Screen showed off its latest single pass continuous feed inkjet press, the TruePress Jet 560HDX, at the recent drupa show. As before, you’ll need two engines for double-sided printing. It was shown at drupa in line with a Hunkeler CS8 cutter and LS8 stacker unit.
The press is an evolution of the long-running 520 series but with a wider print width. It takes media from 304 to 560mm wide with a maximum print width almost up to the edge at 557.8mm. This means that it will print just about two US letter-sized (8.5 x 11ins) pages side by side in landscape format, which will be handy for the US market. It takes media in weights from 40 to 260gsm, which is about average. However, I see that there is some demand for heavier stocks up to 300gsm to broaden the range of applications. It’s worth noting that Canon’s ProStream 3000 can handle such weights, so can Ricoh’s VC80000, although it requires an optional kit to do so.
Screen has also returned to working with Kyocera for the printheads, having dallied with Ricoh Gen5 on previous presses that were developed with Ricoh. Consequently, the new model uses Kyocera’s KJ4B EX1200 RC, complete with nozzle-level recirculation. There are five heads per row. Frank van Opstal, the main press demonstrator for Screen Europe, says that customers will be able to change the heads themselves, noting: “The heads are fixed in their position so they fit directly in the right place. Then they can make a new uniformity test for that head.”
These are greyscale heads with Screen using 3,6 and 30pL drop sizes. The new heads will produce 100mpm at 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution, with the speed rising to 150mpm at 1200 x 600dpi resolution.
Screen has introduced a new SU ink for its 520HD mono inkjet press.The change in heads has also caused Screen to update the ink to a new SC2 ink. As before, this ink will print to offset coated and uncoated papers without requiring any further pretreatment. It’s a four-color inkset with the standard CMYK colors. The ink is heated up to its operating temperature and then circulated from the main tank to a full tank and around the ink system to maintain the temperature.
Screen has developed a completely new drying system, which it says is based on ‘carbon lamps’ but wouldn’t elaborate on what this means other than to say that the carbon system only dries the top of the paper. There’s no drum, or heater, or infrared, just the carbon lamps to evaporate the water content from the ink, coupled with a long paper path within the printer to maximize the paper’s exposure to this drying.
The degree of heat is based upon the paper profile and the amount of ink that was laid down, as well as the width of the paper in use so that there’s just enough heat for the job in hand. In theory, this should make for a more energy-efficient approach that will help with running costs. This new system should also allow for heavier ink laydown, presumably meaning that the inks have a higher pigment density than before, which chimes with Screen’s claim for more natural colors and a wider color gamut. This also suggests less actual water content within the ink, which always makes drying easier.
Van Opstal says that Screen has worked to speed up the overall productivity by improving the processes around the press, noting: “Everything is faster on this machine than the previous one.”
Thus the new press has a built-in spectrophotometer so that all the calibration can be done automatically without needing any further equipment. However, operators will still have to print a test pattern to do the density and ICC profiles. It will also make media profiles to ensure the optimum ink laydown for each job and substrate.
There’s also a scanner to check the print quality and make sure that everything has been printed as expected, including the variable data. The same system is also used to check for missing nozzles and van Opstal says that Screen will shortly implement an automatic compensation system that can map between nozzles to avoid any missing lines. The system tracks the web weave – the degree to which the moving paper meanders from side to side – to ensure that the images are printed in the right place.
The 560HDX can be seen as Screen’s answer to the Ricoh VC80000 since Ricoh has opted to switch from Screen to Miyakoshi as its manufacturing partner for continuous feed inkjet. That in turn means that Screen will have to reach out to more customers to make up for the loss of the Ricoh sales. This press is the start of a new 560-series platform that’s intended to give existing customers a reasonable upgrade path while also challenging for new applications. The wider width and improved productivity should help with this.
As always we will have to wait and see how the market reacts to this press. That said, van Opstal says that Screen is hoping to install one in the Netherlands within the next month or so. Meanwhile, Art and Negative, based in Maryland, will become the first US customer and plans to use the new press to replace its sheetfed offset press.
Separately, Screen also announced a new black ink for its existing 520HD mono press. This press uses the black ink from the SC+inkset, which can print to a wide variety of papers. But now Screen has developed a new SU ink specifically for uncoated papers in response to demand from the publishing market. It’s said to deliver sharper, higher density output of text with minimal blurring while also maintaining low ink consumption. Customers will be able to choose which ink to use in their presses, depending on the markets they are aiming for.
In addition, Screen finally announced the commercial launch of its Truepress Pac 520P press, which it has been promising for at least two years now, and which I’ve already covered. Essentially this is a single-engined version of the 520NX that’s been optimised for printing on paper-based packaging. Screen has had to redesign the drying system and develop a new NP ink that’s based on the SC ink. This extra development work appears to have caused the delay. Nonetheless, it’s a fairly unique solution and can run at 80mpm at 600 x 900 dpi.
You can find more details on Screen’s high speed inkjet presses from screeneurope.com.
First published on www.nessancleary.co.uk. Republished with permission
