World-leading ceramic tile printer manufacturers deliver big impact at Tecnargilla with the Xaar 1002 GS40 printhead
FirstXaar 1002 GS40-enabled printers debut at Tecnargilla this week giving 'Big Colour, Big Effects and Big Advantage'
Xaar, the ceramics industry's leading inkjet technology specialist, is delighted to confirm that the world's leading digital ceramic tile decoration printer manufacturers are launching Xaar 1002 GS40-enabled printers at Tecnargilla 2014 to deliver stunning new digital decoration capabilities to the global ceramics market.
Today EFI Cretaprint, Intesa-Sacmi, KERAJet, SiTi B&T and TecnoFerrari all unveil their Xaar 1002 GS40-enhanced printers at Tecnargilla 2014 (22nd-26th September, Rimini). In addition, Xaar's Chinese OEM partners – Hope Ceramics Machinery, Keda Clean Energy Co, Meijia Ceramics Equipment Co, and New King Time – are all developing the option of additional print bars with the Xaar 1002 GS40 and will also shortly introduce new models to the market.
This global Xaar 1002 GS40 roll-out by top printer manufacturers is a major endorsement of Xaar's latest printhead. "We worked closely with our OEM partners during the development of the Xaar 1002 GS40 to ensure it delivers the right performance to achieve stunning new digital tile effects," says Richard Barham, Sales and Marketing Director, Xaar. "Ceramic tile producers want the ability to digitally apply strong, heavy-pigment, colours and glazes, and to create textures in order to significantly expand the range of 'added-value' tile designs on offer. With the Xaar 1002 GS40 we set out to deliver on our theme of 'Big Colour, Big Effects, Big Advantage', and the rapid take-up of this new printhead by so many leading printer manufacturers is confirmation that we have delivered on that promise."
Cutting edge technology and benefits
With a range of selectable drop sizes from 40-160 picolitres (pL), the new Xaar 1002 GS40 printhead can lay down up to 40 g/m2 of a wide range of high pigment, large particle inks and fluids. This allows tile manufacturers to increase differentiation and add value by printing strong, intense and vibrant colours plus a variety of glaze effects.
For ultimate operational reliability the Xaar 1002 GS40 features Xaar's TF Technology™ and Hybrid Side Shooter™ architecture, which continuously recirculates the ink past the back of the nozzle during drop ejection. Critically this keeps large particles in suspension and ensures the printhead is continually primed, minimising the production interruptions that blocked nozzles can cause and ensuring fast start-up times and rapid recovery from mechanical shock.
The Xaar 1002 GS40 printhead has been designed to make it easy for Xaar OEMs to integrate the printhead into their existing digital tile decoration printers quickly and without modification. The electronics are also 100% backwards-compatible, enabling ease of integration and familiar end-user operation on the production line.
Tecnargilla debut
Xaar OEMs have the flexibility to combine different Xaar 1002 printhead variants, each with different drop sizes (GS6, GS12 and GS40) in one machine, to give their customers specific digital decoration capabilities and the ultimate flexibility. The majority of digital decoration printers on show at Tecnargilla this week are powered by the market-leading Xaar 1002.
Those promoting the GS40 variant include:
EFI Cretaprint (Hall C1, Booth 081): unveils the new Cretaprint P3 Plus digital printer with Xaar 1002 GS40 printheads for tile decoration and special finishing alongside the multipurpose Cretaprint C4 which can hold up to eight ceramic printing bars with Xaar 1002 GS12 printheads.
Intesa-Sacmi (Hall B1, Booth 001): shows its latest DHD708 printer which can incorporate up to eight colour bars with a combination of Xaar 1002 printheads – including the new GS40 variant – and features Intesa-Sacmi's innovative IDRA ink supply and recycling system.
Projecta Engineering, partner of SiTi B&T (Hall A3, Booth 001), shows the flexible Projecta Evolve, Evoplus and Evoseven digital decorating machines which can incorporate up to seven colour bars in a single compact compartment. In addition to the innovative Xaar 1002 GS6, GS12 and GS40 printheads, these printers feature an exclusive technology that changes the sequence of ink colours easily to boost decorative possibilities.
Gruppo TecnoFerrari. (Hall B2, Booth 001): shows its new VivaJet printers with printing widths of up to 1.4 m and the ability to accommodate up to eight colour bars. At Tecnargilla the new VivaJet S4 features Xaar 1002 GS40 print bars, alongside the Xaar 1002 GS12 in the new VivaJet-S8 to deliver the ultimate in decoration flexibility and operational performance.
On its own booth at Tecnargilla (Hall D1 Booth 010) Xaar shows the complete range of Xaar 1002 GS6, GS12 and GS40 printheads with a display of tiles showing the impressive effects and colours possible with the Xaar 1002 GS40. In addition, the Xaar 001 is on display alongside tiles showing some of the fantastic effects possible with this printhead.
To deliver enhanced levels of printhead control and production performance, the company launches the Xaar Print Manager (XPM) at the show. A high-performance solution designed to drive multiple printhead arrays, the XPM delivers increased image complexity, faster data speeds and a greater number of printheads per machine and is available in two configurations: the XPM12 (to support 12 printheads) and the XPM16 (16 printheads).
"The Xaar 1002 GS40 is generating a lot of excitement across the industry due to the new designs and effects tile manufacturers can achieve with it," says Richard Barham. "But we haven't stopped there. Today we are also very pleased to present the Xaar 001 printhead capable of jetting digital glazes and ultra-large particle inks and laying down up to 700 g/m2 on a tile. Our vision has been to ultimately digitalise the entire tile decoration production line and at Tecnargilla we are making the vision an exciting and extremely creative reality."
