Signs of the Times - January 2012 - (Page 14)

TECHNOLOGY UPDATE By Darek Johnson Darek Johnson is ST’s Senior Technology Editor/Analyst. Email him at darek.johnson@stmediagroup.com Effective Digital-Print Enhancements Speed, LED-lamp curing, integration software, advanced engineering and versatile ink blends flourish. Because the ISA Signhave become Expo and SGIA Expo tradeshows extravagantly large, no person or journal can truly cover them in detail. For that reason, I often like to return to the venue, in type anyway, to present additional information on interesting products. At the October SGIA Expo 2011 tradeshow, for example, five improvement characteristics, singular or grouped, accompanied most new, digital-print product announcements – higher speed; LED-based UV-cure lamps; integration software; refined engineering; and more sophisticated inks. In brief, the highlights are: Speed: Print speed usually comes through the addition of wider- or longer-swath printhead clusters, e.g., more printheads, but at a cost. Still, if you’re a production shop, speed equals money, so the ROI is assured. Most difficult in the speed arena is media handling, which is why rigid-media, movingplaten (flatbed) machines are popular speedsters. Roll media tends to gain wings – lift – at high speeds. Also, unless controlled, the highspeed unrolling of media may generate capacitance-caused static electricity that could create both switching and software madness. LED curing: The LED-lamped, UV-cure technology provides lamplife and heat-sensitive-media advantages because LEDs operate at lower temperatures and, typically, last much longer than mainstream UV-cure lamps. LEDs also allow printing on heat-sensitive media that may not survive the ambient heat produced during normal, UV-cure print processes. One caveat – LED-lamped machines may require proprietary inks. Integration software: Every highcost, high-end, production-machine manufacturer now offers various software programs that feature one or more excellent implements – 14 SIGNS OF THE TIMES / JANUARY 2012 processing, maintenance, proofing or machine-integration tools – for complex, multi-machine situations. Advanced engineering: All around, refined-engineering, machining and printhead developments are allowing sign and print-for-pay shops to produce finer-detail prints at higher speeds. Better chemistry: Ink chemists have developed more sophisticated blends that offer increased flexibility and adherence, and this allows further diverse applications. Similarly, they’ve broadened gamut perimeters, which allow more colorful – and coloraccurate – prints. Here’s some, but certainly not all, enhancement examples: Xante’s speed-o-matic Xanté (Mobile, AL) – Charlene Cheng at Illume Public Relations recently issued a press release that said Memjet (San Diego) had received Popular Science magazine’s 2011, “Best of What’s New” Award for Computing Innovation. The release named Memjet’s full-color, 8.77-in.wide, office-type printer and described how Memjet printers produce photoquality images at about one page per second. In ST’s SGIA Expo 2011 review (see ST, page 74, December 2011) digital-consultant Vince Cahill wrote of Xanté’s displayed, large-format, Memjet printer, the Xanté Excelagraphix 4200, “waterfall” inkjet printer. He said, “Xanté … hopes to begin shipping this single-pass print device sometime in 2012. In a critical view, the device output exhibited some jet outs at this and a previous show; however, its remarkable production speed suggests interesting future opportunities.” Xanté says its 42-in.-wide, CMYKK, Excelagraphix prints 3-billion, dyebased, aqueous, 1.2-pl ink drops per second (from 352,000 nozzles) at print speeds up to 12 in./sec. Vince’s mention of “jet outs” (inoperative ink nozzles) politely emphasizes a principal flaw in such single-pass printers: There’s no second-pass overprint to obscure any first-pass imperfections. This, however, isn’t an incurable failing, but a fix-it technology hasn’t yet been announced. Roland’s sure cure Roland DGA Corp. (Irvine, CA) – Roland’s ECO-UV S ink’s receipt of SGIA’s digital-inks (Category 101) Product of the Year deserves further highlighting because, Roland says, its VersaUV’s ECO-UV ink-curing system (for VersaUV LED wideformat inkjet devices) cures at all of its related machine’s print speeds, which is important because any UV-cure ink’s chief (possible) printprocess disadvantage is insufficient cure processing that affects the ink deposits’ deep-layer drying. UV-cure, poly-based inks only cure with UV light, and improperly processed ink won’t dry over time, as will aqueous and solvent-based inks. Another UV-cure ink dilemma is poor substrate adherence, which can cause ink to flake away from the application surface. Roland’s UV-cure inks easily surpass normal requirements. Even better, its new high-gamut, highgloss ECO-UV, formulated for extreme uses, sticks to an even wider range of coated and uncoated media and will easily stretch around curved surfaces. Roland’s new, ECO-UV S ink formulation stretches up to 220%, with no peeling and cracking, and is ideal for imaging shrink sleeves, wraps, PET bottles and vacuum-forming applications, the company says. ECO-UV S is offered in CMYK and white for the VersaUV LEJ-640 printer and LEC series printer/cutters.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signs of the Times - January 2012

Signs of the Times - January 2012
Contents
ST Update
Technology Update
Vinyl Apps
Strictly Commercial
Lighting Techniques
The Moving Message
Technology Review
Sign Museum News
New Products
A Global Village
Crane Truck Roundtable
Remembering the Struggle
Four Major Elements of the New ADA
ADA Opportunities and Challenges
The Value of Signs
Ramsay Sign Celebrates Centennial
Industry News
Advertising Index
Editorially Speaking

Signs of the Times - January 2012