The VUTEk h5 has a media width of an incredible 3.2 metres and also can deliver a seven-picolitre droplet
Starting from scratch
The old saying ‘the longest march starts with the first step’ is very true, but EFI seems to have taken this very literally. After marching for some time with a very successful line-up of printers, the manufacturer has decided on the next large step: to go back to the start. Brave indeed.
EFI homed in on the mantra of ‘to make a revolutionary leap forward, start from scratch’, and this is exactly what it has done with the VUTEk h series of hybrid inkjet printers.
These printers are not small and they are not intended to be, as they produce some of the widest and largest printed banners, billboards, display graphics, and signage you can think of. For the purpose of this article, we have chosen to look at the h5 model. This has a media width of an incredible 3.2 metres and can deliver a seven-picolitre droplet, known as UltraDrop, producing a product with 1,200 dpi resolution.
From an engineering point of view, most people will focus on all the technology and software that sits behind the UltraDrop technology or benefits of the EFI Fiery frontend, but to be very honest, most of the headaches would have been from a far more boring aspect of the machine, the main printer head carriage support rail.
A famous quote about engineers is that 'they are not boring people, but get excited by boring things’. I think this is very apt when looking at the EFI VUTEk h5, due to the amount of time and effort that goes into the design and construction of the basic elements of the machine.
Most people accept that if you place a piece of wood on two supports 3.2m apart and apply a weight in the middle, the wood would sag in the middle. Most people would not naturally think the same about a piece of steel as we think it much stronger; but the case is the same, albeit not by the same amount.
If you are investing millions ensuring a very small droplet of ink is placed accurately on a substrate to reproduce a high-resolution image, you need to ensure the actual ink droplet nozzle is not only in the correct place each time in the X and Y plane, but the height from the substrate must also be the same.
The VUTEk h5 has been designed with clever software which can detect white gaps in the X and Y plane
This means the main printer head support rail must be designed so that any deflection in a static condition is virtually zero, but also when there is a dynamic loading when it is moving, this is also virtually nothing in all three directions, X, Y and Z. That is a tall task but clearly EFI has accomplished this as the output from the device is very impressive.
A head full of colour
So much for the 'boring' engineering, now more about the interesting bits of the VUTEk h5, the print head itself. The head has piezo electric heads which can deploy the seven-picolitre droplets in either four- or eight-colour modes, both can also be accompanied by white when needed. All of these can be applied in a nine-layer single pass.
As mentioned before, EFI uses its UltraDrop technology in its entire range of machines. By using this, EFI can ensure that pass over pass, sheet over sheet users will maintain high apparent resolution and high-definition print quality. A further upside of UltraDrop is that when looking at the printed image, there is greater smoothness and transition between each aspect.
Control of the ink droplets is completed and then checked with a camera vision system which checks not only for sub-pixel alignment but also checks and feeds information back to the print head controller on ink density. All this ensures even across a 3.2-metre banner, an image on the far left of the substrate is identical to the one on the far right.
With regard to jetting the ink, sometimes not jetting is a great idea too and the VUTEk h5 has been designed with clever software which can detect white gaps in the X and Y plane and stops jetting ink in these areas, saving ink and improving production time.
Should text be on the desired image, the VUTEk h5 can print to three-point definition in both standard and high-quality mode. Mindful that you may be many metres from the final product, the attention to detail is exemplary.
Clearly from time to time you will get changes to the position of the head relative to the printer bed and you need to realign both. Previously this was a reasonably big job, not so much in labour or technology, but in time. Typically, on ultra-large-format printers this can take up to a day for the printer to track back and forth to realign itself to the base.
Upgrades between the h models such as the h3 to h5 can all be completed in the field meaning changes in product requiring machine changes are easy”
With the principle of starting from scratch, EFI has designed into the VUTEk h range of machines an automated system to align the print head but in an hour, rather than a day.
Changing the ink when needed is easy and can even be done on the move as the VUTEk h5 comes with a modular drop in ink system for the ink cartridges. Just open the lid of the relevant empty or partly empty container and it can be either checked or changed.
Should you be in a position where you need to change the parts of the print heads themselves, this can easily be done. All you need to do is change the Image Edge technology in minutes by swinging the head in question out and down, and reversing the process with the new head. You'll be back up and running in minutes ensuring productivity on the printer is optimised.
As with most printers of this type, the VUTEk h5 comes with LED UV ink curing technology. This has the advantage of driving down the use of the most expensive of commodities such as electricity, whilst removing VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) from the workspace and adding to the green credentials of the product itself.
Media handling made easy
The flexibility in the VUTEk h5 goes much deeper than what it can print, but extends into a wide range of substrates that it can print on.
The printer can handle substrates up to 3.2 metres in width and board with a thickness of 51mm which can weigh up to 91kg, which is clearly a large sheet of material. Should you wish to print in sheets, this can be achieved on the printer as the roll capacity is 180kg in weight and 300mm in diameter. Should you wish to have multiple rolls, two 1,520mm rolls can be placed on the unwind system so dual imaging can be achieved.
The printer can handle substrates up to 3.2 metres in width and board with a thickness of 51mm which can weigh up to 91kg
Moving substrate around can be problematic, but EFI has designed what it calls a three-quarter automated media loader and stacker system. This has the advantage of meaning the operator can spend more time away from the machine, clearly increasing productivity.
It is a brave move to say "lets start again", but the decision by EFI to do this with the VUTEk h range of printers has certainly paid dividends.
Brian Sims Principal Consultant, Metis Print Consultancy, www.metis-uk.eu
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