Login| Become a member| Contact us

In today's wide format market, flatbed printers are all the rage, and for some applications, this is well-deserved. But the earliest wide-format printers were roll paper (or roll-to-roll) devices, and flatbeds did not exist as a product category until the early 2000s. The advent of the tablet frees time and materials from the "print and install" process; after all, why not print directly on the surface you want graphics?

In today's wide format market, flatbed printers are all the rage, and for some applications, this is well-deserved. But the earliest wide-format printers were roll paper (or roll-to-roll) devices, and flatbeds did not exist as a product category until the early 2000s. The advent of the tablet frees time and materials from the "print and install" process; after all, why not print directly on the surface you want graphics?

Despite the obvious advantages in some cases, flat panels are not a solution for all applications, not even all rigid applications. Taking into account the cost difference between roll paper and flatbed (at least for now), printing and then installing will still be more economical, unless you have enough numbers to justify your investment in flatbeds. At the same time, flat sheets may not be as versatile as roll paper; flat sheets tend to be mainly UV, while roll-fed paper has solvents, water-based, latex, dye sublimation, and UV. If you are printing textiles, vinyl graphics for vehicle graphics, etc., your best option may still be scrolling.

Nowadays, there are many options for roll-to-roll. We will introduce some recently launched roll-to-roll products and the current "most advanced technology". This is not meant to be close to the comprehensive list on the market, but to provide you with a "land layout". By the way, in order to keep this function at a reasonable length, we will not consider a "hybrid" device-a machine that can be used as both a roll-to-roll printer and a flatbed printer. That is another story.

Semantic description: Although it can be argued that “rollfed” and “roll-to-roll” refer to two different things (a rollfed printer can have a cutting mechanism, and it may not necessarily be re-rolled back to another roll), but because For all practical purposes, the two terms are synonyms and can be used interchangeably.

Some features to be aware of when purchasing a roll-to-roll device include:

The following are some recent product introductions that can be used as a starting point for viewing roll-to-roll devices.

The latest product of Agfa's Anapurna series of roll-to-roll and flatbed printers, the M3200i RTR, debuted in North America at the SGIA Expo in October. It is a six-color, 126-inch wide roll-to-roll UV printer designed for indoor and outdoor applications, and can print on flexible media such as fabric, canvas, and vinyl. It has a dual roll option, allowing users to print on two rolls of the same media type at the same time, each with a maximum width of 60 inches. It joins the growing series of Anapurna roll-to-roll and tablet devices.

The 130-inch Durst Rhotex HS is designed to print on various soft signage materials, such as banners, displays, wall decorations, umbrellas, flags, backgrounds and outdoor advertising. Rhotex HS has a speed of up to 4,300 square feet per hour (although your mileage may vary, I want to remind you), Rhotex HS also uses odorless and volatile organic compound (VOC)-free water-based dispersion inks. Rhotex HS and 126-inch Rhotex 322 join Durst's roll paper soft sign printer series.

EFI offers a variety of roll-to-roll, flatbed and mixing devices. Recently launched roll-to-roll include VUTEk GS5500LXr Pro, a 204-inch, 8-color and white printer designed for flexible substrates such as heavy textiles and mesh, and VUTEk GS3250LX Pro, a 126.5-inch, six-color roll The roll-to-roll printer is designed for high-profit, carefully viewed graphics.

Last summer, Epson introduced a new model of the SureColor T series of wide-format printers for the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) and technical printing markets. They use pigment-based inks, ranging in width from 24 inches to 44 inches, and are available in single-roller and dual-roller models. Epson's SureColor F7170 is a top dye sublimation printer designed specifically for textile printing. It is the flagship of SureColor F series sublimation printers and is favored by some fashion designers.

In the past few years, Fujifilm has focused on building its flat panel product portfolio, but the Fujifilm Sericol Uvistar series is the company’s series of UV roll-to-roll printers that can print 3,800 square feet per hour (your mileage may vary ) ), and for (but by no means limited to) POP and billboard applications. The five-meter-wide Uvistar model can print up to three rolls at the same time, or one very large roll. The latest product in this series is the ultra-large format Uvistar Pro-8W, which can print white ink.

HP's current most advanced printers include Latex printers, including three models of the Latex 300 printer series (54 and 64-inch models), as well as the top Latex 3000 printer, which is a highly versatile industrial-scale printer with a 126-inch wide and large-capacity printer. Latex 3000 provides double volume function. Latex (latex?) is very suitable for textile printing and various other applications. "3" marks the third generation of latex ink technology, but the series also includes small and medium batch models.

At the SGIA Expo in October last year, Mimaki's CJV300 series cutting machine made its debut in North America. These are eco-solvent ink-based machines (54-inch CJV300-130 and 64-inch CJV300-160), which can be configured to use up to 10 eco-solvent ink colors, including silver, which can be used to create high-value printed products such as labels, Decals, T-shirt transfer paper, window stickers, floor graphics, POP display, vehicle markings, packaging prototypes, etc. Other recently launched products include the JV150 series printers and CJV150 series cutting printers launched in early October. The JV150 series includes 54-inch JV150-130 and 64-inch JV150-160. Both models can use environmentally friendly solvents or dye sublimation inks for printing.

Mutoh's growing product portfolio includes ValueJet 2638, a 104-inch four-color eco-solvent printer that can print 1,168 square feet per hour (mileage may vary). It can be printed on coated and uncoated substrates and is designed for posters, banners, backlit displays, wayfinding signs, POP displays, floor graphics, vehicle graphics and decals. ValueJet 2638 joins Mutoh's roll-to-roll and mixing equipment, which has been captured by vehicle packaging in other applications.

Reprographic Technology Inc. (RTI)'s first wide-format printing product is a roll-to-roll Vortex 4200 42-inch inkjet printer. Its five Memjet print heads include 352,000 nozzles for drop-on-demand inkjet printing, enabling the machine to print 12 inches per second, or 9,168 square feet per hour. Vortex targets the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) market, as well as manufacturers of map printers and POS graphics.

At the SGIA Expo in October last year, Roland’s 64-inch Texart RT-640 dye sublimation printer made its debut in North America. The printer can print in four colors (CMYK) or eight colors (CMYK light cyan, light magenta, orange and purple)​ ​, the company said, the speed is as high as 351 square feet per hour. It is specially designed for textile printing, such as soft signs, banners, etc. Roland also recently launched a 64-inch VersaExpress RF-640 environmentally friendly solvent printer designed as a cheap supplement to the popular SOLJET XF-640. It uses a mirrored CMYKKYMC print head configuration that can print 521.9 square feet per hour. These newer devices are added to the company's Evergreen Pro XR-640 and XF-640 machines.

Roll-to-roll equipment can be placed comfortably next to the flatbed and is an important part of the digital product portfolio of wide-format printing suppliers.  

Richard Romano is the executive editor of WhatTheyThink | print news, wide format and signage. He curated the wide format section on WhatTheThink.com. He has written articles about the graphics communications industry for more than 25 years. He is the author or co-author of more than six printing technology and business books. His most recent book is "Beyond Paper: An Interactive Guide to Wide Format and Professional Printing."

Join the discussion, log in or become a member, it’s easy and free

Ink and automatic color switching on HP Indigo V12 digital press

Long-life consumables for HP Indigo V12 digital printing press

The power of HP Indigo One-Shot technology

User experience and design on HP Indigo V12 digital press

HP Indigo Optimizer: Plan efficient printing runs at the touch of a button

HP Indigo Technical Lecture Series

Member Center update membership, reset password, set email and notification preferences

WhatTheThink is the leading independent media organization in the global printing industry, providing print and digital products, including WhatTheThink.com, PrintingNews.com and WhatTheThink magazines, including print news and wide format and signage editions. Our mission is to provide information about today's printing and signage industry (including commercial, in-plant, mailing, finishing, signage, display, textile, industrial, finishing, labeling, packaging, marketing technology, software and workflow.

© 2021 Their thoughts. all rights reserved.