Tuesday, 27 Jun 2017 17:39 GMT

Jeti Tauro H2500 LED

Brian Sims takes a step back to take in the grand presence of Agfa Graphics’ Jeti Tauro H2500 LED printer and investigates the value it will add to your business should you choose to invest

Agfa provides high-end hybrid solution

In times when manufacturers look to provide equipment that fits a budget, there is still a strong argument that an outlay in ‘high-end’ capital equipment will give a better return on investment in the long term. Clearly you need to have access to available funding streams, but if you do then this month’s equipment under review could well be a suitable choice, should you be looking for a multi-substrate wide-format inkjet printer.

The Jeti Tauro H2500 LED from Agfa Graphics is certainly in the classification of ‘high-end’, but you must never confuse price with value. There is always a reason why you are paying more for something and in this case the Jeti Tauro has the ability to produce extremely vivid prints on a large number of substrates with cutting-edge LED UV technology—all wrapped up with an intuitive workflow software system.

When looking at the Jeti Tauro H2500 LED, you cannot help but be impressed with it as a piece of capital equipment; it has presence and is clearly well built”


When looking at the Jeti Tauro H2500 LED, you cannot help but be impressed with it as a piece of capital equipment; it has presence and is clearly well built. At the heart of the machine is a welded beam construction that holds and transports the inkjet heads. The unit has linear drive motors with dampening units and an encoder strip that ensures the ink deliver system is accurately and precisely placed in the correct position to ensure dot on dot reproduction time after time. By having designed this at the core of the Jeti Tauro, Agfa can ensure the highest of print reproduction.

Vivid prints

So, where do the dots come from and what are they made of? The ink heads themselves are Ricoh MH piezoelectric type heads with 32 fast firing inkjets with four nozzles rows configured as two colours per head. The DPI achievable on the unit is 725 x 1,200 on an eight-pass output with a four-point text quality, which is why you can understand the claim Agfa make that this printer can produce some very vivid and detailed reproductions.

The ink range from the Jeti Tauro H2500 LED is a standard six colours comprising of CMYK, light magenta, and cyan along with white and a primer for printing on difficult substrates when good adherence is needed. But the additional benefit of the fact the printer is based on LED UV inks means that the colour reproduction can be wide and the colour laydown very vivid.

The inks provided by Agfa in the printer can be used for a broad spectrum of products, such as indoor and outdoor products, with the according amount of durability for the product when needed. White inks are also problematic, but Agfa has overcome the issue of settlement by having a patented stirring mechanism. This keeps the ink in motion, which stops settlement and separation.

The high pigmented inks can be easily loaded into the printer from handy containers, and with each ink reservoir containing significant capacity, the productivity of the Jeti Tauro H2500 LED is well unpinned. Cleaning and maintenance is an equally simple operation due to the design of the inking units.


The printer is driven by Agfa’s Asanti workflow software, reducing the margin for error




Finally, the use of a temperature control system for the inks and the constant circulation of them means blockages are kept to a minimum, not only reducing ink use, but reducing downtime for cleaning and maintenance.

As we all are now aware, the use of LED lamps to affect the photo-initiators contained in UV inks as Agfa has designed for the Jeti Tauro, means that once difficult to manage substrates that are adversely affected by heat, can now be very easily printed on. This is because the heat generated in the process is very low, and the direction and focus of the light source can be extremely well defined and controlled.

The other benefits of the use of LED UV lamps, which are generic but well worth mentioning, are the not to be understated green credentials. The amount of energy needed to power these lamps is considerably less than with standard mercury based lamps, and coupled with the low start up times needed means the consumption of electricity is greatly reduced.

The amount of energy needed to power these lamps is considerably less than with standard mercury based lamps”


Clearly anything that contains mercury would be considered as troublesome to dispose of and added with the longer life expectancy of LED UV lamp systems, they are now setting the benchmark for printers and presses. Being at the cutting-edge of design, Agfa would obviously adopt such technology for the Jeti Tauro H2500 LED.

Key questions

A large number of printers are available and when considering which is best suited to your business, one of the key points that you need to consider will be how easy is it to use?

As you would expect, the front end of the Jeti Tauro H2500 LED has a very intuitive GUI operation panel. All aspects of the printer can be operated and set up from this panel, but the USP of the Jeti Tauro H2500 LED is Agfa’s Asanti workflow software. This workflow software is not only very powerful but also very easy to use.
 
As the old saying goes, you are only as strong as your weakest link, and it is clear to see the Jeti Tauro H2500 LED is very productive; so where could this weakest link be? Well, with any inkjet printer the feeding and transport of the substrate is generally considered the main area of low production influence. Agfa has carefully considered this and arrived at two very clever design adaptations to minimise the influence of substrate transport.


The printer offers excellent productivity speeds of up to 275sq m/h




At the front end, the Jeti Tauro H2500 LED can come supplied with an automated stock feeder known as the ABF. Agfa claim this can increase production by up to 30 percent and it is easy to see why. There is some extremely well thought out and executed design ideas in the ABF such as ball rollers, suction tapes, and a register pin system that is automatically set via the Asanti workflow system. The ABF can handle a large variation of substrates and the device easily and accurately positions up to four sections across its enormous 2.5m width.

At the back end, to keep up with the high levels of production, there is an automated unloading unit. This can handle the same number and variants as the ABF and uses a capstan system to drive the dried product from the printer onto a pallet system. A set of cups and suckers lift the panel and accurately place it onto a scissors lift that will automatically descend as the product is loaded. Again, Asanti takes care of the setting of the devise, adjusting and controlling the substrate.

You will naturally have to pay handsomely for this printer in its fully automated mode, but as I said at the start of the article, cost and value should never be confused. There is tremendous value in this product and that is what counts.


Brian Sims, principal consultant, Metis Print Consultancy, www.metis-uk.eu


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