The high-speed UV inkjet press, AccurioJet 60000, is explained to be capable of producing 6000 sheets per hour along with duplex printing capabilities. The press produces high image quality and reproduction stability across a range of media, taking advantage of Konica Minolta’s inline sensors and a spectrophotometer to automatically monitor printing conditions.

Visitors to Konica Minolta at drupa will also be the first to see the AccurioPress C84hc, which uses high chroma toner. Free from the restrictions imposed by the colour gamut of ordinary toner, prints are said to be more consistent across bright and vivid colours.

The company will also introduce Myiro colour management tools for graphics arts applications. Developed by Konica Minolta’s Sensing Business Unit, these tools include spectrophotometers for colour management and high-speed auto scanning.

Konica will be joined on the stand by MGI (MGI Digital Printing Systems) showing its new JetSeal and inline die cutter, as well as launching an advanced version of its AccurioPro Colour Manager software suite.

Also joining Konica Minolta will be Industrial Inkjet (IIJ), a specialist in bespoke inkjet customisation, which exclusively uses Konica Minolta print heads in its products; and Plockmatic, a supplier of finishing options, as well as Acco and Fiery.

Konica Minolta will also be running fully automated production lines driven by artificial intelligence, and will show the use of robotics that includes the premiere of a Cobot arm.

Jon Hiscock, head of production and industrial print at Konica Minolta (UK), stated, ‘As a major player in digital production printing it is our mission to promote and support the shift from analogue to digital print. In doing so, we will build a world where high-value-added printed materials are created efficiently with minimal environmental impact.’

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The table can handle media up to 580 x 800mm (effective contour cutting area 480 x 660mm) and features an active tangential creasing wheel capable of exerting 2.5kg force, and a passive contour cutting tool. Described as ‘powerful and accurate’, its cutting and creasing applications include a range of products from sample and prototype packaging and protective cartons, to synthetic point-of-sale items and kiss-cut adhesive labels/stickers.

Like the larger B1+ FB1180-T launched in late 2023, the FB780-T offers direct (via ColorCut Pro software) or ‘held’ standalone modes. While the cutter can also read QR codes to access job instructions, the FB870-T also includes page edge detection, which allows for processing referenced from the rear of the sheet if there are no QR codes or other page marks printed.

Intec sales director Kerry Button stated, ‘The FB780-T is another important addition to the market leading ColorCut range. Again, we bring to the market a feature rich product at a very affordable price, allowing our customers to offer the highest quality service and a fast return on their investment.’

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What’s now called embellishment or special effects used to be a group of purely post-press operations. These included lamination, spot or flood varnishing and foiling (hot or cold). Other eye-catching things have always had to be done in or on the press – if you wanted metallic colours you had to use a special ink or print on a metallised substrate; the same applied for fluorescent or other special colours.

Digital print has blurred those boundaries, bringing a number of ways of achieving the same or ‘close enough’ effects, combined with the flexibility and minimal set-up requirements characteristic of digital print. These also split into in-press effects and subsequently-applied effects.

Before looking at these in detail, it’s also worth noting that a sustainability argument is emerging for digital embellishment as an alternative to more conventional processes. This comes from Scodix, which makes stand-alone ‘embellishment presses’ (distributed in the UK by Friedheim) that can apply a wide range of decorative effects to printed sheets, with full digital flexibility in each.

Scodix carried out a lifecycle assessment of its digital foiling options which found that compared to conventional hot stamp foiling, its version reduces CO2e (CO2 equivalent) by 85%, fossil fuel usage by nearly 85%, and water consumption by 80% per B1 sheet. The study, carried out by EcamRicert, and Mérieux NutriSciences Companies, compared the enhancement of a single B1 sheet through to 100,000 B1 sheets using Scodix foil (175g) versus traditional foiling methods.

That’s only one of the options that Scodix offers and there’s no indication given that any of the other supported techniques offer comparable advantages. However, like any other form of digital printing, it seems likely that overall wastage of materials and energy is likely to be lower simply through the ability to only print or finish the number required.

The main argument in favour of these types of effects though is that they add impact to printed products and therefore margin to your work. Some you can only do if you bought the right press, though they could also be a factor in choosing a new one. There’s an increasing number of toner presses that offer additional colours which may include clear ‘varnish’, white, fluorescent and metallic colours, though usually only one or sometimes two at a time.

Plus-one – or more

Machines that offer a fifth colour include Xerox’s iGen line and Ricoh’s Pro C7200, also sold by Heidelberg as the Versafire EV (and about to be replaced by the Pro C7500, though we’ve not seen any specification for this yet). Kodak’s Nexpress and Nexfinity models could do this too, with options over where in the laydown sequence the fifth colour went, though both are now discontinued. Moving up to six colours brings in the popular Xerox Iridesse, and the more recent Fujifilm Revoria, while most HP Indigos can handle up to seven colours, though of course click charges go up in proportion with all extra colour presses. Xerox also offers a conversion kit for two-pass printing on its entry-level PrimeLink C9065/C9070, which potentially allows the use of up to eight colours, albeit with a complete change of toner cartridges between passes.

The exact choice of extra colours varies by manufacturer, but in addition to white – for use on coloured or transparent substrates – and clear – used to create flood or spot varnish effects – fluorescent or ‘neon’ colours are offered, particularly pink and sometimes yellow. These can replace or be mixed with their standard CMYK equivalents to expand the colour gamut for more eye-catching effects. A few offer metallic toners too, which again can be printed solid or mixed to provide novel colours and finishes.

After the event

Post-press options are more about foiling, spot varnish and various creative lamination processes, often in combination. A good entry-level choice here is foil-over-toner, a two-pass method that uses ‘real’ foil in a laminator like Vivid’s Matrix models or those from Caslon, Foliant (sold via IFS), Komfi (from Friedheim) or Autobond. Similar options also come from GMP and Intec, now part of the Plockmatic group.

An entry-level option for foil-over-toner is Vivid’s Matrix, seen here at a trade show

In these, the initial colour print is first laminated with a clear film, then printed again with the foil pattern in black toner on top of the film, before a second pass through the laminator transfers the foil to the partially melted black toner. It’s a more labour-intensive process but it works with a very wide range of foil types and doesn’t require special consumables.

Then there are the fully ‘digital’ embellishment devices that offer spot UV and/or foiling in a single operation. This category includes devices like Duplo’s B2 DuSense 8000, which is offered in various configurations providing spot UV, digital foiling or both, including a pre-treatment option for expanding the types of print that can be handled. It’s also possible to build up textured ‘3D’ effects with multiple passes, which the smaller B3 DuSense 810 also supports. An alternative is the B3+ Konica Minolta AccurioShine 3600, which uses technology from MGI, in which Konica Minolta holds a significant stake. It too can produce ‘dimensional’ effects.

At the top end of the digital embellishment market are the ranges from Konica Minolta/MGI and Scodix. These are dedicated industrial production devices that offer UV varnish and foiling, with Scodix offering a particularly wide range of foils and finished effects, while MGI’s line goes up to B1 sheet size in the form of the print-and-embellish AlphaJet that was formally launched in October 2022. Kurz is another player at the industrial end of the scale, having bought Steinemann, whose inkjet varnish and foiling systems it was already marketing as Digital Metal. These include the sheet-fed B2 DM-Smartliner for 2D flat varnishing and foiling and the DM-Maxliner for raised and textured effects.

Whether you’re just ready to dip a toe into digital embellishment and cautious with the investment, or know that you’ve got a ready market for it but need to be sure it’s good enough and fast enough to meet your customers’ needs, there should be something to suit and help your work shine.

Preparing files for embellishment

All digital embellishment processes require ‘artwork’ to control where the effects are applied. Usually this means creating additional layers in the originating applications and/or print PDFs, though some vendors offer DFE-based tools to create embellishment guides or colour substitutions from standard PDFs on-the-fly.

Andrew Bailes-Collins of Ultimate Technographics, which makes imposition, nesting and ganging software, has written a handy guide to preparing generic PDFs that should process correctly through most embellishment vendors’ DFEs and thus avoid some of the common pitfalls that require manual reworking in the prepress studio.

Called PDF Creation for Digital Embellishment, it covers the use of spot colours, layers, knock-out and overprint and choice of correct versions of PDF for hand-off. It’s available free from Ultimate Technographics’ website.

The post Cause and effect appeared first on Digital Printer.

The flatbed cutter has a four-tool head that includes two passive contour/drag cut-and-crease tools and two active tangential tools with a new deep-cutting tangential blade and tangential crease wheel. It can cut and crease materials up to 3mm thick, suiting it for on-demand prototype pieces and light production runs.

The FB1180-T offers two working modes: direct – using Intec’s ColorCut Pro software running direct from a PC, or held (standalone operation) mode, in which jobs can be stored internally on the cutter or loaded from a USB stick, allowing the machine to be located anywhere in a production environment and run from its 7-in touchscreen.

While all Intec cutters offer automated job processing via reading a QR code and page marks printed on the sheet to be handled, the FB1180-T adds page edge detection. Page This enables processing of printed jobs from the rear of the sheet, producing accurate cutting and creasing ‘every time’.

Terri Winstanley, Intec marketing manager, said, ‘The FB1180-T is a very exciting leap forward for our digital cutter range. This model is the first of a series of cutters to offer a new four-tool head that includes tangential tools, for deeper cutting and creasing of thicker substrates. It also hosts the new high-powered controller and expanded graphics interface that will be seen on all our digital die-cutters.’

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The company has been a Canon customer since the 1990s and more recently installed two ImagePress C10000VP presses. Canon has continued to be the supplier of choice due to speed, output quality and eco-friendly certifications, according to the Group.

Keith Cooper, managing director at The Printroom Group commented, ‘We’re already seeing major business benefits from these new devices, including reduced costs and more efficient productivity. The efficient turnaround we’re now seeing has freed up the devices to take on more, thus ensuring we’re maximising the immense potential of these devices. We’ve seen jobs that might have previously taken two and a half hours now turnaround in half an hour. Those sums alone prove we’ve made the right investment.

‘Our long-standing partnership with Canon is testament to the relationship we have with the team we work with. We visited the Birmingham Customer Experience Centre on a number of occasions during the process to experience the devices for ourselves. The team allowed us to run print jobs and really push the devices to their limits while we were there, giving us peace of mind that we knew what we were going to be getting once it arrived on site. We truly believe this investment demonstrates our commitment to both growth and innovation in the print industry, and most importantly ensures we’re providing our customers with the best solutions possible.’

The deal also includes the integration of finishing equipment  from Duplo and Plockmatic. The 135ppm ImagePress V1350 boosts productivity and efficiency levels, leading to a 30% increase in print speed, with staff reporting they can complete tasks five times quicker than before.

Duncan Smith, country director, production at Canon UK & Ireland added, ‘We’re delighted to continue working with The Printroom Group in their drive to grow and evolve their business. As a valued customer in the production print space, we understand their business needs and are thrilled to see they’re getting the most out of our latest technology with all important faster turnaround times for customers, whilst delivering the highest quality prints that have set the benchmark for the industry.’

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The Print Show sees the debut of Morgana’s new SC6500 high-speed cutting and creasing device, which offers a ‘no wires’ working environment, and the FB1180-T cutting table for larger format work.

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The ColorCut SC6000 is a free-standing, on-demand digital sheet cutter and creaser, with no physical cutting dies or set-up costs. It is targeted at those seeking an affordable, high-capacity device, capable of unattended cutting.

John Brailsford Printers, a Rotherham shop-fronted business, reviewed several potential products. Company owner John Brailsford remarked, ‘We had looked at a variety of potential solutions, but nothing was quite suited to our needs. Either they were too expensive, were overly complex, or they still needed dies to be produced. The previous Intec machine, the SC5000 was close, but not quite large enough to handle the range of stock that we needed to process. We thought we were just going to have to stick to outsourcing any work that required die cutting.

A call from Ray Hillhouse at Morgana introduced the SC6000 to Brailsford, which overcame the limitations of the smaller model. The SC6000 is a hybrid automated cutter that blends flatbed and sheet-fed technologies, to give a maximum working area of 340 x 710mm, plus  a range of updated features.

Mr Brailsford added, ‘We introduced the SC6000 to our studio people initially. They were able to easily understand the ‘front-end’ of the machine. The output from the studio, including cutting requirements and run length, is encapsulated in a QR code, meaning that all the people at the post-press end of the factory need to concern themselves with is selecting the right stock and scanning the QR code printed on the job.

‘This machine is quite amazing. The results have been quite superb. We keep thinking up new ways of using it – with labels, for example, we are now running through our stock of pre-cut labels, and then we can simply use the SC6000 to kiss-cut the labels for us on plain adhesive-backed stock. That means any sized, or shaped, self-adhesive label is possible, and we don’t need to have the expense of holding any stock of various sized at all.’

Mr Brailsford said, ‘The feeder is a critical element for such a machine, and this one is amazing! It will feed virtually any stock, it seems, eliminating any static issues, and the potential for any doubles.’

Accordind to Morgana, particular attention was paid to the feeding system to ensure good performance levels for card, vinyl labels, or even laminated sheets. The SC6000’s auto feeder accepts up to 900 sheets, raising or lowering as required. 

‘We had been sending work such as short-run boxes, pocket folders, and various other cut-outs, to an external supplier. That kind of work has definitely been on the increase, so this really was the right time for us to bring such tasks in-house – it’s going to cut our outwork bill significantly, and therefore will pay for itself in no time,’ added Mr Brailsford.

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The first such in-person event the company had been able to hold for three years, this year’s get-together was held under the theme ‘Now and Next’ and featured a remote address by new Xerox CEO Steve Bandrowczak, who said that he had visited nine US cities and a nine European, Asian and  North American countries recently and confirmed that the company’s commitment to its markets was ‘as strong as it’ll ever be’. In addition to recapping the company’s and his personal achievements before joining Xerox, he explained the key driver for further development:

‘We need to add digital services and insight to the production environment; [our customers] need a holistic view of their production environment.’ He went onto promise that Xerox would become more customer-centric, to help customers’ digital transformations. 

A key component in this strategy is Care AR, a suite of augmented reality software capabilities launched via an eponymous new company established in autumn 2021. Care AR is intended to ‘reinvent the service experience’ and was headed up by Mr Bandrowczak prior to the untimely death of previous Xerox chairman and CEO John Visentin. It also incorporates and consolidates the previously separate DocuShare content management and XMPie cross-media creation and management businesses.

Mr Bandrowczak confirmed that Xerox would continue to invest in production printing but also in artificial intelligence (AI); this will also be brought to bear in the production environment by building a database of problems and fixes to underpin remote support capabilities, in conjunction with AR, which he sees as being part of a technological solution to the ‘great resignation’ loss of skills in the print industry, a trend that is still apparent, though slowing. He collectively described these technologies and products as ‘the future’, along with the metaverse which he saw as a ‘$5 billion opportunity’, though reiterating that what happened ‘there’ would also manifest in the physical world.

Take CareAR

In a panel discussion on production print issues, Xerox’s Tracey Koziol, senior vice president, Global Offerings chief product officer revealed more about how the CareAR technology is being used to provide one-to-one help in the form of CareAR Assist, enabling some 10% of problems to be solved on the first contact and around 30% without resorting to an engineer visit. Unsurprisingly, Xerox sees this as having ‘huge’ applications outside print. The other component of the CareAR offering, Instruct, is aimed at explaining routine operation of Xerox equipment, from scanning on MFP devices to toner changes on copiers or digital presses, combining a knowledge base with a ‘digital twin’ of the device in question, allowing components to be highlighted and/or animated via tablet, phone or AR spectacles/goggles to show how to perform the required task.

In addition to helping users perform specific tasks, CareAR Assist is being piloted for predictive maintenance based on machine data. This will enable it to pre-empt premature part failures, ensure that the correct items are on-board when an in-person maintenance call is necessary and advise on upgrades or patches across a customer’s entire Xerox fleet while on-site. Dashboards and data analytics capabilities are also expected to be part of the software expansion. 

Although there don’t appear to be any acquisitions planned along the lines of the abandoned takeover of HP, Ms Koziol told Digital Printer that ‘We have to be vigilant about where the opportunities are’ and pointed to the purchase of Leicester-based Go Inspire this summer, noting that the company has ‘a good platform and a good analytics side’ and that it is ‘important to understand where the strengths are’ before ‘taking [them] global’. She also wouldn’t rule any more ambitious acquisitions, noting that further industry consolidation is expected and saying that Xerox is ‘bold’.

On the print hardware side, development in Xerox inkjet printheads and inks are continuing, along with integration with feeding and finishing equipment from third parties such as Plockmatic. The relevant high-end technologies from the Baltoro inkjet and iGen toner press lines will also be brought ‘down’ to the Iridesse and Versant toner presses.

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The MPS XL Multi-Purpose Stacker provides a simple docking/ undocking system to ease the transportation of printed work, while the motorised Stacking Table lifts and manages heavy paper stacks. The unit attaches to the Xerox Production Ready Finisher Plus that is currently available for the Xerox Iridesse Versant 4100 and Versant 280 toner presses. Sheets fed into the MPS XL can easily be moved to another finishing device, for example the Morgana AutoCut Pro from Plockmatic. 

A particular benefit of the new stacker is claimed to be in long sheet applications: conventional stackers typically only handle a small number of ‘long’ SRA3+ sheets up to 1200mm. The MPS XL supports ‘true production’ quantities and allows for thicker paper stock up to 400gsm.

Commenting on behalf of Plockmatic, Jakob Ekeberg, vice president of product, said, ‘The market is evolving towards new digital applications that require longer sheets, so print room operators need a solution that will allow them to stack, handle, and transport them. The MPS XL makes printing and transporting long sheets as easy as standard size sheets. The product offers a unique combination of features – stacking, lifting, and transporting – in a single product that cannot be found elsewhere.’

The MPS XL unit is available through Xerox.

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The machine, featuring the same design attributes as the B2 FB775 launched in May 2022, enables users to add packaging, label and PoS production and prototyping to their operations. The new B3 cutter has advanced software, a cutting table that accommodates up to one SRA3  sheet, and offers digital cutting, creasing and perforation on a range of materials up to 600 microns thick.

The device also features no physical dies and vacuum suction media to hold down the media for small items. It also has a dual-tool head for same-time cutting and creasing with up to 1kg force.

Swedish finishing equipment manufacturer Plockmatic Group recently acquired Intec in an effort to expand its sales through the existing Intec and Morgana international dealer networks. Intec, founded by Ian Melville in 1989, continues to design and configure products at its Poole, Dorset, headquarters.

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