Signs of the Times - December 2012 - 67

Infiniti and beyond Aeromatrix (Miami) Infiniti introduced its new, high-resolution, FINA Series printers – the Fina160A, a 64-in.-wide, roll-to-roll, 1,440-dpi, four-color, solvent-ink printer equipped with eight XaarJet 126/30pl printheads; the Fina250A, an 8-ft.-wide, 1,440-dpi, four-color, solvent-ink printer equipped with eight XaarJet 126/30pl printheads; the Fina320B, a 10-ft.-wide, roll-toroll, 1,440-dpi, four-color, solventink printer equipped with eight XaarJet 126/30pl printheads; the Fina320SW, a 10-ft.-wide, roll-toroll, 1,200-dpi, four-color, solventink printer equipped with 12 Spectra Sky Walker printheads; the Fina3360AS, a 10-ft.-wide, roll-toroll, 1,200-dpi, four-color solventink printer equipped with 16 Spectra SM128 printheads; and the Fina 3360 and 1612 UV-cure ink printers.

Mutoh ValueJet 2638

Graphtec’s high-intensity cutters Graphtec (Irvine, CA) displayed its FC8000 series high-performance cutting plotter for signmakers, graphic designers, the automotive aftermarket and other professionals. At speeds up to 58.5 in./sec. (with 20 to 600g selectable cutting force), it allows you to process diamond-grade, high-intensity reflective film, sandblast-resist rubber, automotive window and paint-protection films, self-adhesive

vinyl, Amberlith™ and Rubylith™ maskant and more. The FC8000 also features automatic, opticalsensor alignment, and its ARMS system automatically detects registration marks. Graphtec offers five model sizes that handle 30.3to 72-in.-wide media. Graphtec also presented its new, i-DesignR ® Pro graphic-design software for use with both the FC8000 and CE5000 cutter series. The Pro software allows you to

LED-lamped, UV-cure Inkjets at SGIA’s 2012 Expo
By Vince Cahill, VCE Solutions

At SGIA’scompanies offered LED2012 Expo (Las Vegas), numerous
lamped, UV-cure inkjet print systems. Most notable was Mimaki with its JFX500-2131 flatbed and UJV500160 roll-to-roll printer; EFI Jetrion with its 4900 series of single-pass label printers; plus EFI Vutek’s GS 3250LX. To this list, add the Spartanics/INX Digital Evolve with its Narrow Web NW149 label press; Direct Color Systems’ DirectJet 1014UV and 1024UV; DMPS Co., Ltd.’s DMP4200UV; Sun America’s Neo UV-cure, LED-lamped Evolution Compact 1.6 hybrid, flatbed, roll-to-roll inkjet; Pad Print Machinery of Vermont’s fJET-24; and Lawson’s ExpressJet ASI. In addition, at Label Expo, Heidelberg exhibited its Linoprint L, LED-lamped, UV-cure, label printer. LED-lamped, UV-cure print systems offer advantages over conventional mercury-bulb, UV-cure systems for some applications, but LED lamps also have limitations. The advantages? LED lamps generate significantly less print-surface heat, which allows you to print and cure temperature-sensitive materials. Also, LED lamps typically last 5-10 times longer than mercury-base lamps. And, they consume approximately one fourth the

power and don’t require warm up (you can turn them on and off without adversely impacting their lifespan), which isn’t true with conventional UV-cure lamps. Oppositely, LED-lamped, UV-cure systems don’t offer the UV wavelength range or the intensity and exposure power of conventional lamps. Mimaki and EFI’s LED-lamped, UV-cure, SGIAexhibited print machines grabbed my attention. Mimaki’s UJV 500-160 roll-to-roll and JFX500-2131 PIJ, flatbed printers feature Ricoh Gen5’s printhead with two electrical I-O connections. These facets endow Mimaki with unique printhead monitoring and control capabilities. Also at SGIA, EFI Jetrion demonstrated its 4900-series, LED-lamped, UV-cure label printers; and, EFI Vutek displayed its GS3250LX large-format, flatbed, roll-to-roll (hybrid) LED-lamped, UV-cure inkjet printer. All of EFI’s LED-lamped, UV-cure printers feature a nitrogen-blanket system that eliminates ink-surface tackiness that commonly occurs when oxygen reacts with an exposed-ink surface during the cure process. EFI’s device separates and filters most surface-area oxygen, and other elements, from the air and then blankets the under-lamp media surface with nitrogen. Nitrogen blanketing during the UV-cure process, in addition to eliminating ink-surface tackiness, significantly increases the polymerization process speed – as much as 17.5 times faster by one account. In an August 2005
SIGNS OF THE TIMES / DECEMBER 2012 / www.signweb.com 67

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Signs of the Times - December 2012

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