Technical Product Presentation Application & Services Inkjet
: Features & Positioning Robust Engineered - Professional Hybrid UV Wide Format Printer Affordable capital investment Perfect fit for Sign Shops, Photo Labs and Mid Size Graphic Screen printers, capable of producing photorealistic output High quality poster output against 12 m²/h without varnishing Good solids and signs in 8 pass printing mode Varnish finishing possible full coverage or spot to increase the value of the printed output at half of the production speed Gloss varnish to enhance cosmetic appearance and print durability on Rigids as well as on Flexible (Sheet) substrates For safety, requires permanent operator attendance Applications Banners, Posters, Signage (Traffic, industrial info,...), Exhibit graphics, POP, Mock-ups, Backlit, Frontlit, Self adhesives (Labels,...),... Niche application: DVD print, wood, art reproductions, personalized object printing (mouse mats,...), Party gadgets (beer mats,...), Architectural and Interior decoration, Ceramics printing,... 2
: System specifications Working conditions Size of the engine 370 x 155 x 160cm Weight: 980kg Working space Single Rigid Table 5,5 x 5,5m Dual Rigid Table 5,5 x 8m 5,5 m 1.25m 1.25m 3
: System specifications Power specifications Single phase Voltage: 230V (± 10%) Max amp: 32A 50 60Hz Air Pressure specifications Dry and Oil-free compressed air Minimum air pressure of 6 bar (4-8 kgf/m²) with minimum flow of 8l/min Capacity shall be over 3 to 5 HP (horsepower) 3 HP Duty cycle of 100% 5 HP Duty cycle of 80% Preferable stand-alone compressor Minimum storage tank of 75 liter 4
: - System specifications Working conditions Cold to Standby: 10 minutes Standby to Ready to Print : 1,5 minutes Engine operating conditions For optimal Quality/Throughput Room temperature: 22 C Room humidity: 40-50% RH Allowed/preferred Temperature/Humidity latitude Room temperature: 18-26 C Room humidity: 35-70% RH Attention - Ideal media/ink operating condition: Room temperature: 22 C, ± 2 C / Room humidity: 50-55% RH 5
: - System specifications Connectivity Driven by stand alone Wasatch SoftRIP Agfa edition 2 RTL files, color and varnish, locally saved on PC RTL from RIP to engine by network using the Agfa RIP Wasatch SoftRIP configuration Safety Min.: Pentium 1GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD, WindowsXP or Vista Preferred Pentium 3 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM, 300GB HD, Windows XP or Vista 2 emergency stops 4 optical sensors to prevent unwanted contact with moving parts such as moving print shuttle Approvals CE, FCC & ROHS 6
: System specifications Printing head - Color 6 Konica-Minolta KM512MN Greyscale printing head, used as binary Shared Wall - 3 cycle Nr of Jets: 512-2 rows of 256 nozzles Nozzle spacing: 70,5 µm Resolution: 360 npi (2*180 npi) Dropvolume: 14 pl - Nozzle Diameter: 27µ 7
: System specifications Printing head - Varnish 2 Konica-Minolta KM512LN Binary head Shared Wall - 3 cycle Nr of Jets: 512-2 rows of 256 nozzles Nozzle spacing: 70,5 µm Resolution: 360 npi (2*180 npi) Dropvolume: 42 pl - Nozzle Diameter: 39µ UV curing 2 Iron-doped UV lamps With intensity setting Full or Half Automated change of position when printing varnish layer 8
: System specifications UV curing 2 Iron-doped UV lamps With intensity setting Full or Half Expected total life time of a UV lamp bulb: 1000h Total lifetime = bulb giving light (UV + visible + IR) After some time (aging) : emission power is degrading At some moment : the UV emission is lower than the required emission power for optimal curing of the ink By experience, the usefull life time with enough power to cure the ink, is approximately 500 hours when bulb is continuously ON. Every switch OFF/ON takes away approximately 15 minutes of the bulb life time. Practically this comes down to a usefull lifetime of around 3 months at a heavy use of the engine (40 hours a week). 9
: System setup UV Curable Ink Color - Agfa UV Curable :Anapurna M UV Ink Cyan / Magenta / Yellow / Black / Light Cyan / Light Magenta and Flushing Solution Varnisch Agfa : varnish Available in 1L bottle Shelf life for colors 18 months, varnish up to 24 months Supply and management Main Ink-tank: 1600ml Sub Ink-tank: 35ml Automatic refill system 10
Agfa s Quality Levels definition Production Mode Limited banding and small print artifacts are allowed Should not be visible at viewing distance of 5m Poster Limited banding and small print artifacts are allowed Should not be visible at a distance of 1.5m Vector-Sign No banding and print artefacts when viewed at a distance of 1m (low level of graininess allowed, predominantly applicable to colour solids) Photo/Vector-Sign Almost perfect: no banding, no print artifacts, no visible grain when viewed at a distance of less then 0,5m 11
: Image Quality vs. Productivity 12 Image quality strongly dependent on type of substrate and Image content Head gap setting Head gap = distance nozzle plate to substrate, automatically measured by mechanical switch The smaller the gap the sharper the print will be But... - Heat sensitive media will cause problems, head crashes - Uneven substrates will cause problems, head crashes Higher gap settings will prevent head crashes But... - Too high head gap will cause unwanted inkspray, results in unsharp prints Preferred Head gap setting on : - 1,3mm Extra recommend head gap settings for: High Quality prints on non-heat sensitive media - 1,1mm All heat sensitive media, whatever printmode used 1,5mm Production mode 1,5mm * Other Head gaps require other alignments
: Image Quality vs. Productivity Image quality strongly dependent on type of substrate and Image content Print shuttle speed Minimum: 0.48m/sec - Maximum: 0.84m/sec Adjustable in 10 steps, recommended optimum at step 7 = 0.72m/sec Printing direction, Uni- vs. Bi-Directional printing Production (=printing speed) obtained by printing Bi-Directional But... Sharp text will always obtained by printing in Uni-Directional Better results in 4pass uni then 8pass bi Heat sensitive media easier to be print in Uni-Directional The way back without printing gives the substrate the time to cool down Flat tints, vector images better to be print in Uni-Directional To avoid some unwanted Bi-Directional banding 13
: Image Quality vs. Productivity Image quality strongly dependent on type of substrate and Image content Line and Text Qualitiy Up to 0,1 point horizontal and vertical lines in all colors Up to 4 point positive and 6 point negative text Front to Back and Sheet to Sheet registration Within 1mm UV Power setting Half UV Power setting can be very helpful for Heat sensitive media But... Be aware that some of those heat sensitive media need enough UV power to assure an adequate ink adhesion Fluted display polypropylene better be printed with full UV Power, Uni-Directional printing mode with Head gap of 1,5mm 14
: Image Quality vs. Productivity Quality/Productivity color Production } 720*720 Q4 pass Poster Uni: 6m²/hour BiDirectional: 12m²/hour Vector Photo } 720*1440 Q8 pass Maximum speed (@ shuttle speed 10) 720*720 Q4 pass: 14m²/hour 720*1440 Q8 pass: 7m²/hour Dependent on type of substrate and Image content Uni: 4m²/hour BiDirectional: 6m²/hour 15
: Image Quality vs. Productivity Quality/Productivity when printing varnish Color printed first,using customer choosen quality setting Once color is printed, substrate automatically pulled back and position of UV lamphouses automatically changed Varnish always printed in 4pass bi-directional mode Production Poster Vector Photo } 720*720 } 720*1440 Q4 pass up to 6m²/hour Q8 pass up to 4m²/hour Dependent on type of substrate and Image content 16
: System setup Media Minimum printable substrate A3, printed as landscape 42 x 29,7cm Flexible media - Roll-to-roll All printable flexible media, except mesh without liner Maximum width: Media size: 160cm Printable size: 158cm Max printable sized reduced to 152cm when Borderless printing is used Minimum width: 42cm Media roll specifications: Max roll weight: 50kg Max roll diameter: 36cm Support for 3 core 17
: System setup Media Rigid Maximum width: Media size: 160cm Printable size: 158cm Max printable sized reduced to 152cm when Borderless printing is used Minimum width: 42cm Extra sub rollers to support small media Maximum length: Supported by 1 rigid roller table (default): 150cm Supported by 2 rigid roller tables (2 nd table as option): 250cm Minimum thickness: 1mm Maximum thickness: 45mm Maximum weight: 10kg/m² on printing table Dual board loading possible when using registration blocks 18
: System setup Media and print Media positioning: Automated Media positioning bar to align rigids Side guiders Media transport Compartmental (2) vacuum table with separate adjustable vacuum Belt driven Media transport 19
: System setup Media transport specifications Flexible media: Max skew of 5mm on 10m printing length Rigid media: Max skew of 2mm on 1,5m (Default - one rigid roller table) Max skew of 3mm on 2,5m (Optional, 2 rigid roller tables) Image squareness angle of 2mm on 1,6m Colour to colour registration: maximum 245µm total variance in both dimensions when measuring the registration between two colours over the full width of the belt 20
: System setup Media and print Remove dust from substrate Dust is one of the biggest issues when printing varnish Ideally, printing varnish should be done in a clean environment In all cases: Dust need to be removed for sure before printing color (on the unprinted substrate), this can be very easily done by using the clean roller system (roll and sticky paper) 21
: System setup Agfa Color Gamut Definition Goal, ISO 12647-5 Standard - Gamut class 2 color gamut for primary colors All Image configurations mapped to this ISO Standard When feasible, wide gamut Image configurations available 22
: Color Gamut on MetaMark MD5 ISO Q8P Q4P 23
: Agfa Image configurations Standard Agfa : Image configurations available on Agfa ftp site 24
: Ink Consumption Q4P On standard page (Agfa UV testpage): 7ml/m 2 On Full size solids, secondary color (Solid Blue): 12ml/m 2 Q8P Normal use On standard page (Agfa UV testpage): 8ml/m 2 On Full size solids, secondary color (Solid Blue): 17ml/m 2 Q8P Heavy usage (Wide Gamut Profile) On standard page (Agfa UV testpage): 9ml/m 2 On Full size solids, secondary color (Solid Blue): 22ml/m 2 Varnish 4F Full Page coverage: 30ml/m 2 25
Several maintenance cycles are defined by Agfa, please check the Manual. Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Six Monthly maintenance Checks on IQ and printing system Short, Weekend and Long stand still maintenance Preparations to prevent issues when restarting printing engine Most of the maintenance procedures can be done by operator 26 T: 01932 568555 T: +44 (0) 118 989 2929 W: www.bpgraphics.co.u W: www.cmyukdigital.com