These production printers compete with screenprinting presses
A growing trend is to bring high-speed, industrial-strength, digital-print machines to market that challenge screenprinting head-on, and, in many areas, these machines may make the screenprint process redundant. Of course, some unique screenprint applications use special inks, finishes and other time/cost consequences, and these require screenprinting’s analog methods, but, for the majority of work – POP, interior- and exterior-advertising applications and many display jobs – digital printing is becoming more enticing because of recent technological changes that will affect many new print machines’ speed, productivity and cost outcomes.
Wide-format inkjet users have benefited from such new, super-fast, flatbed machines as the Inca Onset and the Agfa M-Press, whose stunning production rate is married to a hefty pricetag and an ROI that requires long-term planning. Conversely, many businesses have reached a crossroads: They need the throughput speed of screenprint presses, but want the convenience of digital output.
The EFI VUTEk DS printer
The June 2008 Drupa tradeshow suggested future possibilities. There, many displays hinted of a fast, throughput alternative to screenprint methods (see “Narrow-gauge MEMs-based Printers Precede Broad-use Future,” ST, October 2008, page 108). One example was EFI VUTEk’s DS Series printer, shown in prototype form.
Vutek and other print-machine manufacturers know print producers want faster and tougher print solutions. They also want the capacity to produce a range of displays. So far, UV-curable ink has provided the ideal partner for such applications. Vutek's UV-cure, DS printer was designed to print approximately 100 boards an hour.
In August, I visited Vutek’s plant in Meredith, NH, to see the DS machine. This time, it was complete, with printheads (although EFI Vutek wouldn’t reveal any information about them). Interestingly, Vutek boasts a price position comfortably below the Inca Onset; it also says the DS Series offers a true alternative to screenprinting. Time will tell if that prediction is accurate.
Industry analysts, myself included, knew that EFI Vutek wouldn’t monopolize production of an alternative to a top-end, screen press. However, by promoting its new technology well in advance of shipping, it revealed a machine-engineering trend that’s now viable, in terms of high-speed throughput at a realistic price.
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