Calne screen and digital printer Bex Design & Print is the first in the UK to install the Jetrix LX5 flatbed printer. It was introduced at Sign & Digital earlier this year as a machine with reduced energy consumption thanks to LED UV curing and to offer a better specification than the market leading Océ Arizona printers.
However, the first installation has been a printer that specialise in printing membrane switches and instrument panels as well as more conventional display graphics. Bex bills itself as a printer able to print on to almost anything. It is already a Jetrix customer using a Jetrix 2513 machine supplied through InkTec Europe.
Bex managing director Ian Board says: “We were holding out for the first LED printers from Jetrix as we have been so impressed with the reliability and adaptability of our current printer, so it was a no brainer when we heard that Jetrix was going to offer an LED UV printer.”
The flatbed printer has a solid tungsten coated table with Konica Minolta 1024 UV inkjet heads mounted in a print head that can raise to print objects up to 100mm thick. It is possible to lift the head to perform a manual check that there is sufficient clearance when print this type of work.
The unit also has the ability to pause in printing should a defect owing to a blocked nozzle appear. This can be wiped clean and printing will continue from the point of interruption without the loss of the part of the job that had already been printed, perhaps on an expensive substrate.
The unit currently offers four run modes, from draft to high quality at 1440x1440dpi. The next version of the software will extend this with intermediate resolutions to seven levels. The fastest mode delivers 60m2/hr performance, highest quality at 11m2/hr. Quality mode is at 21m2/hr.
It runs with a six-colour inkjet head that can be extended with white and vanish inks. This come in 1 litre containers and can be switched while the machine is running. Ink costs work out less than for rival machines, national sales head Ben Woodruff says. A roll to roll option can be added.
He says: “Our belief in the tried and tested Jetrix technology and the response to the rising market need for increasingly efficient printers meant that we had to deliver an LED UV printers that over its lifetime could offer a realistic and affordable total cost of ownership. And this is exactly what the LX5 achieves.”
A new user interface offers greater control to the operator including limited ability to edit a PDF file without re-Ripping it. Set up options for customers and media can be stored and the operator can run calibrations to keep the machine in top condition.
The addition of these features has helped the Korean machine win over customers, many switching from older Océ systems to Jetrix. The focus on converting this user base will continue as well as targeting commercial printers looking to strengthen their position in wide format printing with a first flatbed machine where the combination of ink, costs and versatility, Woodruff hopes, will provide a compelling argument.
A Jetrix printer operated by Genesis Imaging in Fulham was responsible for the 3 metre panels display highly detailed images of insects at a microsculptures exhibition for the Oxford Natural History Museum. The printer has reproduced in flawless detail the images, taken by photographer Levon Bliss, magnified thousands of times, to show how each bug has adapted to its lifestyle and environment – and showing the impact of nano sized pigmentation.
