Inkjet Sheetfed Show Stopper

Some pundits say it was the “inkjet drupa,” others “the software drupa.” After studying the show floor for seven days, it was clearly a “digital concept press” drupa. A concept press is not for sale but portends direction and capability of an emerging product definition or line from a vendor. Among my favorites was the dry-toner based Xerox ConceptColor 220, a twin iGen3 printing great color at 220 pages a minute—and the only one able to run a live job I submitted when I walked up to it.

HP showed that it is in the commercial print business for keeps, with a very first production-level concept press—a dreadnought 40 meters long, 36´´ wide thermal inkjet 4-color web. This is most exciting, since HP demonstrates how fast and wide it can scale Edgeline printheads (now renamed “Scalable Inkjet Technology”) to deliver over 4,000 entry-level transaction quality pages per minute. (See GAM May 2007 TechWatch, p.19.) HP showed the first press to serve notice to large web press manufacturers that digital printing is also in their backyard. The really exciting part is that HP just entered the printing industry.

Several others arrived at Dusseldorf, with Kodak demonstrating that nobody comes even close to its ability to print at production speeds of 15 to 20 meters a second with good type quality down to keeping the lower case letter e's counter space open. Its Stream color inkjet concept press (see GAM May 2008 TechWatch, p.20) delivered as expected by printing on coated paper at 1,000 ppm in good color approaching typical offset. Just as offset supplanted letterpress, digital is showing its high volume production days are soon to come.

Of all the concept presses, however, the Screen Truepress JetSX 4-color sheetfed aqueous, drop-on-demand inkjet press served notice that it was to be the leader by printing live at 1,600 20.8×29.1´´ coated sheets per hour. This has garnered Screen the focal point for the remainder of this article. While samples were not handed out, the quality was most respectable. The fact that Screen has more than a decade of making small-format, direct-imaging offset presses shows it knows what it is doing.

Another proof is in the fact that Screen's inkjet web Truepress Jet520 press has a growing number of placements and has improved in speed. Screen has leveraged the Epson print head from its inkjet web to the new SX press. If you look closely at the print head implementation, you see a great similarity. Screen positions its SX press to imprint preprinted offset shells. Expect it to step out to being a full-sheet digital press. A “walk-before-you-run” phased approach will make the press a success.

Screen demonstrates proven skills for transporting many types of materials, resulting in a well-designed paper feed and transport system on the SX press. Because the inkjet heads record best on a flat surface at this time, Screen passes flat sheets on a linear motor transport under each successive head.

Pigmented and dye inks are used. It was evident that heat is applied within the system to help remove water from the aqueous inks. We observed temperatures at times around 140° F. To drive it, Screen uses its own Equios RIP with Adobe Print Engine 2 at its heart and aligning with Screen's maturing production workflow software. Its high registration accuracy, wide media selection, mature design, ability to deliver and support the press along with good image quality places the SX today as the top inkjet sheetfed color digital press in our industry.

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