Updated for 2012, the desktop, standard-sized version of the Signwriters pricing guides. The same information as in the mini Sign Contractors Pricing Guide, the desktop guide includes pricing for artwork, ...
Intelligent Interweaving boosts speed and quality.
By Chris Morrison, Kathi Morrison
Each year, Mutoh America seemingly introduces something new. The company has been at the digital-printing forefront, not only with some of the best-featured printers, but with prices in line with signmakers’ budgets. Well, Mutoh has – in our option – successfully tackled one of digital printing’s most vexing problems.
No, we’re not talking about one-cent-per-sq.-ft. ink pricing but, rather, the horrible artifact of banding. Banding manifests itself as visible, usually horizontal lines (sometimes vertical though) that stretch across the image. Usually clogged or dead nozzles are the culprit.
Paper movement and heavily saturated images can produce banding as well. If you don’t check your images frequently, you could face a costly redo.
Mutoh uniquely addressed this problem and, interestingly, has added printer speed. We’ll explain the new Intelligent Interweaving (I2 or I Squared) technology and the printers that utilize it.
Stop banding?
First, nothing truly eliminates potential banding. A damaged head or mismatched media can still produce banding, even on an I2 printer. That said, let’s see what Mutoh is doing differently.
A digital printer’s printheads apply ink in a series fashion during the print process. As the process progresses, colors build up – from light (the initial application) to full color, as they combine on the media. Generally, print machines apply the ink in a straight-line fashion, even if the RIP has programmed a stochastic or another error-diffusion pattern. If the profile is correct, the ink and media match and the media-advance system works properly, you get smooth, clean and band-free images. If any one thing falters, you have a problem.
Mutoh decided this problem could be attacked scientifically. We won’t bore you with the science; in fact, it’s magic to us anyway. In essence, Mutoh has chosen a “wavy” interlacing pattern (Fig. 1), as opposed to the traditional, horizontal pattern.
In addition, the company refined its precise, ink-drop sizes and ink volume. This sped up the print process. Banding occurs more frequently in bi-directional mode. So, to attain a printer’s best image quality, use a single-pass mode where the heads only print in one direction.
The I2 technology – unaffected by printing direction – runs in a bi-directional mode. So the net is a real win-win for the signmaker. You can now own a solvent-ink printer that can produce giclee-quality images with up to a 40% speed increase.
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