Technical

Fespa 2013 has departed London and it’s time to assess what we have learned before the dust settles. Nessan Cleary reports. 

Even though this year’s Fespa show took place in London, it remained undeniably a European show, thanks to the sheer number of overseas visitors. It was busy, with most visitors having done their homework and knowing exactly what they had come to see. And there was plenty to see, with most stands crammed with equipment and visitors alike.

Nessan Cleary gets to grips with this Mimaki TS34-1800adaptation.

This month’s Machine Matters covers a roll-to-roll solvent printer from Graphic Printing Technologies (GPT), a division of Amari Plastics that is perhaps best known as a reseller of printers from the likes of Mimaki, Epson and Agfa.

Nessan Cleary investigates this high-speed textile printer aimed at the soft signage market.

Earlier this year the Portuguese company POD added a new textile printer, the Mtex 1800, to its line-up of fabric printers which are all distributed in the UK by the Derby-based company Digital Print Innovations, or DPI.

Nessan Cleary finds that latex compatibility and environmental concerns are the main catalysts for wide-format media development.

When it comes to substrates there are myriad different choices. But there are several trends in the types of substrates being demanded that indicate the overall direction of the wide-format market.

Nessan Cleary findsRoland’s new eco-solvent printer really has been built for speed without loss of image quality.

Roland has just launched a new eco-solvent printer, the Pro4 SolJet XF-640, premiered at Sign and Digital UK and immediately available to order.

There are many different stages in the life of a job, from the quotation through to final output, and its not always easy to link these together. But there is help at hand finds Nessan Cleary.

There is a tendency in wide-format to think in terms of individual machines and their capabilities but where there are multiple machines this can lead to a fragmented production department. The Image Reports’ annual Widthwise survey flags-up that, increasingly, PSPs are recognising that as a problem and looking at ways to improve their workflow.

Nessan Cleary investigates the UK entrance of this Memjet-powered wide-format printer.

Reprographic Technology International (RTI) has been showing off a new Memjet-powered wide-format printer, the Vortex 4200, which it is just about to start distributing in the UK. In truth, this is an existing model, the WideStar, first launched at the end of 2011. It’s been developed by the Hungarian company, Own-X, but has not been widely distributed across Europe, mainly because Own-X has concentrated on its label printer, which has sold fairly well. So it’s only now that the wide-format machine is being introduced to the UK market.

Nessan Cleary looks at the current trends in ink development for the wide format sector.

One of the most important components of any print system is the ink itself, thus a great deal of R&D money is spent on developing new ink types as you’d expect. It’s a given that for the most part inks determine application possibiities so in a maturing market like the UK, where print companies are generally satisfied with the print quality, speed and price of their wide-format inkjet printers and will only replace their existing devices if a new machine can demonstrate a clear return on investment, new ink formulations are where it’s at for many suppliers. 

Melony Rocque-Hewitt finds out just what’s so intelligent about this mini-beast.

Roland DG’s SolJet Pro XR-640 was launched in September last year and is billed as the company’s flagship machine. The SolJet range, which it now tops, is a highly successful one with a reputation for being powerful workhorses that are the mainstay of many a wide-format business.

Melony Rocque-Hewitt finds out just what’s so intelligent about this mini-beast.

As is the case for all families, in order to understand the offspring you have to consider the parent, so before we take a closer look at Onset S20i introduced last summer, we need to look at the Onset series as a whole. 

Melony Rocque-Hewitt looks at how this printer could grow with your business.

It is nearly two years ago now that Agfa completed  its purchase of Gandi Innovations. The sale allowed Agfa to plug an obvious hole in its hardware arsenal, and since then, the company has bought two machines to market, the development of which was well-established by Gandi and then picked up and completed by Agfa.

Nessan Cleary takes a closer look at a model which is of  five new ImagePrograf machines.

Canon has recently added five more wide-format printers to its ImagePrograf range of high quality aqueous inkjet printers. Amongst these is the 1524mm wide iPF 9400S which, as with all the ‘S’ series models, is aimed at a production environment. 

Printing to fabrics for soft signage, or even deckchairs, is potentially one of the biggest growth areas – providing you can make the initial investment. 

Nessan Cleary finds out why this cutter, though it’s been around a while, is just being introduced to the UK wide-format market.

Next to a printer, one of the most important pieces of equipment is a cutting table and there's an ever growing choice. This month we've been looking at the Mastercut 2200 from Blackman and White, which has been around for a while but is only just being launched into the wide-format sector.