The reorganised manroland sheetfed has signed up as a licensee for Landa’s nanography process and will develop this in a new future press.
However, it has also developed a hybrid system that integrates more conventional inkjet heads with its offset presses for inline personalisation.
The company’s statement said: ‘at manroland sheetfed we know that many of these new solutions don’t meet print market requirements because either the print quality level is not yet reaching the offset standard, or the cost per copy is far above the cost for offset products. We believe the best solution is to combine the best of both worlds, adding inkjet variable printing capabilities to the offset quality and speed in full colour printing. We call it “hybrid printing” to benefit from the low cost of offset production and the high value of the digital print.
‘For this purpose, manroland developed a new application module including a patented suction cylinder and adapted the grippers to fit with the very close distance ( under1mm) between the inkjet heads and the substrate. This module can integrate single or multiple inkjet print heads that can be supplied by any manufacturer such as Atlantic Zeisser, tested so far.’
The print heads are fixed to a print bar covering the whole printable surface of the sheets for 600 dpi monochrome quality at 7000 sheets per hour or 300 dpi monochrome up to 14000 sph on any format. Using UV inks, the system works on any substrate with coated or uncoated and glossy or silk surface, eco-material or even plastics, as the application module is equipped with LED UV lamps, with emission corresponding to the print width and indexing corresponding to the print length.
This curing is provided by Eltosch/Hönle and works at low temperature. The development of the same print heads with water based inks is in progress and will qualify the use of this hybrid technology for food packaging, the company said.
Contact: www.manroland.com
