Page 24 - Print21 November-December 2022

Inkjet Printing
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thousands of identical prospectuses to potential students, printed and bound in one batch and containing everything a student might need. In the inkjet model, only the pages that are relevant to the student, relating to the course they are interested in, that campus and its facilities, are printed.
It’s a much smaller, more accessible, more convenient publication, that is printed and posted within hours of the student filling in the application form. Fewer pages are printed (tick for sustainability) and there is no mountain of unwanted issues to dispose of at the end of the period, and postage is less.
There are still too few of these customised publications, but this must change.
Inks now work with coated papers, helped by primers of some kind, and drying is less of an issue than previously.
Canon’s Prostream 1800 and Ricoh’s Pro VC70000, also the latest Screen TruepressJet 520 HD, have come up with solutions to the drying issue. The Prostream has a long flat web path with different drying zones, not unlike the oven on a heatset web offset press. Screen and Ricoh wind the web around different rollers to heat the paper gently but effectively. The Kodak Prosper positions dryers after each print array.
The HP Advantage 2200, the latest version of its thermal inkjet PageWide technology, follows the Canon approach with a paper path
Inkjet: Multiple applications
through up to three drying modules. The work that a printer handles will dictate how many of these modules are needed – a single module for book or transactional work, three modules for high saturation coverage on coated papers. Field upgrades are possible as the work mix changes. The latest Kodak Prosper 7000
will also offer different drying capacity according to the type of work printed. At its most productive for newspapers and some books, the press will run at 400m/min though at lower resolution. The high quality version still prints at 200m/min, faster than its piezo inkjet rivals and so offering greater throughput.
Kodak answers another question with the Ultrastream 520, which it positions as the offset replacement press. It is not yet commercially available but the prelaunch press
is kept busy in the Dayton factory, where Kodak’s inkjet operation
is based, producing sample after sample at the behest of prospects.
It boasts an output resolution of 1800dpi thanks to using the new Ultrastream continuous inkjet printhead, increasing the ability
to print finer details and smoother colour gradations, and will print on standard offset papers, Kodak says.
presses. The change from a charging model based on a click per page to one based on the volume of ink used makes inkjet attractive at lower levels of coverage.
Canon has easily had most success with its VarioPrint iX200 and iX300 models. The top model will print at 300ppm, almost three times as fast as Canon’s top rated toner press. Thanks to a ColourGrip coating, it will print on offset papers. This fits
a space for printers that want greater throughput from a digital print operation, without having to move to a larger format. It is also eating work that would otherwise be printed on litho presses.
Faster
The quality issue is less relevant to the Kyocera Taskalfa C15000, an SRA3 inkjet press which is surely the first of a line of Taskalfa’s exploiting Kyocera’s inkjet head expertise. Kyocera heads can deliver excellent 1200dpi quality for label printing, but not yet for commercial printing. The Taskalfa can print in colour, and on the right paper with the right colour management great samples are possible, but it is really about substituting for toner printing on letters, invoices and so on that need a bit of highlight colour using uncoated papers, rather than four colour process on coated or silks.
Its USP is cost and speed. It is faster than toner, running 300ppm, uses a low cost ink and draws little power as there is no need for additional drying.
On the horizon is the Ricoh Z75,
a B2 sheetfed inkjet press that has been due in the next six months for almost two years. Its arrival will pep up the B2 market, which has been shared between Fujifilm, and Konica Minolta with its AccurioJet KM-1 UV inkjet press.
While the KM-1 is certainly capable of offset replacement work, especially on thicker substrates, its real strength lies in ability to print on pretty much anything that can be fed into it, thanks to UV inks and curing. It is the press for the more creative entrepreneurial printer wanting to escape the commodity pricing trap with short run niche printing.
To date the appeal and take up
of all inkjet printing is very much about niches, another point of comparison with electric vehicles. We know that eventually electric vehicles will take over. And in print, what were once niches have a habit of becoming mainstream. 21
Sheetfed
inkjet
In terms of sheetfed printing, the market divides between those coming from a litho and commercial print background, where interest in B2 formats is higher. Then there are those that are substituting SRA3 inkjet printing for slower toner presses. This is a drop-in change in terms of
the workflow and finishing technology, so attractive for printers wanting more capacity and lower prices: one inkjet press will replace two toner
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“There are reasons to suggest the transition may be close. Quality has reached the right level for commercial implementation.”