Metallic inks can generate impressive effects, but you need a printer specifically designed to take them. Nessan Cleary takes a close look at Roland's VS series.
Metallic inks offer the wide-format print company the option to produce truly eye-catching special effects that can help differentiate it from its competitors and open up interesting markets such as labels and packaging. Several vendors offer metallic inks but here it’s Roland's VersaCamm VS series, specifically developed to handle these inks, that comes under the spotlight.
The first of the VS series to be launched was the 64ins VS640, and this has been joined by 54in, 42in and 30in versions. As with other VersaCamm’s these machines include cutting as well as printing. They are solvent units, using Roland’s Eco Sol Max inks, and can take up to eight colours. There are three versions: two sets of CMYK for higher speeds up to 23m2/hr; six colours, including light cyan and light magenta; and eight colours with the addition of white and metallic. These inks are good for three years outdoor use, though this drops to one year for the white, and between one and three years for the metallic depending on how it’s used.
The metallic ink can generate some particularly eye-catching effects. Marketing manager Matt Drake explains: “We use a silver base and then by adding process colours to that you can get the tints, so we add yellow to get a nice golden colour.”
Drake says that you can get an almost infinite variety of metallic tints but it can be tricky to get the right amount of process colour so Roland has produced a colour chart with 512 tints to make it easier for customers to set up metallics in their print jobs.
Curiously, the actual metallic particles within the inks are not made of metal but are polymer spheres. As with white inks, the metallic ink has to be circulated to keep these elements in suspension and minimise the ink usage.
Roland has also had to think about separating the metallic from the process colours so that large-format media can be pushed through the printer in one go. Drake explains: “We can split the heads in half so the leading edge of the metallic head is put down on the media first and the trailing half with the process colour is laid on top. If you put process and metallic colours together they merge and you get a less reflective finish so this split lets them dry and you get a much better reflection.”
The VS series also take advantage of the latest generation of Epson printheads that offer up to seven different droplet sizes. However, Roland still uses just three drop sizes, but the Rip can choose which three from the seven on offer depending on various factors such as the resolution chosen.
The printer comes with Roland's own VersaMark Rip, based around Adobe's PostScript level 3. Roland routinely issues updates for this, including major system revisions, all free of charge to registered users. Drake says: “We have just started to add a costing element in to tell you how much ink is consumed.”
The metallic effects have helped Roland attract new customers beyond its normal sign and display market. Drake comments: “It’s very popular with label printers but also commercial printers that want to get into large format but don't want to offer the same service as sign makers. People also buy them for doing mock-ups of packaging.”
Prices range from £10,499 for the 30in version right up to £17,999 for the largest 64in model, the VS640.