LFP - Large-Format-Printing

Mimaki JFX500-2131 Sets New Standard for Grand Format UV Flatbed Printing

Monday 10. September 2012 - Mimaki Engineering Co.,Ltd, a leading manufacturer of wide format inkjet printers, today announced the JFX-500-2131 grand format UV flatbed printer with LED curing and multiple ink options. This printer sets a new standard for grand format printing in terms of speed, flexibility, quality and environmental sustainability.

At printing speeds up to 60 square meters per hour, the Mimaki JFX500-2131 is 2.5 times faster than conventional JFX printers from Mimaki and brings new efficiency, quality and price/performance to the sign & graphics industry and wide format display marketplace. The JFX500-2131 is expected to be released September 2012.
Unique product details
The JFX500-2131 incorporates a brand-new printhead and advanced LED curing. Its advanced head movement control produces an exceptionally high resolution image quality that can produce legible fonts as small as 2 points. This innovative, user-friendly flatbed printer offers:
§ New piezo printhead design. Equipped with the new developed print head (6 print heads with 3 staggered configuration), the JFX500-2131 achieves print speeds of up to 60 m2/h with CMYK, and 45 m2/h for white ink printing. It includes 1,280 nozzles per head for a total of 7,680 nozzles.
§ Multiple ink options for the utmost in production flexibility. LUS-150 is a newly formulated CMYK LED curing ink with high speed curing properties. This ink offers improved curing times resulting in a less tactile sticky feeling and it is flexible up to 150%. This results in increased elasticity and bending performance on a wide variety of media and substrates without cracking or fracturing the cured ink during handling, cutting or other post-print processing. The JFX500-2131 also operates with LH-100 CMYK inks, a more rigid ink formulation for printing on hard surfaces requiring greater adhesion properties. In addition, the JFX500-2131 can utilize Mimaki’s LF-140 flexible ink available in six colours. All ink formulations also offer white ink.
§ LED curing. Mimaki’s new UV LED unit is optimized for curing efficiency, leaving no uncured ink. With LED UV curing, the JFX500-2131 delivers high speed UV printing with all of the advantages of LED technology, including long-life, energy savings, lower heat generation, the ability to use thinner, more cost-effective media and printing on heat-sensitive media that cannot be utilized with conventional UV curing systems.
§ Printing type as small as 2 points. This printer includes two units of Mimaki’s unique and highly-accurate linear scales controlled by an Intelligent Microstepping System (IMS) fine step accuracy and dot placement. This results in far less banding artifacts and the ability to print legible 2 point characters on most media. Variable drop functionality produces three different drop sizes simultaneously. The minimum drop size is an amazing 4 pico-liters that produces a smooth, natural gradation without granular appearance even in 4-colour mode. Mimaki’s proprietary head control technology delivers unrivalled high definition and high resolution prints.
§ Masking pattern for reduced banding. The Mimaki Advanced Pass System (MAPS) effectively reduces bandings with multiple printing passes, using a gradational mask pattern. When this option is selected, UV curing is performed more gradually which diminishes any appearance of banding.
§ Advanced handling of white ink. Mimaki Circulation Technology (MCT) ensures ultra-high performance in white ink printing. This standard option regularly circulates white ink, enabling stable output from machine startup by eliminating settling of white pigment in the ink lines. Additionally, MCT contributes to reduction of ink waste, thereby supporting environmentally and economically friendly applications. In addition, the Mimaki Degassing Module (MDM) eliminates the gasses or bubbles inside the ink reducing nozzle blockage and improving accuracy of ink dot placement. This module enables the printer to use undegassed bottled inks instead of conventional degassed ink packs, thereby reducing ink costs.
§ Environmental advantages. In addition to the environmental advantages already cited, UV curable printing minimizes VOCs. Also, the curing efficiency of the newly developed UV LED unit reduces power consumption while offering much longer life cycles and increased operability. All UV ink is supplied in 2L bottles, ecological and economical ink packaging that reduces amount of industrial waste as well as running costs.
§ Accurate, trouble-free media alignment. The Mimaki JFX500-2131 is equipped with pins and a scale that eliminates annoying alignment procedures generally required in flatbed printing. Simply fix the substrate to layout pins, check placement with the scale, and edit the design data or printer settings accordingly, resulting in direct UV printing without misalignment.
§ Standard user friendly RIP “RasterLink 6”- RasterLink6 features intuitive operation. Print and other conditions can easily be set with related settings consolidated into a single window. In addition, stored layouts can be reused at any time by using the “Register as Favorite” designation. Its colour replacement function enhances the ability to re-create printed images. Selected colours from the RasterLink 6 colour charts can easily be added into Adobe Illustrator swatches. Users can also simulate printing colours in Illustrator or Photoshop prior to actually printing, saving both time and money in the design and production process. Additionally, the RasterLink 6 RIP simplifies reverse printing. Simply select the order of over- and under-print with white in RasterLink6, and the most efficient path is automatically determined without further operator intervention.
With RasterLink 6, 3-layer printing of colour, white and colour can be simultaneously performed. The underlay printing of a base layer of white ink reproduces the natural beauty of process colours printed on transparent substrates with high precision and simultaneous printing of white and colours ensures that there is no multi-pass colour registration shift.
“We are extremely excited to be bringing the new Mimaki JFX500-2131 to market,” said Mike Horsten, Marketing Manager of Mimaki Europe. “This printer features significant innovation with a wide range of new features that ensures the utmost in productivity and competitive advantage while also shrinking the environmental footprint required for high quality sign, display graphics and other wide format printing.”