Epson is set to launch their SurePress L-4033A in Australia. The printer is claimed to be a highly versatile short run digital label press and the world’s first commercial label press to use Epson’s high performance MicroPiezo print head technology.
Designed for label converters taking the first steps into digital printing or expanding their existing digital printing capacity, large scale product manufacturers and commercial printers, the SurePress L-4033A fits easily into existing digital workflows and is offered with a range of third party pre-and post-press options that can be tailored to meet various needs and budgets.
“The label market is evolving rapidly due to the strength of today’s digital technologies and increased demand for customised shorter run label production. So we expect a strong response for SurePress because its attractive price vs performance balance will appeal to many companies wanting to produce high quality short run digital labels,” said Craig Heckenberg, Business Unit Manager for Epson Australia.
“Our customers are label converters, commercial printers and digital production centres that are moving into the short-run label segment for the first time or are looking to make their operations more efficient and profitable,” said Craig.
SurePress prints on a range of off-the-shelf substrates with no pre-coating required up to 12.6 mm thick and any width in the range 80 to 330 mm.
It leverages the accuracy and precision of Epson’s leading MicroPiezo® ink jet technology and newly-developed SurePress AQ six-colour, industrial-quality, water-based pigment ink that produces a remarkable range of colours for impressive, professional and consistent results.
With its long and sophisticated experience in commercial graphic and photographic printing, Epson developed a completely new type of ink along with innovations in Epson’s reliable MicroPiezo print head to ensure SurePress produces the best digital labels in the business.
SurePress AQ Ink consists of high quality pigment colour particles coated with a high-function resin that promotes quick drying and strong bonding to uncoated and coated paper and film substrates.
AQ Ink was developed specifically to improve image quality over analogue printed labels, maintain water fastness and resistance to rubbing, and is engineered to dry quickly to increase productivity.
The six colour aqueous pigment ink set - cyan, magenta, yellow, green, orange, black (and matte black) - provides an extremely wide colour gamut capable of reproducing specific corporate colours.
The Black inks switch automatically depending on the substrate type selected and are optimised for excellent print quality on film and coated and uncoated paper substrates.
SurePress also has two advanced printing technologies developed and refined by Epson: multi MicroPiezo print head array to give fast print speeds, and variable sized droplet printing.
The SurePress has 15 six-colour high performance and highly accurate print heads that produce printing speeds up to 5 metres/minute while producing smooth tonal gradations, remarkable colour quality, and sharp detail for easy bar code readability, plus crisp small type and line work.
And each print head uses Epson’s patented Variable-sized Droplet Technology to both ensure smooth tonal gradations and accurate colours for optimum image quality, and to help improve print speed over large single colour areas.
Epson set out to ensure that conversion to a digital label printing system is as easy as possible with minimal changes to existing substrate inventories and purchasing choices, and automated set up procedures to minimise make ready time.
Supporting a variety of label substrates can require adjustments to optimise the print mode for the substrate and the number of passes. With the SurePress, the best print mode and parameters are set automatically when the paper type is selected, so label converters and other printers can get optimal quality prints quickly and easily without worrying about troublesome and complex setup processes.
The key to high-speed high quality inkjet printing on uncoated paper substrates lies in SurePress’s dual drying system.
SurePress’s platen heater prevents agglutination by using heat and air to vaporise the moisture content in the first ink droplets and temporarily fuse them to the substrate before the next ink droplets arrive. An air drying system equipped with a second heater is used to vaporise the solvent components of the resin to ensure optimum ink adhesion and thus maximise resistance to rubbing.
The first SurePress in Australia was installed at Epson’s North Ryde head office last month and will be used for training, demonstrations, service/support activities, media profiling and certification.
Epson Australia
http://www.epson.com.au/microsite/surepress/
