Examples of wallpaper printed digitally on IIJ’s new system
At Heimtextil 2017 representatives from IIJ and Konica Minolta Industrial Inkjet are showing a demo system that can digitally print wallpaper at full production speeds.
The result of an 18-month collaboration to produce a high speed solution to compete with conventional printing methods (on both productivity and cost-per-roll), the demo system can print a wide range of typical wallpaper media at linear speeds of up to 70 m/min.
‘The big demand from the wallpaper industry is for digital printing of wallpaper at full production speeds,’ said John Corrall, IIJ managing director. ‘Ink performance and cost, print width and speed are all now within reach.’
‘The main difficulty was in developing an ink that meets all of the requirements from the wallpaper industry, Mr Corrall explained. ‘It’s not just the appearance; the ink has to work on a very wide range of common wallpaper media and it has to meet standards for emissions and wash and scrub tests. It’s taken 18 months, but we are finally there!’
Heimtextil takes place in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, from 10-13 January 2017.
A video of the demo system can be seen here.
