The Screen Truepress JetW3200UV at TLP: handling high-quality, volume work that would not have been feasible previously
It is hard to conceive that it is only just over a decade since Inca Digital launched the world’s first ever flatbed industrial printer in 2001. Following the demonstration of a prototype at FESPA London last year, Screen Europe launched their latest offering in the shape of the Truepress Jet W3200UV in January this year. Manufactured by Inca, now a subsidiary of Screen, the unit was launched at Inca’s UK headquarters to resellers and print firms.
The Truepress Jet W3200UV printer is a new generation mid-range flatbed inkjet printer that, according to Screen, incorporates several features that are usually found in more expensive machines. The standard unit comes with CMYK 5L ink tanks but can be upgraded to include light cyan and light magenta, and a further upgrade of double white can be installed on site with either of these options.
Why white?
Put frankly, printing with white ink enables extremely high-quality printing on a much wider range of media than printing without. Backlit and non-white medias, transparent and acrylics, wood and metals all benefit from white ink and the results are very clear to see. The Jet W3200UV has a double white option, which, on close inspection, delivers a high-opaque, high-density white in a single print. High-density colour and solid colours are achievable on virtually any substrate up to 50mm thick with the Jet W3200UV including white ink option.
High-density colour and solid colours are achievable on virtually any substrate up to 50mm thick with the Jet W3200UV with white ink option”
The Larger Profile (TLP) was the company chosen to beta test the new unit. White ink, according to Gary Orsman who established the company in 2010, was key: “We started with an Océ Arizona 550UV flatbed with white ink and it was ideal, but you have to run it quite slowly to get the best results. None of the other faster printers we looked at then could do white ink and we wanted that. So, earlier this year when Screen asked me to be the beta site for this new machine with white, I jumped at the chance.”
White ink is optional but necessary for printing onto transparents, acrylics and coloured materials
The printer can have up to eight ink channels, so the top configuration would include CMYK, Lc, Lm and 2 x White. It features a 14pl drop size and prints a thin ink film that helps with flexibility on the media, which
is useful when printing backlit and exhibition panel displays.
Another optional extra is the new automated cleaning station, which Screen says was designed to help maintain the printhead modules in the best condition for production printing. They have also added nozzle mapping, which allows the system to continue production even when the nozzles become blocked or deviated.
Jet-fast
The printer takes rigid board or paper sheets up to 3.2 x 1.6m, and prints onto substrates up to 50mm thick. It can also print onto smaller, multiple sheets simultaneously. It is being hailed as a production printer, outputting at 85sq m/hr going full blast and the print speed and quality can be controlled via the Caldera RIP to produce 10, 14, 18, or 22 passes depending on what the job requires.
Is that top speed really all that fast? According to Gary Orsman, the square metre count is less important when printing board than the print speeds of individual pieces. He says that he can print a 3 x 1.65m board in less than three minutes and it comes off the printer finished, except for any dig-ital cutting that might be required post print. So that is pretty fast, for sure.
Screen has redeveloped the head modules allowing it to deliver the ink faster and with greater accuracy
How does it achieve this speed? Screen has redeveloped the head modules, allowing it to deliver the ink faster and with greater accuracy. In tandem, they have designed the print table carrying the media to be more accurate and driven by a linear motor. It is also equipped with lay pins for accurate and repeatable substrate regis-tration and a zoned vacuum bed to reduce the need for time consuming masking pre-print. So combined, these three elements equal a faster machine all round.
All mapped out
The machine has a feature Screen call Nozzle-Mapping, or T-Mapping, which makes it possible to continue printing in desired modes when a nozzle is blocked or deviated without any loss of quality or productivity. Screen says this reduces the cost of ownership, because the print can always be produced in the preferred mode, not one that is required to hide the missing nozzle.
With the Trupress Jet W3200UV, Screen really has seemed to think of everything a printer could wish for; and as one of the pioneers of this technology, would you really expect anything less?”
We have covered flatbed, white print applications, and production speeds, but what else can the Jet W3200UV do that may help you diversify your sign business? Two special applications are of particular interest with this machine: lenticular and multi-layered prints.
Advanced multilayer with this printer means the inside and outside layers can be printed separately, which could be particularly important for proofing jobs, but also means that up to eight layers can be overprinted. The machine supports printing media on the front and back, as well as trick back-lighting and other point-of-sale formats, in which the display changes when int-ernal illumination is turned on or off. Also of note is the flexibility of the ink; it is stretchable up to 200 percent of its original length, so it will not chip or break when cut or bent. Lenticular is possible at 62lpi lenses, says Screen, at 85sq m/hr.
With the Trupress Jet W3200UV, Screen really seems to have thought of everything a sign-maker could wish for, and as one of the pioneers of this technology, would you really expect anything less?
