The P5 350/HS is available in up to six different formats
Hybrid performance
There are a number of large inkjet printers on the market that can cope with board and an increasing number which can handle flexible substrates on rolls; however there are not many companies which have equipment that can handle both. There's even fewer that can handle them in volume, significant volume at that.
Durst has in its P5 series a large-format printer that it can rightly claim to be a hybrid printer. Regardless of the volume of sheet or flexible material, and depending on specification, the change from sheet to roll and back again can be done in minutes.
The large-format printers can handle boards of up to 3.5m in width and single rolls of 3.47m
The means that the growing demands of the client base can be satisfied in one machine.
Many formats
The P5 350/HS comes in up to six different formats, but regardless of which you select, the maximum width of print is 3.5 metres (slightly smaller for sheet models at 3470mm). The substrate is as impressive as the size of the machine, roll, sheet, corrugated sheet and even Plexiglass up to 70mm in thickness.
Its ability to handle many substrates is the key to the success of the P5 350/HS and why it truly can be called a ‘hybrid’ machine.
The Durst P5 350/HS can handle roll and multi-roll substrates, which are changeable in production”
In the most basic format, the printer comes as a Boards machine which means the machine has manually operated roller tables with two tracks with the option of upgrading to Multitrack 6 (feeding lines) and single/dual corrugated track production.
A step up is the first of the hybrid models, the P5 350/HS Hybrid has the same format of sheet feeding as the first model, but also has a roll tool for flexible substrates. As with the Boards model, there are the same sheet upgrades but also there is a roll option for dual and multi-roll production.
Next comes the first of the automated models, the P5 350/HS ¾ Automation Board model which has manual feeding of the rigid substrate, but has a Durst P5 Automat stacking unit, taking away the need for an operator to handle printed material. Again, there are options to add to this machine as with the Board printer. Logically there is the version to handle flexible substrates, featuring the same level of equipment as the Hybrid model, but with the semi-automated stacking unit.
Finally the fully automated models follow the same specification as the manual and ¾ automated version but the P5 350/HS Full Automation machines (both Board and Hybrid) come with the Durst P5 Automat feeding unit to accompany the stacking unit. The same options are available on the fully automated version as with the others.
As you would expect, with production output as high as these machines can produce, there needs to be a significant amount of integration at both feeding and stacking stations.
The P5 Automat comes with a series of safety measures to protect operators such as light barriers to make monitoring of the feeding and delivery easy, but also to stop access. Perforated side panels again make access impossible but inspection easy. Should you need access, interlocked side panels make access simple.
Across the range, Durst has invested heavily in the design of substrate handling, regardless of the machine. There is a very clever folding table design to allow the speedy switching of the hybrid machines easily from reel to sheet and back again. The feed table is a very robust design and can take up to 15kg/m2 but neatly and easily folds away with the rolls still in situ.
Most issues in production are due to miss-fed substrates and to cope with this, the machines come with specially designed sensors checking both the media itself and thickness. Whilst printing, the P5 350/HS printer can check and control thickness and width. Wrinkles in thinner substrates are checked and an alert will sound if they have potential to interrupt production.
All these systems are important, but the scale and complexity of the inspection systems mean the fully automated machine can be left to run, unattended, either overnight or to allow skilled operators to complete other tasks.
High production
The substrate handling is obviously only one aspect of a highly productive machine. The print heads are tried and tested Ricoh Gen5 with colour options including the standard CMYK but also light CM, white and varnish if needed.
There are four versions of the Durst UV-LED inks, Roll LED is ideal for flexible applications with high adhesion properties, and POP (Point of Purchase)Flexible is suited for paper applications due to having excellent tack sensitive applications. FLT LED ink is designed specifically for materials such as lightbox textiles and transparent films.
For rigid substrates, Durst UV-LED has its Rigid LED for flatbed operation as it has a wide colour gamut, low tack and excellent adhesion properties.
The refilling of the machine is easy and virtually error free. A simple task of scanning the barcode on the side of the box means important data such as the expiration date of the inks can be checked and the placing of the wrong ink in the machine is avoided.
In this day and age when there is an added need for traceability or compliance, these inks are underpinned by the GREENGUARD gold standard. To satisfy the GREENGUARD gold standard, the inks supplied must meet the stringent emissions standards based on established chemical exposure criteria. Specifically the LED UV curing inks meet the UL2818 standard which is for low chemical emissions for indoor production.
The levels of automation are vast in scope meaning the Durst P5 350/HS can be specified in up to six configurations giving increasing levels of automated production”
The fact that the LED UV curing inks used in the new printers hold the GREENGUARD gold certificate means they have passed the most rigorous testing and have a very low impact on the environment and contain very low levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and are nickel free. These qualities in ink mean the P5 350/HS can be installed in a number of smaller operational sites without affecting operators.
The claim of being a hybrid machine can mean a lot of different things to many different people. With the P5 350/HS, this means whether you want to print on board or flexible substrate the range offers a highly productive user friendly option.
Brian Sims Principal Consultant, Metis Print Consultancy, www.metis-uk.eu
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