Blizzard printer families, offering the highest level of image quality and printer reliability”, comments Arthur Vanhoutte, President of Mutoh’s European Operations.
“They offer excellent stability and ensure uninterrupted printing for extended periods. Compared to our existing Mild Solvent and Mild Solvent Plus inks, the new MS Ultra inks will provide printer users an even wider media compatibility and a higher performance in number of square metres printed per hour. They also have a longer shelf life (18 months), require less maintenance - once a week - and last but not least, do not require daily printing, as typically is the case when using mild solvent inks. The new inks are available for both new printers and for installed-base printer users”, Vanhoutte concludes.
The new MS Ultra cyclohexanone and NMP free inks are offered in safe and easy to use 440 ml ink cassettes and bulk ink bottles of 1 litre. For typical sign images (720 x 720 dpi) with an ink coverage of 67 %, ink cost amounts to 0.92 €/m² . The inks are suited for indoor and outdoor commercial print applications. Outdoor UV durability is rated up to 3 years, without lamination. For heavy-duty applications involving mechanical stress, lamination is recommended.
Using a unique ink chemistry controlling the drop size on the media, the Mutoh MS Ultra ink offers a wide media compatibility across the broadest range of self adhesives as well as other flexible substrates. MS Ultra will give photorealistic prints as the printed dots will have perfect dot quality, even at the highest carriage speeds. The inks offer an excellent colour gamut and gloss preservation. Typical high quality banding-free production speeds of up to 16.5 m²/h (Spitfire Extreme 65); 36 m²/h (Blizzard 65) and 42 m²/h (Spitfire 100 Extreme) can be obtained.
The new MS Ultra inks will be marketed all over Europe, the Middle East and Africa through Mutoh’s network of authorised resellers.
Mutoh’s Bulk Ink Refill System (BIS)
The MS Ultra 1 litre ink bottles can be used in combination with Mutoh’s bulk ink system (BIS). Mutoh’s BIS system was developed for speed-intensive, volume oriented users requiring a high-volume ink delivery and refill system. The bulk ink system offers unattended printing options along with minimum user intervention (easy to refill, even during printing).
Each bottle can provide 1.2 litres of ink to the bulk feed cassette before requiring a refill. Each bulk feed cassette incorporates a floater level adjustment to accurately set the proper ink fluid pressure to the print head.
Mutoh’s ink refill system can be easily mounted on top of the printer. No extra footprint is required. As such, the system will save space and will not disturb the operator during the print jobs.
Dedicated “print weaves” for the new MS Ultra inks have been integrated in the Spitfire and Blizzard printer firmware to deliver impeccable print results all the time. Mutoh Intelligent Interweaving technology delivers a drastic reduction or even total elimination of horizontal banding, step mismatch banding and the visible effects of missing or misfiring nozzles. The result is a consistent and predictable output quality. Moreover, Mutoh’s award-winning and so far unrivalled i² print technology will avoid trial and error printing and therefore reduce media waste.
INX International Ink Co. and INX Digital International Co. have successfully introduced the EVOLVE branding concept to help traditional printers and converters evolve to digital printing with industrial inkjet systems. A comprehensive effort at a number of industry trade shows took place in the last several months to roll out a full range of resources, including integrated systems, chemistry, parts, services and consulting, that are being utilised to help support printers as they transition to new levels of production excellence.
The EVOLVE concept was developed to assist conventional impact printers with the integration of digital inkjet printing into their company's capabilities. EVOLVE Advanced Digital Solutions is made possible through consultation and, if suitable, the development of technology, equipment, ink and support. Whether a company wants to integrate digital technology into its existing operation or explore digital capabilities for the first time, INX stands ready with products, technologies, systems and services to help evolve to new levels of production excellence.
"EVOLVE is a concept that will help our traditional customers make the transition into the digital world," said Rick Clendenning, President and CEO of INX International. "We see EVOLVE as an opportunity to introduce new technologies and opportunities to our customers. Digital technologies such as our CP100 UV cylindrical printer can help them expand their portfolios, giving them some new capabilities to develop niche markets."
"These customers want to go digital. They have the need and the will, and our job is to help them succeed," said Ken Kisner, President of INX Digital International Co. "EVOLVE Advanced Digital Solutions will promote the wide array of high quality products to help our customers make money. Our expertise is in ink, but we have developed software and machinery for specialty applications and we can make customised inks to meet our customers' needs."
INX Digital's experience with innovative design and development of inkjet systems can provide customer-driven solutions for inkjet printing, production workflows and material handling, and inkjet print engines and printers as standalone products or for customisation and integration into existing printing operations. Digital provides operational flexibility for a host of manufacturing and niche capabilities including wide format, super-wide, narrow web, UV flatbed, pre-press and others. From textiles, wall coverings and flooring to folding cartons, flexible packaging and cylindrical printing, EVOLVE Advanced Digital Solutions covers it all.
INX Digital also makes customer-driven ink and coating solutions designed for every type of digital printer and print-head technology. This includes solvent, UV-curable, UV LED-curable, aqueous, and thermal and oil piezo inks. Its uses cover a large universe of large-scale exterior and in-store media such as POP, billboards, building wraps and fleet graphics to packaging. The company will offer solutions for printing on vinyl, paper, corrugated, plastic, carpet, fabric, cylinders and other unique substrates.
For short-run digital prototype packaging and production, EVOLVE was recently used to introduce the NW100, a new high-speed, single-pass UV LED-curing narrow web printer at Labelexpo 2010 and the new MD1000 UV flatbed printer at Graph Expo.
XenInx Onyx metallic silver ink is designed for a range of applications including packaging, graphics, labeling and product decoration. XenInx Onyx can be used in combination with XenInx Diamond or XenInx Alexandrite CMYK inks to produce a coloured metallic appearance. The ink works with a wide range of piezo printheads, and is recommended for use with Xennia printing systems and XenJet inkjet modules using Xennia's proprietary recirculating inkjet technology.
"XenInx Onyx offers excellent print quality on a variety of porous and non-porous substrates, with reflectivity to rival that of metallic inks printed by screen, gravure or other traditional printing methods," explains Dr Alan Hudd, Managing Director of Xennia. "The ink also offers reliable and consistent print performance with good adhesion and durability. XenInx Onyx metallic inkjet ink allows users requiring metallic decorative effects to reap the benefits of digital printing."
Dr Hudd comments "Brand owners need to print shorter packaging runs every year, and demand a solution able to do this economically, while providing all of the capabilities of their traditional printing technology. XenInx Onyx metallic ink is part of a range of products offered by Xennia allowing cost effective, low risk digital solutions to be introduced into the packaging industry. Package printers can keep producing attractive and creative packaging while addressing the need for customised, personalised printing for their customers."
"XenInx Onyx has been developed based on advanced dispersion technology and formulated with carefully selected metallic pigments to ensure high reflectivity of the printed ink. Onyx prints reliably at high speed, has excellent dwell performance and requires minimal need for printhead maintenance," adds Dr Hudd.
