Durst Debuts Flatbed and LED UV Roll Systems

Larry D’Amico

"Last year was a record for us in unit sales in North America,” proclaimed Larry D’Amico, director of large-format sales for Durst (Booth 1548), as he kicked off the company’s press conference yesterday. What’s more, he expects this year’s sales to surpass that record.

To keep that momentum going, Durst brought several new technologies to the 2018 SGIA Expo, including the first member of its newly launched P5 platform, the P5 250 HS flatbed printing system. Targeted towards high-volume industrial production, the P5 250 HS features printheads with MEMS nozzle plates powered by Durst proprietary data-path and electronics. This enables ultra-precise drop placement and industrial level reliability. As a result, the P5 250 HS boasts offset print quality with a drop size of 5 picoliters. The system uses 16 heads (6144 nozzles) per color and produces 1,200-dpi quality.

D’Amico detailed additional features of the P5 250 HS, including its improved media transport, high-res and volume productions modes, better stacker accuracy, a new ink cartridge system for faster ink changes and easy access to the printheads for maintenance.

To enhance its successful Rho 512R roll-to-roll wide-format production machine, Durst has now incorporated LED UV curing technology. The new LED ink developed by Durst benefits from higher adhesion and less odor.

“One of the advantages of LED is it produces less heat,” D’Amico said, though he added the Rho 512R was already designed not to produce a lot of heat. The LED version of the Rho 512R needs no warmup time and uses less power, he said.

Durst also added an option for carbonized axels on the Rho 512R, which are very rigid and provide better tension control.

Another premiere at SGIA is the new Durst Professional Services (DPS) GmbH, which will provide customers with consulting and integration services, software development, contract management and training. The highlight of the DPS presentation at the SGIA is the comprehensive MAPS (Multi Application Platform & Solutions) software suite, which depicts a complete process landscape and offers end-to-end solutions as well as individual submodules for integration into existing production environments.

Durst recently had two of its products honored as SGIA 2018 Products of the Year: The Durst Rhotex 325 dual-purpose fabric and soft-signage printer and the Delta WT 250 corrugated packaging and display printing solution.