12.4.2014
SA International (SAi), a leading provider of solutions for the professional signmaking, large format digital printing and CAD/CAM for CNC machining industries, has announced that its award-winning PixelBlaster print-to-finish production software has been bundled with the world’s largest digital flatbed printer, the Dip-Tech AR18000 digital ceramic in-glass printer.
Dip-Tech, the world’s leading provider of digital ceramic in-glass printing solutions, has set a new world record for printer size with the Dip-Tech AR18000 – an achievement officially recognized by Guinness World Records under the category of “largest digital flatbed printer”.
The Dip-Tech printer stands at an impressive 18m (59ft) in length – more than double the length of Dip-Tech’s next-longest printer – and can print a single pane of glass with a total area of up to 64m2 (688.89ft2). Typical applications of digital ceramic printing include color-printed architectural glass for exterior projects, as well interior usage and transportation glass.
Covering pre-flight to production, SAi’s PDF-based PixelBlaster is a genuine end-to-end software that is designed to reduce bottlenecks, streamline workflows and increase profitability for users. SAi and Dip-Tech already enjoy an established collaboration, which saw SAi develop the exclusive PixelBlaster Dip-Tech Edition software to specifically address certain unique characteristics and challenges of Dip-Tech’s in-glass printers.
As Dip-Tech’s technology uses naturally pigmented ink and therefore doesn’t use the CMYK colour set (instead using orange, red, blue, green, black and white, as well as any required special spot color), PixelBlaster is used to match the designer or architect’s CMYK files into language the Dip-Tech printers understand.
A complete, simple to use, in-glass printing solution for an efficient workflow
The SAi PixelBlaster Dip-Tech Edition software comprises a PixelBlaster RIP, color management and full colour workflow support and is bundled with all of Dip-Tech’s in-glass printers, which offer six-color plus spot color capability to the architectural and transportation glass market.
The special edition software was also developed to deliver the higher level of control needed for the opaque ceramic inks used on Dip-Tech in-glass printers. Printing on transparent glass and applying colors with varying levels of opacity demand a special level of control that SAi engineers incorporated into the software.
Another challenge for SAi was to develop a way of controlling the application of white ink in the way Dip-Tech needed it. White is important when it is used as the base colour onto which other colors are applied; it is a means of controlling opacity, but at the same time, designers need to be able to use a reliable white in their designs. The SAi PixelBlaster Dip-Tech Edition software enables different levels of white to be applied so that this control exists.
As well as fulfilling these specific requirements, the SAi PixelBlaster Dip-Tech Edition carries out the more standard jobs of SAi PixelBlaster software, including tiling, step-and-repeat, and color library functions.
“SAi congratulates Dip-Tech on the impressive achievement of being welcomed as a Guinness World Record title holder and we are proud that our PixelBlaster software should play such a pivotal role in contributing to the overall performance of this record-breaking printer,” says Sarit Tichon, Senior VP Worldwide Sales at SAi.
“Dip-Tech’s expertise in glass application, together with SAi’s industry-leading image processing knowledge has generated a powerful graphic platform for glass processors that symbolizes the strength of our ongoing collaboration,” adds Aliza Edry, Director of Applications at Dip-Tech.
“Both Dip-Tech and SAi R&D teams continue to work closely to meet the unique imaging and workflow needs of our customers and fulfill their objectives in the field of printed architectural glass applications,” Edry concludes.
