The UV revolution

May 15th, 2009

Developments in ink technology are driving some radical changes in inkjet printing, as new products open up labels, packaging and industrial printing to the technology, says Jo Francis

Think of EFI and you tend to think of MIS systems, Fiery colour servers or wide-format inkjet printers. But since last summer the California-based firm claims it has also become one of the biggest label press manufacturers in the world, thanks to the success of its Jetrion 4000 UV inkjet narrow web press. How on earth did that happen?

A quiet revolution is under way in the labels, packaging and industrial printing space, and the latest UV inkjet ­technology is driving the change. Atlantic Zeiser, perhaps pigeonholed in the past as a numbering box supplier, is now a provider of ­complete inkjet systems and has just introduced a highly sophisticated UV inkjet printer with a print width of 70.5mm and a speed of 24m per minute. The Gamma 70 is a full-colour, single-pass system that prints on tricky substrates such as plastics, glass and metals and has applications in packaging, labelling, coding and beyond. In fact, one of the challenges for the ­manufacturers of these new systems is that, because potential applications are so wide, it can be ­difficult knowing what to focus on. 

Atlantic Zeiser business development and product marketing director Michel Gilet says the firm sees key markets in industrial marking, labels, and packaging. "The bigger ­opportunity is in industrial applications, because 80% of the material is plastic and we have strong know-how in how to print onto it," he says. "But it's not a fixed target programme. We have initial ideas about where the product will fit ­perfectly, but we are also aware we may have some new ­applications." The company introduced the Gamma 70 at this week's  Fespa Digital, the first time the firm has ever exhibited at the event.

So what is driving these developments? Jetrion sales ­director, Europe, Jason Oliver says: "UV inks ­combined with recirculating printheads are a breakthrough that have brought piezo inkjet to a point where it's commercially viable. The challenge for all these other organisations is to bring in all the other things that make a system work - software, workflow, controlling the printer, materials handling and general integration knowledge."

EFI has chosen to focus its Jetrion offering on labels. "If you try to change a whole bunch of markets at once you'll fail. We want to get really good at this market first," Oliver adds.

Specialist expertise is coming into play elsewhere. too. Atlantic Zeiser, for example, is using the UV curing know-how it developed for its Omega plastic card printing system in the new Gamma 70. "We have developed our inkjet knowledge and experience for more than 10 years and it's a very important part of what we offer," says Ralf Hipp, vice president of digital printing and coding systems. "The ­development of the Gamma 70 is so good, customers using the same printheads are contacting us asking us to help them. It's not as easy as it seems to take four print heads and make a system. It's the fine-tuning."

"The unique proposition is the whole printing system," adds Gilet. "If you make a machine using adapted inks and dryers you will have a lot of difficulty moving it into ­production in customer installations. We want to ensure the complete value chain for the customer."

Both EFI and Atlantic Zeiser make their own ink, and both are also using Xaar's 1001 printhead, a high-end, single-pass, greyscale model. The head is also used in another new machine that was also on show at Fespa, the SP2 from German supplier M Print. This differs from other narrow web offerings in that it is designed to print 3D objects up to 250mm thick, and is available with a wider print width of between 70-215mm, aiming it squarely at markets where pad and screen printing have been dominant hitherto.

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