This Year’s Models: Flatbed Printers Continue to Enable Unique Applications

Last year, in our round-up of the latest in flatbed wide-format printers, we discussed how recent introductions have, at least in part, been intended to help move work from analog technologies like offset to digital wide-format, especially for things like posters, POP/POS displays, and the like. In the past year, there’s been less of an emphasis on shifting work from one technology to another, and more of one on creating unique print applications that had never before been possible. Printing on atypical rigid substrates and three-dimensional objects has become the raison d’être for today’s flatbeds, and manufacturers’ product portfolios run the gamut from small table- or benchtop units designed to print on items like golf balls and smartphone cases, up to massive behemoths through which one can run large sheets of wood, corrugated board, and other such materials, even objects like footballs.

Flatbed units are also in the process of blurring the line between commercial and industrial printing. (Industrial printing is printing that is done as part of a manufacturing process, such as the control labels on the front of an appliance like a dishwasher, an automobile dashboard, the gradations and measurement units on syringes or other medical items, and other types of printing that differ from the usual “print for pay” applications.)

Most of the flatbed units on the market today use UV (ultraviolet) cured inks, it being the ink technology that has made such versatility possible. (Trivia question: what is the one substrate that UV inks—thus far—can’t print on? Teflon. It makes sense when you think about it….) The latest trend in UV inks is so-called cold-curing UV, or UV inks that cure under exposure to LED lamps rather than the traditional mercury vapor lamps. It’s not a new technology, but the costs of it are coming down. LEDs run much cooler than mercury vapor, making them more suitable for thin plastic substrates. LEDs are also said to be energy-efficient which means cost savings. EFI in particular has been a highly active proponent of LED UV and has announced its intention to completely support the technology in all its UV offerings.

We are also seeing a greater proliferation of hybrid units, flatbed printers that can also function as roll-to-roll devices for printing on flexible materials. Where once hybrids were perceived as “jacks of all trades, masters of none,” they have improved to the point where they are now respectedly seen as ways of giving shops the versatility to take on a wide variety of print projects. (Bear in mind, though, that the same UV inks may not be suitable for all materials given the respective dyne levels of ink and surface. Some surfaces may also require pre- or post-treatment to get UV ink to stick.)

Anyway, let’s look at some recent product introductions.

She Blinded Me With Scitex

Earlier this year at the International Sign Association (ISA) Sign Expo, HP launched several new flatbeds in its Scitex line. The 64-inch HP Scitex FB550 and 120-inch FB750 hit the sign and display sweet spots

HP Scitex 11000 Industrial Press is the follow-up to the HP Scitex 10000 platform launched two years ago, while the HP Scitex 15500 Corrugated Press is designed for short-run corrugated packaging and the like, useful for prototyping, related POP graphics, and personalized/customized/short-run corrugated applications.

HP has also recently announced the Scitex 17000, designed for short- and medium-run corrugated printing. It also features the HP Scitex Corrugated Grip, a media handling system designed to facilitate printing on warped corrugated boards.

For HP, the prevailing trend is toward more automation and improving productivity, which is not only a question of speed, but also of getting materials on and off press as quickly as possible and improving automation.

“The focus is really how to make digital production more productive, and we’re trying to push the break-even point so customers can move printing from analog to digital,” said Isaac Meged, Worldwide Marketing Manager for HP Scitex Industrial Presses. “This is one of the reasons we developed the 17000 press. It’s not only the printing speed, the production workflow is a very important element. Customers are asking for automation both on the prepress side as well as the finishing side.”

“We have also seen in general a trend toward lower-cost flatbed printers, especially entry level,” added Joan Pérez Pericot, Marketing Director for HP’s Large-Format Sign and Display Division. “Smaller customers want to jump into rigid, and the market is polarizing between the high-end presses doing more and more volume and the smaller devices that are doing very short runs.”

Mind Your Throat, Please

Roland DGA has long offered its tabletop VersaUV LEF-12 and LEF-20 UV flatbeds as well as the VersaUV LEJ-640 hybrid printer. Earlier this year, Roland launched its first big flatbed, the 64-inch VersaUV LEJ-640FT flatbed UV printer. This new flatbed has a “throat” (yes, that’s a real term) large enough that materials up to six inches thick can be fed through the printer. At the Sign Expo, visitors to the booth could witness the company running footballs through the printer.

“Print service providers are looking for ways to differentiate and expand their businesses—opportunities that flatbed printers certainly provide,” said Jay Roberts, Roland DGA’s Product Manager, UV printers. “Roland’s new VersaUV LEJ-640FT expands this capability even further with its unique six-inch printing clearance. The LEJ-640FT, along with smaller benchtop flatbeds such as Roland’s LEF series printers, open up a whole new world of printing possibilities for PSPs. Now, the question isn’t so much ‘What can you print on?’ but rather ‘What can’t you print on?’ We’re constantly amazed by the creativity of those using our technology to create stunning images on substrates and objects that couldn’t be printed on in the past.”

Joanie Loves Tchotchkes

Mimaki’s JFX Series UV LED flatbed printers (comprising the 51-inch JFX200 and the 82.7-inch JFX 500) are targeted for such applications as backlit displays, signs and posters, interior décor, and glass and metal decorative panels, to name but a few. Mimaki also has the smaller tabletop UJF Series UV LED printers for the tchotchke-printing market: smartphone covers, pens, lenticular panels, membrane switch panels, wine bottles, and many other novelty and specialty print objects.

“Customers are looking for feature-rich, high-quality versatility that enables them to replace labor- and waste-intensive processes and print direct-to-substrate, while adding value with higher margin applications such as personalized products and package prototyping,” said Ken VanHorn, Director, Marketing and Business Development, Mimaki USA.

Océ Can You See

The latest models in Canon Solutions America’s (CSA) Océ Arizona 6100 Series—launched last year—are the six-color (CMYKLcLm) Océ Arizona 6160 XTS and seven-color (CMYKLcLm+white) Océ Arizona 6170 XTS. Like many of its brethren, the Arizonas are capable of printing on a wide range of rigid media applications, multi-layer and double-sided prints, and large prints tiled over multiple boards. They also support edge-to-edge printing. These new printers are purpose-built to be board printers; they do not come with a roll option.

The new Arizona printers are taking CSA into a new space, said Randy Paar, Marketing Manager of Display Graphics for CSA. “We’ve been popular in the mid-volume area, and this takes us to the high end of the mid-volume, or the low end of the high-volume,” he said. “It’s taken us into new markets and new customers. They either have an Arizona or a similar product now and are growing their business and are looking for a more economical printer to add a little bit of capacity but also not tie up their high-volume press.”

At its fastest, the new machines can print a maximum of 33 boards an hour. “We had an interesting customer event where we handed out stopwatches to all the visitors,” said Paar. “We printed a number of boards, and had each of them time them. Sure enough, we were right on the money.”

LED Zeppelins

As I mentioned earlier in this story, EFI has been dedicating itself to LED curing technology for its UV lines, especially the company’s latest product, the EFI H1625 LED, a mid-level production printer that also functions as a flatbed or a rollfed.

“One of the biggest opportunities in rigid substrate/flatbed printing comes in the opportunity to transition analog work to digital with higher-volume equipment,” said Ken Hanulec, Vice President, Marketing, Inkjet Solutions, at EFI. “So, beyond developing imaging systems that approach offset quality, EFI has taken a progressive stance in the material handling needed for a real analog-to-digital transition in higher-volume print with semi- and full-automation feed and delivery systems for our VUTEk HS100 Pro hybrid inkjet press. Businesses that go into high-volume digital need the most ROI from automated materials handling. They are the companies coming from the screen or offset print space that want to replace some of their analog capacity to digital, and they can only do that if they are hitting maximum throughput on a digital production line.”

Last June marked the 10-year anniversary of EFI’s acquisition of VUTEk, and while tin or aluminum is the traditional 10th anniversary gift, for EFI it’s apparently equipment manufacturing companies. On July 1, as this story was being finalized, EFI announced that it had acquired Matan Digital Printers, an Israel-based manufacturer of grand-format (aka superwide) hybrid UV printers. Available in 3m and 5m widths, Matan’s flatbed and hybrid product portfolio is designed for indoor and outdoor applications. The Matan Barak 8QW was picked as a Wide Format Imaging magazine 2015 Product of the Year.

The Jig is Up

Mutoh has several options in the tabletop and wide-format proper categories. The 19-inch ValueJet 426UF UV LED tabletop printer is designed to print on a variety of materials, especially 3D objects, up to 2.75 inches thick. The 64-inch ValueJet 1626UH is a hybrid UV LED printer that comes in CMYK plus White and Varnish, while the 64-inch ValueJet 1617H hybrid uses, in lieu of UV, Mutoh’s Multi-Purpose ink, a kind of eco-solvent ink derived largely from plant-based materials and designed to be an environmentally friendly ink option.

“The market for flatbed and hybrid printing remains strong and with so many applications coming to the surface it isn’t surprising to see sales of these machines increase,” said David Conrad, Director of Marketing, for Mutoh America, Inc. “Additional application opportunities for printing on virtually any substrate up to almost three inches thick on our desktop version make the opportunity to purchase one of these machines very attractive to many markets including awards and engraving, trophy shops, industrial printers and specialty shops that offer a variety of items that can be personalized with digital printing. Look for thicker print capabilities, faster speeds, and more custom jig options to drive demand and open up even more unique applications for this technology.”

Rhos By Any Other Name

Durst offers a variety of flatbeds in its Rho series of UV machines. The most recent introduction was the Rho P10 250 and 250HS UV inkjet printers, which handle media up to 8 feet wide. The Rho P10 series is targeted at high-end applications such as backlit displays for windows or light boxes, particularly for luxury goods, indoor and outdoor signage, POP and POS displays, and small to medium-sized packaging.

“In addition to the obvious speed and productivity, flexibility and durability are what printers need,” said Christopher Guyett, sales and marketing coordinator for Durst Image Technology. “They need flexibility in terms of being able to quickly switch between materials and jobs to handle lead times, and they need robust design and manufacturing to produce on a 24/7 schedule. Customers and PSPs are looking to produce every possible application or product on their flatbeds, so they need the flexibility to handle complex client projects that come in with little notice, and require an immediate turnaround.” 

Inca Roads

It seems fitting to round out this roundup with the latest model from Inca Digital, the company whose Inca Eagle 44 kicked off the flatbed wide-format market way back in 2001. The Onset series debuted in 2007, and earlier this year Inca introduced the Onset R40LT, a 3.14m (123.6-inch) by 1.6m (63-inch) flatbed that is available in either four-, five, or six-color configurations. It can handle substrates up to two inches thick. Inca Digital wide-format printers are available through Fujifilm, its global distribution partner.

Be sure to check out these and other models at Graph Expo and at November’s SGIA Expo in Atlanta.

It seems fitting to round out this roundup with the latest model from Inca Digital, the company whose Inca Eagle 44 kicked off the flatbed wide-format market way back in 2001. The Onset series debuted in 2007, and earlier this year Inca introduced the Onset R40LT, a 3.14m (123.6-inch) by 1.6m (63-inch) flatbed that is available in either four-, five, or six-color configurations. It can handle substrates up to two inches thick. Inca Digital wide-format printers are available through Fujifilm, its global distribution partner.

The Return of the Jeti

Also at the ISA Sign Expo last spring, Agfa Graphics introduced the flatbed Jeti Mira and the hybrid Jeti Tauro. The former is a true 2.7-meter (105 inches) flatbed, while the latter is a 2.5-meter hybrid. These newest models complement Agfa’s extensive Anapurna line of flatbeds and hybrids.

“We find that some print service providers prefer dedicated flatbed printing systems while others enjoy the flexibility of a hybrid device, so we carry both technologies,” said Larry D’Amico, Vice-President Digital Imaging, Agfa Graphics. “We offer roll-to-roll options on many of our true flatbed equipment so an alternative is available with many of our printers. Currently, I see a mix of both dedicated and hybrid devices being purchased and I see this trend continuing. Everyone's application and product mix is different so it is important to understand what you primarily want to do with this equipment and select the technology that best fits this anticipated mix of work.”

Be sure to check out these and other models at Graph Expo in Chicago and at November’s SGIA Expo in Atlanta.