Inkjet & Digital Printing
Digital Screen Printing Accelerates Low Volume and Prototype Production Whilst Reducing Costs
Monday 03. May 2010 - A recent development in industrial production technology has been the ability to print onto plastic and metal surfaces using digital flat bed printers such as the Copytrax PrintMaster that uses advanced inkjet technology and solvent based inks. This new technology enables companies to achieve high quality print at the press of a button on a broad range of materials, without the requirement for the creation of films and screens. Recent applications have included printing on PCB's, dial gauges and control panels.
This new ‘digital approach’ to screen-printing offers engineers a number of important new advantages. At the development and prototype stage, this gives engineers the freedom to quickly create prototypes in-house, therefore reducing costs and accelerating the design cycle. This freedom to experiment also means that engineers can be more innovative and maybe even create multiple versions for approval by the client or manager. Another important advantage of this technology is that a machine such as the Copytrax PrintMaster has a minimal environmental impact on the working environment. Unlike traditional screen-printing methods, digital printing equipment does not require cleaning solvents and similar agents.
“The main development has been in the make up of the inks that we can now use,” said Steve Woods, Sales Manager at Copytrax. “These inks are very durable once printed and can be used to print on a very wide range of substrates. In addition to this, the printhead technology is also enabling us to provide equipment that is delivering higher resolution and more vibrant designs than has been possible before. This has been an exciting break through and we are seeing a lot of demand for this technology.”
The Copytrax PrintMaster employs Epson Micro Piezo head technology using a variable-sized droplet format to ensure superb colour management and a high-resolution performance. The PrintMaster can print a broad range of media up to a size of 330mm x 530mm and offers a quiet and low odour performance that enables the PrintMaster to be operated in a design and engineering office environment. For many clients, Copytrax provide bespoke ‘trays’ that can hold multiple items for low to medium volume print runs. Copytrax can also provide a ‘rotary’ print fixture for the printing of cylindrical objects. This fixture will even accommodate tapered designs.
“For many of our clients, the PrintMaster has introduced a new level of flexibility in the way they develop their products and the volumes that they can produce,” said Steve Woods. “They now have more freedom to introduce the production of lower volume specialist products or specially branded solutions. Our clients can now also respond to customer enquiries much faster and reduce the lead times related to traditional screen printing methods.”
Copytrax has been working with industrial printing technologies for the past 15 years and is a highly respected brand in the audio visual sector where their technology has been used extensively for the printing of CD’s and DVD’s. Copytrax now supply digital printing equipment across a range of industries and around the world.
“We like to think we are the experts in this field,” said Steve Woods. “We tend to work closely with our customers, often providing technical support, training and after-sales support. Every customer is different, with different projects and challenges, so we often undertake engineering projects to ensure our technology can be effectively applied to their business situation. At the moment we are working on projects with both a Swedish and a French company, so its good to know that our expertise is appreciated abroad as well as here in the UK.”
For engineers that wish to explore this technology further, Copytrax are happy to demonstrate the PrintMaster at their base near Cambridge.