LFP - Large-Format-Printing
MUTOH UV PRINTER PREVIEWED AT FESPA DIGITAL EUROPE
Thursday 10. April 2008 - ZEPHYR PROFESSIONAL UV INKJET PRINTER
At the Fespa Digital Europe show, held in Geneva last week, wide-format inkjet printer manufacturer Mutoh Europe nv previewed its new wide-format UV inkjet printer, called ZEPHYR. The printer has been completely engineered and developed by Mutohs Belgian R&D centre.
Mutoh Europes Zephyr is a CMYK 64″ (165 cm) professional UV inkjet printer for roll-to-roll printing (vinyl, flex, mesh, PVC, soft sign, etc.). The printer will also handle rigid boards up to a thickness of 20 mm. For roll printing, the machine incorporates a motorized unwinder/winder system with dancer bars for media rolls up to 100 kg. For rigid printing, media transport tables can be placed at the back and in front of the machine. Switching between rigid and roll printing is done in a trice.
The new Mutoh Zephyr printer incorporates 4 Xaar 760 high end variable drop greyscale heads, offering high image quality combined with high productivity. The heads produce droplets as small as 8 picoliter. Small drops (8 pl) are used to deliver pin sharp text and line art, whilst larger drops (16, 24, 32 & 40 pl) ensure excellent image saturation. Enabling 6 levels of greyscale, which is equivalent to 6 densities of CMYK, the print heads eliminate the need for extra process colours.
The printer utilizes Mutoh proprietary flexible UV inks, specifically tuned for roll-to-roll printing. Still, the Zephyr UV inks were formulated to also allow printing onto a wide range of rigid substrates, such as foam board, cardboard, polyprop, etc
Stable and reliable printing is ensured by an integrated ink conditioning and degassing system. The Zephyrs integrated bulk ink system offers a capacity of 3 litres of ink per colour and enables refilling whilst printing. The UV curing lamps are pre-mounted into a cassette which can be effortlessly replaced by the printer operator.
The Zephyr UV printer produces top quality prints for close viewing distances between 10 and 20 m²/h. Prints for medium viewing distances can be produced at speeds between 20 and 30 m²/h.
For optimum operator comfort, the Zephyr UV printer integrates a front end workstation incorporating a Mutoh proprietary graphics user interface, allowing easy operation of the machine, job queue management, intuitive guided maintenance, job preview & progress monitoring, etc
The Zephyr UV printer will be produced from September onwards at Mutoh Europes manufacturing site in Oostende, Belgium.
Mutoh Europe will display its new Zephyr UV inkjet printer at the oncoming DRUPA show, May 29-June 11, Düsseldorf, Germany, Hall 9 – booth B43.