Welcome to the Jungle

If anyone is lucky enough to remember winter nights sat huddled round an 8mm cine-camera, then you may understand my fascination with moving wheels—the cogs that are part of creating moving pictures that wouldn’t be possible without them in place. Wheel-to-wheel, reel-to-reel, or roll-to-roll, it is much of a muchness—the physics are the same. Drive a length of media through a roll at the correct speed for a creative process to take place, be it a print output or a movie to play.

I spent many such nights in with my family when I was a child and my engineer/architect father had a keen interest and fascination with technology, new and old, which he passed down to the rest of us. I guess that is what attracted me to my first job in the wide-format print industry way back in 1997, working for a wide-format print distributor into the CAD, engineering and architectural markets. Believe it or not, the graphics industry, as we know it today, had yet to be born.

Roll-to-roll was always an ‘add-on’ or an optional extra, and an expensive one at that. Today, manufacturers thank-fully understand that keeping control of jobs and accuracy of printing implies a need for the roll-to-roll option and indeed the re-winder we all know and love. In fact, a huge amount of R and D money is spent trying to match speed with output and that research is helping progress the roll-to-roll options now avail-able on the market at every price point.

Flexibility trending

Flexibility is a theme that runs through all the new launches in the past couple of years, with HP and its Latex printers first identifying the sign-makers’ need to purchase one machine that can output a variety of substrates for different markets. Flexibility may also be a reason why dye-sub technology has grown in popularity over the past five years—this same flexibility of being able to print on a wide variety of substrates, but for fabrics and textiles in particular.

There are too many new printers to mention in this short article, so I’m looking at a few of the more interesting ones that got a lot of attention at FESPA in particular. I can never understand why manufacturers do this but some of these machines, though launched at the show, will not be available until the end of the year. I have tried to concentrate here on the ones that you can at least order and that were on display at the show.

Nearly all of the printer manufacturers today claim to be able to print onto textiles, but some do it better than others: some specialise, and some seem to do it because everyone else is doing it.

Dye-sub is the flavour of the year with new releases from MTEX, Mimaki and Epson at FESPA 2015, to name a few. Of course, for sign-makers, dye-sub is not a new technology perse, but printing onto rolls of fabric for various different usages and to create new pro-ducts is now established as a proven way to grow your business.

FESPA launches Dedicated textile printer manufacturer MTEX is clearing a path to this new and lucrative marketplace with affordable digital textile printing solutions for every market. As well as its European manufacturing headquarters in Portugal, it opened its UK operation last year with UK engineers and support and they announced the opening of MTEX America just before FESPA.

The firm launched a new high-speed direct-to-textile printer with in-line fixation at the show, the MTEX 5032HS. Retailing at around the £150,000 mark, it is a dedicated textile printer for medium to large display graphics companies wanting to increase their fabric printing offerings, or bring it in house.



Its brother the MTEX 5032Pro was the biggest selling 3.2m wide fabric printer in 2014, so we shall see what 2015/2016 holds for this faster 120sq m/hr printer. MTEX also pre-launched the MTEX Blue, an entry level, sub £50k, 1.8m wide direct-to-textile printer, again with in-line fixation, which will be available this summer.

At the other end of the scale, the SureColor SC-F9200 dye-sub printer was launched in May at FESPA and will ship in October according to Epson. The new SureColor SC-F9200 is a 64? machine that comes in at the entry level side of the textile market and, although the price is still to be announced, you will also need to budget for a calendar to go with it.



Phil McMullin, sales manager at Epson UK says: “Dye-sublimation is very versatile because no other technology offers so many paths to new business opportunities, new revenues and higher margins. A single dye-sublimation unit enables you to produce a remarkable variety of print products, not just soft signage and POS banners but also promotional merchandise, gadgets, household items, interior décor, and apparel.”


Mimaki also launched a new dye-sub offering in the form of its TS300P-1800 printer for the mid-market segment. Mike Horsten, marketing manager EMEA, comments: “There was a need from the market to have a product between the entry level roll-to-roll dye-sub printers and our industrial printers like the TS500-1800DS. We introduced this system with our advanced media handling system and the Mimaki bulk ink system (MBIS) at FESPA 2015.”

Also included are many technologies that were only previously available in Mimaki’s industrial machines like the nozzle detection unit, the nozzle replacement technology, and a better MAPS (anti-banding) technology for faster printing. There is no in-built heating calendar so users will need to use it offline with a Monti, transmatic or Klieveric type calendar. The device will retail around €25,000 and is available from July.

Riding a wave

Launched at Sign and Digital UK, the Océ ColorWave 700 is an all-in-one colour printer designed for wider graphic arts applications with a ‘business-in-a-box’ concept. What makes this printer interesting? It uses completely different technology to all the usual suspects.



Océ’s roots are in the wide-format CAD and engineering industry where accuracy and accessibility is para-mount, and this is evident in the sleek, efficient, almost office-like appearance of the Océ ColorWave 700. Using ‘CrystalPoint’ technology, the printer offers high quality, instant dry and waterproof prints on uncoated, thick and custom media with speeds of up to 212 A1 prints per hour in colour.

Up to six different rolls of media can be loaded at any one time and it will take media up to 0.8mm thick. Again, flexibility of media output and applications is core to this machine and the reason why it may adapt to sign-makers very well. The company quotes typical running costs of around 80 pence for an A1 poster.

Richard Turner, wide-format group marketing director for Canon UK, says “This is a technology that was developed to meet our customers’ demands for further wide-format solutions that are more productive, versatile, and cost-effective. Productivity without compromise to quality is at the heart of the technology as it meets the high standards of the modern print buyer in terms of consistent, quality output that is delivered quickly. The range of substrates supported by the device is extensive; essentially, if you can put it on a roll less than 42? wide then the chances are you can print to it with this device.”


However, no round-up would be complete without the latest offering from HP. This year saw the launch of the HP Latex 370, a production latex printer with bulk ink system at under £23,000. With 3l tanks, the HP Latex 370 is designed with production printers in mind. And with the HP mobile app, you can essentially check your ink levels, jobs and medias from anywhere in the world using your mobile phone or tablet. HP is aiming this printer at companies that are essentially ‘print farms’ and Web2Print providers that have media-dedicated printers producing high volume, short run, price competitive output.



Going super-wide with UV

When it comes to UV, there were two companies in my opinion that shouted out at FESPA in Inktec and Screen. Though both are known for producing quality flatbed machines, both launched hybrid roll-to-roll and flat bed combinations at FESPA.

In its global launch, Screen unveiled a roll-to-roll module for its Truepress Jet W3200UV printer. The new system integrates with the flatbed Truepress Jet W3200UV to turn it into a versatile wide-format printer, producing high-quality UV print on both sheeted and roll-fed substrates at 150sq m/hr. Clicks in the UK celebrated their purchase at FESPA. Clicks specialises in creative displays for retail, OOH and exhibitions.
 
Alan Rigglesford, managing director, comments: “There are lots of benefits: we are replacing three printers with just one that can handle both roll and flat substrate jobs—but at twice the speed—and we free
valuable floor space to hold more finished jobs ready for despatch. Our customers want ever-faster turnaround times and we are equipped to fulfil orders extremely quickly.



“Retailers particularly like to achieve different effects. We like a challenge and are always exploring new techniques, materials, inks, textures, and finishes. That’s another reason why we chose the Truepress Jet. Not only is the quality first rate, giving us the ability to print sharp fine text, solid flat tints, 1-8 advanced multilayers and 75lpi lenticulars, but we can also print on a diverse range of materials from ultra-light newsprint all the way through to heavyweight metals if we wish.”

Bui Burke, vice-president, of Screen Europe, adds: “Retailers today want their print suppliers to be able to produce a wide variety of graphics and POS products using many different solid and flexible substrates, with a fast turnaround and at the best quality. We attracted a lot of interest at FESPA where we showed it for the first time and it’s clear that this versatile True-press Jet W3200UV’s ability to print on both roll and flat materials at full 150sq m/hr production speeds delivers the best of both worlds.”

O Factoid: In 1865, American printer William Bullock invented the Bullock Press, which was the first rotary press to be fed by continuous roll paper. The first roll papers were over five miles in length.  O

The price bracket: List price is £395,000 (high speed printer model + roll system) or  £80,000 for the roll-to-roll system only if you are adding one to your existing Truepress Jet W3200UV HS or ST models.

When I walked past the Jetrix stand at FESPA, the sheer size of the RX5000 stopped me in my tracks. The launch of this new super wide 5m printer follows the manufacturer’s recent launch of its first super wide device, the 3.2m RX3200, which was released at Sign and Digital UK in March this year.

Like the RX3200, the RX5000 is equipped with 16 Konica Minolta KM series 14pl printheads and is available in four-colour and eight-colour configurations. Maximum print resolution is 1440dpi while output speed ranges from 36sq m/hr in highest quality mode to 169sq m/hr in maximum productivity mode, for the four-colour device. The RX5000 will also feature production speeds of 255sq m/hr, while still achieving 36sq m/hr in the best quality setting. Furthermore, the machine will also feature a winding system for heavy media and an option to load multiple rolls on the feed to print at the same time.

InkTec Europe Managing Director Joey Kim says, “We are clearly seeing a demand across Europe for indoor and outdoor graphics produced on these super wide production printers. As a result, there was a need to go one step further and develop the Jetrix RX5000 5m wide roll-to-roll UV printer.” Approximate prices are from €150,000 for the RX3200 and from €194,000 for the RX5000.

With all of these printer manufacturers aiming their products and solutions at delivering a flexible device for your growing needs, are they right? Do you really need a printer ‘for all trades’ or will this simply create masters of none? UV manufacturers are clearly aware that users want a decent hybrid machine that will print flatbed and roll-to-roll, but let’s be honest, if you are printing onto glass day in day out, a hybrid table is just not the right tool for the job. 

Dedicated printers for dedicated markets will always be in demand for the companies delivering the highest quality output expected to keep them at the top of their game. Print farms and Web2Print companies go one stage further and have dedicated medias on each printer for fast turnaround, short order printing. But smaller companies that keep flexible technologies at their core, like dye-sub and latex, will definitely experience growth through offering more creative and unique output using their honed skills and experience.

Overall, I was impressed with the roll-to-roll offerings at Sign and Digital and FESPA this year. This industry that was born through the merging of CAD, signage, and graphic design has a plethora of devices to choose from. What will you choose in this year of growth with such choice?

Me? I’ve got my eye on a Chinon Sound 8000 Super 8 8mm Cine Projector on eBay—keep your fingers crossed!


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