Offset Printing
THIEME presents its current developments for industrial printing at drupa 2016
Friday 08. July 2016 - A close look at precision and automation
The highest screen-printing quality and maximum flexibility in digital printing: THIEME GmbH & Co. KG presented its innovative printing solutions for industrial applications at the drupa international trade fair which concluded on June 10th , 2016. These were met with great interest among professional visitors from the most diverse industrial sectors.
As a leading supplier of printing systems for industrial applications, Thieme was able to enjoy international interest: Experts from over 50 countries visited the Thieme booth to appraise such new products as a highly precise camera-controlled screen-printing system and an innovative digital-printing solutions.
Screen-printing: new options for the highest demands
“Even with an established technology such as screen printing, increasing requirements for precision and the degree of automation demand constant innovations”, says Oliver Beck, Head of Printing-System Sales. Thieme was able to offer an abundance of such innovations: The THIEME 3010 Vision screen-printing system (printing format 50 x 70 cm) exhibited at the fair booth was simultaneously equipped with several options for perfecting the printing quality, including a sophisticated blast-air transport system, which enables gentle material transport, an anti-drip and ionisation device and – as a particular highlight – two independent camera systems for the automatic screen frame and for automatic substrate (or material) alignment. The two systems are designed to guarantee consistently high register accuracy in automatic mode. “The system was met with tremendous interest among our visitors,” happily reports Beck.
An additional screen-printing innovation announced by Thieme at the drupa is the option of printing three-dimensional curved parts such as front and rear car windows, control panels or front covers. This option is of particular interest for the finishing of substrates which cannot be reshaped after printing.
Digital printing: System with many degrees of freedom
While screen printing focussed on innovations in details, the overall concept of the THIEME 500 D digital printing system, which was also exhibited, was innovative in itself. This is because the technical platform of the Thieme digital printing systems enable a largely individualised system configuration. “This enables us to adapt our machine development precisely to the customer process,” explains Oliver Beck. “And provides us with a great deal of latitude for innovative applications.” The THIEME 500 D is a good example of this: The machine can be operated with both, standard inks and with ink systems from independent manufacturers. The height-adjustable vacuum printing table allows to print both rigid and flexible materials with heights of up to 50 mm.
“Thieme generally stands out from the competition with its flexible approach to the topic of digital printing”, Beck emphasises. “We have thus turned the digital-printing market for industrial applications upside down. It was primarily the users seeking an entry into digital-printing technology which they can later expand on who were impressed by the opportunities of our system.”
Thieme accompanies the customer in all phases of process development to ensure that the printing machine is optimally suited to the application. It was the same with the system solution for the production of membrane keyboards, also presented at the fair booth, which first prints digitally and then do the finish up with the screen-printing process.
Thieme: Specialist for special applications
Thieme intentionally set up its fair booth in the special section of drupa for printed electronics (PEPSO) as Thieme particularly has a lot of experience in this special field of application. Sample applications include the attachment of heating conductors to car windows, the printing of membrane switches, the printing of fuel cells, and the application of electroluminescent layers in a special screen-printing process. As is already the case with the membrane keyboards, the latter digital and screen-printing application is combined in a single process.
“Whether screen printing, digital printing or both, our customers do not need to make any compromises”, says Oliver Beck, summarising Thieme’s unique position. “We optimally match every printing machine, including options and automation, to the customer application and smoothly integrate it into the production environment.” Interested professional visitors were able to experience the flexibility of the Thieme platform concept themselves on a video screen ? the “virtual machine configurator”.