Hardware

In the future, WP Digital, the Swiss manufacturer of high-quality digital printing systems, will serve the North American market (USA / Canada) with the “oryx” UV digital printer produced by swissQprint. A large variety of plates and/or flexible materials can be processed either in flatbed or roll mode. The portfolio expansion with the oryx printer is aimed at the graphical market and serves the needs of medium-sized businesses with the highest quality standards. WP Digital is taking over the exclusive sales and service for the oryx combination printer in North America. A demo and service center will be available to customers and interested persons near New York from January 2010.

WP Digital covers the full range of applications in digital printing, with powerful industrial-scale large-format printers and industrial digital printing for glass and other materials, as well as the development of new applications for digital printing. swissQprint produces digital printers with high-precision and solid technology, both for the graphical industry and for industrial use. Almost anything can be processed, from the smallest plate to roll material and oversized media with a variety of properties, making the oryx an allrounderthat is unrivaled in its class.

High Standards of Quality and Service
Both WP Digital and swissQprint count on their many years of experience in the development and production of digital printing systems. All products are manufactured and assembled in Switzerland. This makes it possible to fulfill the high quality standards in the long run.WP Digital offers a well established service network; spare parts can simply be ordered via the Internet through the IPOS system. For WP Digital and swissQprint, service means satisfying the customer quickly and easily and actively supporting him or her in new business ideas in the printing area.

 

The history and pedigree behind swissQprint
swissQprint and the Oryx printer initially came to be in 2008, following the withdrawal of Zund from the printer market. This new company was initially formed by the former development and manufacturing team from Zund who were keen to continue a ten year success story by bringing a new premium UV inkjet to the market under the name of Oryx.

Maintaining the same team who were responsible for the original UVjet 215 and then Zund UVjet 250-combi flatbed and roll-to-roll combi printer, with the combined experience of over 500 installations worldwide, listening to end user needs, plus the obvious benefits of Swiss engineering, were all combined in this new innovative printer - a solution that delivers a true hybrid printer for rigid, roll and oversized materials from a single platform. Latest grey scale head technology with precise mechanics and intutitive simple software round off what is a beautifully engineered Swiss product.

From local company to global enterprise with a recipe for sustained success:  Zünd Systemtechnik AG in Altstätten celebrates 25 years.

Together with 125 employees and their families, business associates, local community and political leaders, Karl Zünd celebrated his company’s 25th anniversary and inaugurated the new Minergie-P building.  He also took this opportunity to announce that, at the beginning of 2010, he would formally turn over Zünd Systemtechnik AG’s day-to-day operations to his sons, Mike and Oliver Zünd.  Karl Zünd will maintain his leadership role in strategic planning, ensuring Zünd‘s continuity in maintaining local roots while exerting global influence. He will continue to actively participate in management and preside over the company’s board of directors.

Introducing numerous technical innovations over the years, Karl Zünd has successfully evolved the company from a small business to a worldwide leading manufacturer of digital cutting systems.

The crowning event of the company’s 25-year festivities was the inauguration of the latest expansion of its headquarters, the first Minergie-P industrial building in Switzerland.

In 1984, the company’s early days, Karl Zünd began distributing Wild flatbed cutters.  Within two years, he had recruited a number of engineers to help develop new tool heads and other add-ons, such as an automatic advance mechanism for rolled materials. Five years later, he brought the first Zünd plotter, the P-1200, to market.  Multifunctional tool heads and a systematic pursuit of modularity formed the basis of Zünd’s diversification strategy and, to this day, continue to provide the gateway to many new opportunities.

Today Zünd is the leading supplier of flatbed cutters to the graphics industry worldwide and a close second in packaging.  In the leather and textile industries as well, Zünd is among the principal providers of digital cutting systems. „These days,” as Mr. Zünd sums it up, “we are virtually surrounded by products that come off our cutters—products that at some stage have been cut, routed, or scored with Zünd equipment.”

With its innovative products, Zünd continues to set milestones in cutting technology.  A little more than a year ago, the company launched G3, the third and most advanced generation of Zünd digital cutters/routers.

Just in time for the anniversary, Zünd Systemtechnik AG moved into the third expansion of its headquarters in Altstätten, Switzerland. The new addition is bound to attract nationwide attention since it is the country’s first industrial building certified as Minergie-P.  It utilizes 5 times less energy than newly constructed conventional buildings and produces 5 times less CO2.  Approximately 12% of total building costs went toward meeting Minergie-P standards. The building’s future-oriented architecture is a reflection of Zünd’s corporate culture of responsibility toward man and nature.  It combines economic efficiency with sustainability and harmony with nature.

HP today announced that Rotherham based Bluetree Design & Print Ltd., is using its newly installed HP Scitex FB7500 Printer to expand into wide-format variable data printing (VDP) and win new business.

The large format, traditional screen print specialist, is currently pioneering the use of variable data in wide-format printing, using its HP Scitex FB7500 Printer and HP SmartStream Designer. The combined HP system enables it to create customised applications such as versioned posters; point of purchase and point of sale displays; exhibition graphics; signage and backlit displays.

The company will utilise its new digital capabilities to extend its services and win business. One such service Bluetree will introduce is a cost-effective, high-quality, short-run digital printing service for smaller retailers. This service will enable local retailers to create professional quality, wide-format marketing collateral, that will allow them to compete with more established brands in the marketplace.

Bluetree has been experiencing an increase in demand for short run, versioned work from its customers. The HP Scitex FB7500 Printer is ideal for the cost-effective production of these jobs. With its ability to shorten the production process, the HP Scitex FB7500 will allow Bluetree to reduce its turnaround times and produce work within increasingly shorter deadlines, enabling staff to concentrate on other areas of production. Reaching print speeds of up to 500m2 or 105, 120 x 240cm sheets per hour, the new press enables Bluetree to offer its customers a flexible, rapid turnaround, digital print service.

 

 

“We will use our new HP Scitex FB7500 Printer to offer our customers a new range of services that will cost-effectively add value to their applications,” said Bryan Shirley, managing director, Bluetree Design & Print. “We believe that the versatility of the new printer and our ability to offer fully personalised applications will help us win more from our existing customers as well as attracting new business.”

Bluetree purchased its HP Scitex FB7500 Printer to complement its existing screen printing equipment and its HP Scitex XP2700 Printer, installed in May 2008.

“Bluetree has established a reputation for producing the best possible quality items for our customers and it was vital that any new equipment that we invested in reflected this,” said Shirley. “We are delighted with the print quality that our new printer can achieve. It can capture the fine detail required by our customers. The HP UV-curable inks are fantastic and give a depth of colour that makes the applications really stand out.”

 

As keen industry watchers, here at LFR we've always been surprised at the apparent lack of interest here in the UK for fabric printing and soft signage - in other countries soft signage is a buoyant market sector, perhaps nowhere more so than Italy  - we are off to Viscom Milan later this week, and if that particular show runs true to form, every other stand featuring large format printers will have one of those printers producing directly onto fabrics.

Perhaps this latest soft signage printer from Mutoh will get a few more UK users thinking about the possibilities...

 

For volume producers of soft sign prints, Mutoh launched the Viper TX Soft Sign printers at Viscom Dusseldorf a few weeks ago - enabling direct printing onto soft sign polyester fabrics with open and closed structure.

Available in 64” (163 cm) and 88” (222 cm) widths, the Viper TX Soft Sign piezo inkjet printers are fit for a wide variety of applications : heavy duty flags, banners, architectural graphics, sport arena displays, wall murals, home furnishings, curtains and much more.

Offering a solid industrial design, the Viper TX Soft Sign printers enable a paperless workflow. The machines are equipped with an infrared dryer and fan bank as well as a fixation unit.

Including a heavy-duty media unwinding/winding system with front and back fabric stabilisation belt for media rolls up to 150 kg, the Viper TX Soft Sign printers offer typical production speeds up to 37 m²/h. The printers use environmentally friendly VOC free water based direct disperse inks.

Konica Minolta IJ Technologies, Inc. have announced the introduction of their 72-mm wide KM1024 series inkjet print head for industrial use with 1024 nozzles in the middle of November. Compared with the conventional inkjet head, it greatly reduced the energy consumption, thus making it environmentally sound product.

The new KM1024 is cutting-edge piezo on-demand print head developed by Konica Minolta to meet industrial needs for higher printing quality. It is characterized by its 1,024 nozzles as well as its 72mm-wide print head, which means that it has twice the number of nozzles and is double the width of the KM512 series inkjet print head that has been chosen by many industrial customers. The characteristics of the new KM1024 print head make it an ideal choice for print systems that require higher productivity, such as single-pass inkjet printers.

By incorporating a newly developed lower capacitance actuators, KM1024 reduced power consumption by 50% compared with the conventional KM512, making it more environmentally sound. Another new technology is the development of IC, enabling printing in eight grayscale levels, and thus better satisfies the needs of customers for higher-resolution print images. In addition, the thin body of the print head enables simple and compact design of head mount systems when mounting a number of print heads into a printer. To cater to a wider range of industrial needs and for greater ink compatibility, the new print head is offered in two versions: with or without a heater.


Main features

• Adoption of 1,024 nozzles and the 72mm-wide print head has resulted in a drastic increase in productivity.
• The newly developed lower capacitance actuators reduce energy consumption by 50% compared with the per nozzle energy consumption of the KM512 series.
• The new IC is capable of reproducing 360dpi x 360dpi images in maximum of eight grayscale levels, delivering rich color tones and high resolution.
• The thin print head, which measures 131mm (W) x 18mm (D) x 89mm (H) and weighs only 140g, enables compact design of head mount systems and print system.
• To better serve industrial needs, a print head with a heater is also available. Solvent, oil and UV inks can be used.

Konica Minolta’s inkjet business continues to offer to industrial inkjet printer users high-performance inkjet print heads, multi-functional inks, and related equipment and systems - all incorporating its proprietary material and precision processing technologies. With the introduction of the KM1024 series inkjet print head, Konica Minolta aims to broaden the applications of its industrial inkjet printer technology.

Mutoh America Inc., who did much of the early field development on the hybrid Mutoh 1608 printers, have announced the next generation, the ValueJet 1608HA hybrid printer.

Specifically designed to meet the demands of customers, and priced at $49,000 (under £30,000) the technical advancements are as follows:

- A compressor is no longer required. The VJ1608HA includes a medical grade air pump to drive the heated air nozzles. The air pump incorporates external filters that help reduce condensation and damage from foreign particles.

- New heavy duty design and construction of the feed and take-up tables.

- VJ1608HA integrates the hot air nozzle controllers into the printer thus enabling control of the HAN from the RIP or control panel.

- Advanced new print modes including a 1440x1440 dpi resolution with double the speed!

- Now incorporating the latest Epson print head that has 5 variable dot sizes.

- Improved air flow and circulation through the printer cabinet.

"The technical innovations made to the ValueJet 1608HA raise the bar. The new model maintains high image quality with user-friendly features, says Brian Phipps, Director of Sales.

Effectively and efficiently designed to increase productivity and can be used to print on both rigid substrates and roll to roll including car wraps. The ValueJet 1608HA prints directly onto corrugated plastics, polystyrene, PVC, acrylic, Polycarbonate, foam board, aluminum composite, banner, wall covering and more.

A flatbed with brilliant results at a price you can afford, reaching speeds up to 120 sq/ft/hr in production mode using Mutoh's patented Intelligent Interweave print technique that virtually eliminates banding.

The ValueJet 1608HA uses MUBIO INK, recognized by the EPA Design for the Environment program composed of 80% plant derived substances, containing no harmful VOC's. A  4-colour printer with a maximum resolution of 1440 dpi, and automatic media thickness detection. The MUBIO INK is available in 880 ml ink packs.