Durst | 77Durst’s 510mm inkjet press takes on flexoUV inkjet is now challenging fexography in terms of print quality and productivity. This was the main message from Durst’s recent open house event, as Andy Thomas-Emans reportsurst’s Expo Label 2022 event, held at the company’s impressive headquarters in Brixen, Italy, gave visitors a chance to look at the company’s latest digital Dprint technology.The star of the show was without doubt the Tau RSCi, which takes UV inkjet print productivity to a level where it matches fexo on a wide range of medium and even long run work.The RSCi press in the Brixen demo center is 510mm (20in) wide and was demonstrated printing at 100m/min in four colors. Press speed is 80m/min at full resolution and drops to 52m/min when printing white. A specialty white mode, achieving 80 percent opacity, is available at 40m/min. The RSCi press is confgurated with high productivity in mind, incorporating a jumbo winder, including roll lift, capable of taking rolls up to 1,106mm (43.5in) diameter. For maximum material fexibility the press is equipped with a chill roll as standard. Durst headquarters in Brixen, Italy “We have several customers conventional fexo presses with UV inkjet technology. ‘To give you which produce volume jobs on our some numbers, we have several customers which really produce volume jobs on our presses. In 2021 we had customers printing in presses. In 2021 we had customers 12 months more than 2 million sqm on a single press, or multiple customers with regularly daily productions between 20-25,000sqm, printing in 12 months more than so 60-75,000 linear meters a day.2 million sqm on a single press” ‘I do not say that UV inkjet is today a full substitution for fexo. Each technology has its space and advantages, but in the past two The RSCi at Brixen is confgured with two fexo stations years UV inkjet made huge steps forwards and provides customers positioned before and after the digital print engine. Typical uses for with more and more advantages.’the fexo stations would include frst down white and post-print varnish, although there are also interesting applications for mixing Entry-levelspot fexo and UV inkjet inks to extend the viable run length. Two more UV inkjet presses were on demonstration, representing The frst fexo unit could also be used to add a primer for more different steps on the Tau ladder.challenging materials, or on uncoated stocks where color matching The Tau 330 RSC E is Durst’s entry-level press, running at 52m/is critical. min, but with the ability to be feld upgraded to the 8-color Tau 330 The fexo units are ftted with slide in/out carriages to aid loading RSC running at 80m/min. and unloading of the ink pan, pick-up and anilox roller. Although entry-level, the press shares key features with the Other features of the press include a hardware secure remote most advanced of the Tau press series, including automated nozzle access facility and integrated inspection table. compensation based around an in-line camera. All the Tau machines ABG demonstrated a 530mm-wide Digicon fnishing line to print to a resolution of 1,200 x 1,200 DPI with 2 picoliter drop size match the 510mm web width of the Tau RSCi. The Digicon line using FujiFilm Dimatix Samba 3GL print heads. incorporated varnish, lamination and high speed semi-rotary Like its other stablemates, the RSC-E press allows either standard die-cutting and stripping. It can be confgured for either in-line or RSC UV inks or low migration (LM) inks to be used. near line operation. The next step up is the Tau 330 RSC, which runs at 80m/min 100Martin Leitner, product manager, Label & Flexible Packaging, (262ft/min) and includes the high opacity (80 percent) white mode, Durst Group, believes that systems like the 510mm Tau RSCi mark making the press particularly suitable for added value toiletries and 95a turning point for UV inkjet digital printing. ‘Digital is competing cosmetics applications. with fexo in terms of print quality – the Tau RSC print quality is The press runs the extended gamut (CMYK+OGV) RSC ink set, 75as good or even better than fexo. Some customers compare it but Durst’s tests demonstrate that up to 85 percent of the Pantone even with offset. Also, productivity-wise the presses are extremely range can be achieved with just CMYK to a delta of under 2 (the competitive with low set-up times combined with high printing quoted test was conducted on HermaPE label material). Using the speeds. Keep in mind that the minimum printing speed on our full CMYK+OGV ink set allows up to 95 percent of the Pantone 25presses is 40m/min, so the operator cannot go lower, which he is range to be hit.5often doing on other technologies.’ The RSC press at Brixen was demonstrated running low migration Leitner says Durst already sees multiple customers substituting inks for food and pharma applications with an integrated nitrogen 0Apr - Jun 2022Nazdar Creative Ink - A4 Ad V330 March 2022 14:34:55