The Mimaki stand at Visual Impact Melbourne 2015 was a hive of activity and we could see why! The company was launching two new pieces of equipment - the TS300P-1800, a dedicated transfer paper printer for the textile print industry and the CFL-605RT, a compact flatbed cutting plotter.
Brad Creighton, Mimaki's National Sales and Marketing Manager took us on a walk-through of the products.
(1) The TS300P-1800 is a dedicated sublimation transfer printer for the textile print industry which delivers cost-effective printing. Designed to print onto the thinnest of transfer paper, it includes a number of technologies that enable printing on thin transfer media, while maintaining extremely high quality output.
Though thin transfer papers are desirable because of more square footage per roll, they are also susceptible to wrinkling of the media surface due to ink absorption (otherwise known as cockling). This creates media transport problems and potential head strikes. The TS300P printer's new printhead provides a solution to this, ensuring accurate ink droplet placement with a high head gap, and enabling high quality printing on thin transfer paper.
A powerful vacuum feed platen holds media taut, while larger media press plates minimise cockling by reducing media uplift immediately after printing. The Auto Media Feeder applies calibrated tension to the media, maintaining stable and precise media feed and take-up.
In addition to this, the TS300P-1800 features high productivity with print speeds up to 115 square meters per hour in 4-colour mode and 65 square meters per hour in 6-color mode. It uses Mimaki-developed and manufactured Sb410 sublimation ink for reduced production costs, beautiful and vibrant print results and has a low smoke emission.
Its Waveform control technique allows the printhead to jet each ink colour at the appropriate jetting angle without losing excellent ink droplet circularity even at the high head gap. In addition, various ink droplet sizes are precisely placed from the minimum size 5pl to the maximum size 25pl. Small droplets create beautiful high-resolution printing, and large droplets are very useful for high-speed printing.
Mimaki's Advanced Pass System 4 (MAPS4) reduces banding often seen in conventional printing, producing sharper, smoother prints while its Nozzle Check Unit (NCI) detects nonfunctioning nozzles and automatically cleans them.
(2) The CFL-605RT 20-inch by 24-inch multifunction compact flatbed cutting plotter, which offers the ability to easily facilitate creation and delivery of high quality, cost-effective designs. Designed with Mimaki’s own technology, it supports on-demand production and provides a rapid-response solution for the production of items such as short-run or custom original goods, samples and package prototyping. Its key features include:
• Reciprocating cutting: for substrates up to 10 mm thick such as foam cushioning materials, sponge or cardboard.
• Tangential cutting: for media up to 2 mm thick such as synthetic leather, coated cardboard, reflective vinyl, rubber and fluted cardboard.
• Eccentric cutting: for media up to 1 mm thick such as coated packaging materials, thin polycarbonate sheets, paper and film.
• Creasing roller: for drawing a ruled line that results in precise folding. The creasing roller can be mounted alongside cutting blade for cutting and creasing without changing tools.
• Vacuum system: for securely holding materials in place. Lightweight, thin or porous materials can be further secured by an overlaid adsorption sheet that enhances vacuum by reducing airflow through the material.
The CFL-605RT also offers a combination of features to prevent lightweight or thin materials from moving or lifting during cutting. A compact built-in vacuum unit holds the material in place during reciprocate cutting while an absorption sheet put on top of the material to be cut enhances vacuum suction.
Mimaki Ausralia
www.mimakiaus.com.au
