By Melissa Donovan
Part 2 of 3
The July issue of Digital Output includes an article on high-speed dye-sublimation (dye-sub) wide format printers. With the help of contributors, we defined high-speed at around 2,000 to 3,000 square feet per hour (sf/h) give or take a few other factors. To get an idea of what’s available on the market, we include printers models that fit the bill here.
Canon USA, Inc. distributes the DGI FH-3204 reaching speeds of up to 3,230 sf/h. The printer is designed to run with either four colors or optionally six colors for fluorescent inks or orange/blue inks for expanded color gamut. Canon also distributes the MS JP4 Series four-color printers reaching speeds of over 4,900 sf/h.
Durst US offers two platforms designed for high-speed, dye-sub printing. Its flagship, the Alpha 330 Dye Sub Edition is designed with offline sublimation. It’s configured with CMYK and can be expanded to eight colors with no reduction in print speed. The P5 TEX platform features the same eight-color option and features inline sublimation with tools designed to increase efficiency, overall throughput, and reduce operational costs such as labor, for example.
EFI high-speed dye-sub printers’ portfolio includes printers that range from 1,500 up to more than 33,000 sf/h. The base ink set includes CMYK but there is demand for expanded color configurations to increase printing quality and uniformity, as well as special colors to enlarge the gamut.
Epson SureColor F10070 and F10070H Series dye-sub print systems offer industrial-level production with sellable high-quality output at speeds of up to 2,700 sf/h. Both models leverage Epson UltraChrome DS ink technology and feature a hot-swap ink system that automatically switches from an empty ink pack to a new ink pack mid-print for uninterrupted printing, which allows for longer print runs without user intervention. The SureColor F10070 offers a four-color CMYK ink set, and the SureColor F10070H offers six-color multiple ink configurations, including CMYK plus light cyan and light magenta or fluorescent yellow and florescent pink.
Mimaki USA, Inc. produces a rage of high-speed industrial printers including its Tiger-1800B MKIII. The 73-inch dye-sub transfer printer features eight printheads, six colors, and reaches speeds of up to 4,144 sf/h. The Tiger-1800 MKIII is also a 73-inch device but is equipped with 16 printheads and six colors, reaching speeds of 4,144 sf/h. Going wider, Mimaki offers two 130-inch printers. The Tx500-3200 is a direct dye-sub device that reaches 1,399 sf/h with 12 printheads, features an inline heat fixation unit, and includes an in circulation and degassing model. The Ts500-3200DS is a dye-sub transfer printer that outputs at 1,937 sf/h with 12 printheads and features an ink circulation and degassing module. Finally, considered commercial high speed, there is the Ts55-1800 76-inch and Ts330-1600 64-inch printers running at up to 1,453 sf/h and offering optional units for high production facilities to reduce labor and consumable cost 20 to 30 percent with a mini jumbo roll paper unit and a 10L bulk ink system.
The Mutoh America, Inc. XPJ-1642WR Pro is a four-color CMYK, dual-printhead printer capable of speeds of up to 1,200 sf/h with common production exceeding 500 sf/h. The printer utilizes Mutoh DH-21 dye-sub ink, although the ink registration system can be disabled allowing the user to open source the ink.
SPGPrints’ latest sublimation printer is called Rose and prints at a maximum speed of 7,750 sf/h. Even in two-pass, high-quality mode it reaches 4,520 sf/h. It runs with SPGPrints Morpho-F sublimation inks in CMYK. They are in symmetric mode on the carriage so almost all designs can be printed in bi-directional mode to increase the speed.
Finish Up
High-speed, dye-sub printers meet the needs of today’s PSPs who are already ingrained in the ins and outs of textile printing.
We finish up our three-part series on textiles with a case study on UFabrik user KD Kanopy from North Washington, CO.
Jul23, Digital Output
