SGIA Show Highlights (digital viewpoint)
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The SGIA show that just closed in New Orleans brought out some interesting digital printing innovations to the show. While I don’t have room here for all of the highlights, I’ll recap what I thought was most interesting.
Agfa brought their Jeti 3020 Titan that boasts 10 levels of upgradeability. You start with a base machine having 16 Ricoh heads. From there the unit is field upgradeable with white, varnish, light colors, orange and green and more CMYK heads, to a massive 48 head configuration.
Durst Image Technology had their Rho 1000 outfitted with auto feeder, automatic unloading table and stacker. With a maximum output level of 200 4’x8’ boards per hour, this printer is a production workhorse. The unit is also capable of three quarter automation, manual loading and unloading and roll-to-roll configuration.
EFI debut the GS3250LX, a UV-curing LED printer providing customers with a more sustainable printing solution. This hybrid printer has the capability to print in 8 colors plus white, very nice.
FujiFilm and the Inca Onset S40, another high production, fast turnaround time dedicated flatbed printer. This is a 6-color printer with light cyan and magenta inks using standard UV curing lamp technology., wow Options of up to 28 heads per color for a possible total of 168 print heads.
Hp Scitex had their latest width of latex printer, the LX850. This is a 126” width, 6-color printer capable of printing at 1200×1200 dpi. This printer runs the new HP LX610 Latex Scitex Inks or HP 3M LX600 Specialty Latex inks.
Roland had a brand new VersaUV LEJ-640 hybrid that runs with LED UV curable inks. The ink set has cmyk, white and a clear coat. They have UV-S ink that has the capacity to stretch up to 220%.
Novus Imaging’s pioneering AquEpoxy ink is an entirely new and eco-friendly, aqueous based solution that is 100% environmentally sustainable. This is unusual ink that has two parts, much like a two-part epoxy, with a resin and catalyst component. The ink was not at the show proper, but a sample printed on glass seemed quite well adhered without primers. Watch for this in the future as more varied inks come to market.
Ilford had a “BioMedia” which won a Product of the Year award. ILFORD BioMedia is an environmentally friendly alternative for commercial display products. The products are biodegradable in accordance with ASTM standard D5511. They break down under anaerobic (no oxygen) landfill conditions thanks to a unique enzyme that accelerates the biodegradation process. This is an important step forward, especially since the vast majority of POP and POS printing goes to the landfill after an advertising campaign s finished.
Xantes Excelagraphix 4200 Wide Format Inkjet Print System came with a disruptive technology. This unit features the Memjet Waterfall Printhead Technology. Using aqueous inks the throughput was amazing at 12’ per second. You can see the Memjet technology portfolio at www.memjet.com. There were label sized Memjet printers, which were at the show, one was the Rapid Label printer, which was in the Narrow Format Zone. This unit received huge attention due to the production speed and the price point.
While I listed the major players that I saw, there were many, many other vendors that had products just as important to the imaging community, I just don’t have the space to list everything out here.
What did you find most interesting to you? Please drop us a comment
Jeff Burton, SGIA Staff
