Inkjet & Digital Printing
Agfa, Interprint and Koenig & Bauer partner for digital décor printing
Thursday 30. September 2021 - The cooperation between the three parties has made it possible for Interprint, which already became an industry pioneer when it adopted inkjet printing on décor paper as a key strategy for growth, to expand its digital printing range with first-rate laminates.
Décor paper printing company Interprint expands its product range by deploying Agfas water-based pigmented inkjet ink set on two of its single-pass high-speed Koenig & Bauer RotaJET presses.
Interprint recently invested in a third RotaJET system, their second one of the latest generation. Both of these are now running on the same Agfa ink set. Because of the consistent and interchangeable prints on both lines, Interprint can roll out a wide variety of designs, from the early sampling phase right to the full production.
“We are excited to be able to show full flexibility in designs thanks to digital décor printing”, says Robert Bierfreund, Managing Director of Interprint GmbH. “The cooperation with Agfa and Koenig & Bauer during the start-up phase of the RotaJET lines has been very professional and resulted in a consistent print process that enables us to serve our customers with a huge freedom of design choices and superior print quality.”
Close cooperation
Over the past years, Agfa has invested heavily in the design and production of water-based inks to print on décor paper for the production of laminates (floorings and furniture panels). The pigmented inks deliver consistent prints with a wide color gamut and low metamerism (for wood designs). As they are tuned to the existing lamination processes, they allow for a straightforward replacement of gravure prints by digital prints.
With the RotaJET range, Koenig & Bauer has developed a top-class single-pass print system that meets the demands of the laminate industry. With various print widths and a linear print speed up to 135 m/min, it can handle production jobs that would have been printed in gravure before, as well as quickly ánd economically print very short consecutive runs.
Koenig & Bauer and Agfa cooperated closely to validate the performance of the Agfa ink set for use with the RotaJET print solution. “Koenig & Bauer extensively tested the Agfa ink set on the RotaJET print solution at its Customer Technology Centre in Würzburg”, says Christoph Müller, member of the management board of Koenig & Bauer. “The fine-tuning of ink to the print system was managed carefully by both parties. This has resulted in the RotaJET running in a very controlled manner, delivering excellent image quality and overall performance.”
“Agfa is committed to the laminate industry, with many years of R&D invested in inks for this industry, and has recently built a new dedicated ink production plant”, says Tom Cloots, Agfas Director Industrial Inkjet. “We have a long tradition of handling pigments and have built strong expertise on how to disperse them in a water-based ink carrier. Agfa technology enables the consistent production of inkjet inks with a very wide color gamut – a key element of the overall ink performance – yet a low ink consumption.”