UV-Cured Inkjet Flatbed? What is it really like to have a ... · Luscher JetPrint. The official brand name in Switzerland has an umlaut, so Lüscher. This should be transcribed in

11 Lüscher JetPrint UV-Cured Inkjet FlatbedSite-Visit Case Study

Site-Visit Case Study #2:What is it really like to have a Lüscher JetPrint

UV-Cured Inkjet Flatbed?

Dr. Nicholas Hellmuth

APRIL 2007

2

Introduction 1

The Basics 3

Structure of the Printer 4

Setup of the Printer: Practical Considerations 5

Technical Support and Warranty 6

Cleaning and Maintenance Needs 7

Safety and Health Concerns 7

Printhead Technology 8

Substrates 9

Applications 12

Ink 13

The UV Curing Lamps 14

Color Management Features 15

Productivity and Rol (Return on Investment) 15

General Considerations 16

SUMMARY: Image Quality Issues Relative to Applications 16

Conclusions 17

Copyright 2006 FLAAR

Contents

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Also, since this report is frequently updated, if you got your version from somewhere else, it may be an obsolete edition. FLAAR reports are being updated all year long, and our comment on that product may have been revised positively or negatively as we learned more about the product from end users. To obtain a legitimate copy, which you know is the complete report with nothing erased or changed, and hence a report with all the original description of pros and cons, please obtain your origi-nal and full report straight from www.FLAAR.org. Your only assurance that you have a complete and authentic evalua-tion which describes all aspects of the product under consideration, benefits as well as deficiencies, is to obtain these reports directly from FLAAR, via www.wide-for-mat-printers.NET.

Please Note

Image from the cover

Infiniti UV-Curable Flatbed PrinterSite-Visit Case Study

12 Lüscher JetPrint UV-Cured Inkjet FlatbedSite-Visit Case Study

Introduction

This is the second site-visit case study. Initially we visited a large successful print shop in Athens, Greece, and inspected the Lüscher UV flatbed there. An entire FLAAR Report has been issued on this machine.

Then we heard of a new installation of a Lüscher in St Louis. It was several months before it was possible to reach St Louis, but in September 2006 the owners of Design Image opened their doors to a site-visit case study.

1. Name of the printshop? Design Image. Originally this was a photo lab. They also have both a Durst Lambda and a Lightjet.

2. Why did you buy this brand instead of another? We wanted quality. We went to Print ’05, looked at things, and ordered the Lüscher.

Other printers were not fast enough. However you could buy two other brands for the price of a single Lüscher.

The NUR has known problems with roll-feeding on their flatbed model.

We talked to the guy in Sacramento who already had a Lüscher UV flatbed.

3. When was this printer installed? Installed in March 2006. Production started in April. This is similar to what we learned of other large UV printers. The first month was largely experimentation. When we inspected a large print shop that had just installed a ColorSpan, they say it began producing sellable output the first week and had been running every since. Another owner of a ColorSpan said he was printing 24 hours a day the first week. So seemingly the larger printers require a month to get up to par, whereas entry-level UV printers are productive after a few days.

Lüscher JetPrint UV-Cured Inkjet FlatbedSite-Visit Case Study 22

4. Knowing what you know now, what UV printer would you buy today? We would buy another Lüscher printer. It is like a football player coming out of a hamstring. They are bound to make a good run.

5. What other UV-printers are in the same city? The St. Louis area has at least

Two Zund-215 printers At least one Inca printer (Zane Williams) One Infiniti, a cheap Chinese UV printer with only one lamp.

A few months after our initial visit to St Louis in the early autumn, we returned in November to visit the installations of

A DuPont Cromaprint 22uv Vutek PressVu 200/600

We assume there are a few other UV printers such as some ColorSpans, but nowhere near the concentration of Minneapolis. There you can find

L&P Virtu One Gandinnovations Jeti flatbed Many ColorSpan UV printers One or more Vutek 200/600 printers A single shop with five Durst Rho UV printers

And probably several more that we don’t yet know about.

For the UV-cured printers in St Louis we have visited and done site-visit case studies of both Zund UV printers the Infiniti (visited

them twice) the DuPont the Vutek the Luscher

Luscher JetPrint

2 32 Lüscher JetPrint UV-Cured Inkjet FlatbedSite-Visit Case Study

6. Brand name, model? Luscher JetPrint. The official brand name in Switzerland has an umlaut, so Lüscher. This should be transcribed in English as Luescher, but is usually spelled just Luscher.

7. What other printers are the same or similar chassis? This is the first UV-curable inkjet flatbed printer that Lüscher has manufactured. This company makes screen printing equipment, not solvent inkjet printers.

8. Is this printer mature or still in alpha-stage or beta-stage? This printer is still in beta-stage and is still being improved. The owner in Greece also said he was fully aware that the printer was still being developed.

9. List price? List price is about $750,000 to $840,000. “Show special” was about $640,000. Considering this is still a beta-version that’s a hefty price, and does not include the upgrade to LED lights.

10. What accessories are extra charge? Are these same or similar accessories included with other printers at no extra cost?

The semiconductor emitters (a bulbless UV system) is $100,000.

11. What other equipment is needed to operate this printer? For example, does this printer include its own power line conditioner? Do you need an uninterruptible power supply (UPS)?

You need lots of electrical power.

The Basics

Luscher JetPrint Luscher Electrical Power


12. If a dedicated flatbed, do the edges (joins) of the sections of the table cause a noticeable imprint on thin material?

So far there is no noticeable imprint on thin material from the edges of each segment of the printer.

13. Is there a transfer belt (combo style) or a platen (hybrid style)? Since this is a dedicated flatbed there is no transfer belt and no platen; there is only the large flat table.

14. Is there a vacuum function? Yes, the vacuum works in most situations. But sometimes you have to tape down (by hand) certain material, such as vinyl.

15. How is rigid media fed? You manually set each piece of material on the bed. The piece itself never moves after this. The piece is stationary the entire time. It is the entire carriage which moves.

16. What kinds of pin registration are present? “The registration works fine.”

17. How is media held flat? Vacuum table? Pinch rollers?

There are no bars (since this is a dedicated flatbed); only a vacuum.

18. What moves: • the flatbed platform, • the printhead area, • only the material (fed by roller table; then gripped

and fed by the printhead area mechanism as on a regular printer; or both?

Structure of the Printer

Luscher JetPrint


19. What features have been added, or changed since the printer first appeared? This printer is still not entirely finished.

“There was a problem with the lamp system. But this has been fixed.”

A major change has been necessary in the entire UV lamp system. The current system uses LED lights to pin the ink. LED technology is very new and not yet mature. However in the future, more and more other brands of UV printers will use LED lights, just that it is not yet fully developed.

“But the LED lights are a $100,000 upgrade.” Ouch, the system comes with lamps with potential problems, but the upgrade costs as much as an entire mid-range UV printer.

Software is still being developed.

Setup of the printer: Practical Considerations

20. What is the delivery time, between the time I order the printer and it is delivered? Six months.

21. What are the electrical requirements of this printer? This means, will the building have to be rewired.

Yes, the building will probably have to be rewired. This machine needs a lot of electrical power.

22. What kind of exhaust system is either required, or if not required, what would common sense dictate? What system of ventilation is used? Is it adequate to clear the work area of gasses and fumes?

“The exhaust system that was necessary was ‘not inexpensive.’”

23. Realistically, how much surrounding and support space will the equipment need in addition to the machine’s own footprint.

You have to mark off on the floor, with yellow-and-black tape, there the carriage mount will move, so you don’t get crushed.


24. What sort of serious technical assistance is actually offered? Tech support, or lack thereof, in the US is a major issue. It is number of tech support personnel and the fact there were only four printers, so there is not yet much experience.

25. What are the hours of tech support? At noon St Louis time the offices in Switzerland are closed. At this time tech support is supposed to switch to the US distributor.

26. Can the manufacturer remotely diagnose the printer? Yes, there is remote diagnostics capability.

27. What is the native language of the tech support person? The Swiss technicians I have spoken with at trade shows are fully fluent in English.

28. Does the dealer or manufacturer provide service the service? The printer was installed by Swiss personnel but tech support is from the US distributor.

29. Do spare parts come from another country? If so, what is the wait time? Spare parts come from Switzerland. Yes, there is wait time, and yes this causes down time, and yes, the end-user feels this is an issue.

Technical Support and Warranty


32. Is the Operator Manual so poorly translated that you might make a mistake; a mistake that could be damaging to your health, or otherwise dangerous for your printshop?

The manuals and technical information sheets are capably translated in most cases. In some cases there is no translation at all. In a few instances everything is translated except for a few words that seem to have been forgotten.

33. How easy is it to obtain the MSDS of the ink? It is rare that the MSDS of the ink is easy to obtain. If the MSDS is an auto-download from the company website, this is how it should be. But most companies do not wish the end user to know which brand of ink is being used, so hiding the MSDS is not necessarily an attempt to hide the dangers, but may be to hide the source of the ink.

34. How do users know if they are allergic to the non-cured ink? As with all chemicals, allergic reactions can take many forms. But people we have spoken with indicate that if you spill non-cured UV ink on your skin, if you are sensitive, you will notice it quickly (and painfully). But even if you do not react immediately, you do not want to have UV ink or the flush for UV printheads on your skin.

Safety and Health Concerns

Cleaning and Maintenance Needs

30. How is head cleaning accomplished? Spray, vacuum, manual, other? The position to do the cleaning is a bit uncomfortable. “A small woman works at night and accomplishes the cleaning okay.

31. How long can the printer sit unused? How should a printer be

prepared for sitting unused for a long time?

This printer likes to be used. It is grumpy on Monday morning when it has not been used over the weekend.”


Printhead Technology

35. What is the firing frequency of the printheads (in KHz)? Can the firing frequency be varied by the end-user? What is the effect of changing the firing frequency of the heads?

“Yes, you can change the firing frequency, but it is unrealistic to change every parameter.”

36. How many passes can this printer achieve? We use standard number of passes except when banding issues come up.

37. Is printing bi-directional or uni-directional? What are the different results in speed; in quality?

“We use bi-directional printing if possible. But sometimes have to use uni-directional: it is dependent on the file.”

38. Which materials really ought to be printed at the uni-directional mode? “We believe it has to do more with the file than the material being printed on.”

39. Which materials can be printed fast at 2-pass or 4-pass modes? 3 passes is minimum; 6 passes is maximum.

40. What causes banding? “One cause of banding is a 4-color black that is low on the secondary color: that causes banding.”

41. What is true life expectancy of this print head? Is the printhead considered a consumable? The only acceptable answer is in liters of ink or some meaningful measurement that a normal printshop person can understand. “drops” is not a measurement that is very realistic for a person to comprehend.

“An entire printhead cluster went out. The reason is unknown, but potentially an electronic failure.”

42. How often can you expect head strikes? What causes them? Who will replace the printheads and at whose cost?

Head strikes are more likely on flexible media. “We are very careful to avoid head strikes.”


43. What materials can this printer print on perfectly?

We tend to print on• foam-cor• gatorboard• styrene

Mostly for point of sale advertisements.

44. What materials can this printer print on okay?

Dibond.

45. What materials can this printer print on sort of okay, but where you have to overcome problems?

We do not print on much Coroplast.

We do not print on hardly any MDO board.”

So clearly the clients of each print shop will differ considerably. A print shop in Minneapolis did primarily MDO board for construction sites. They have a Vutek 200 printer (see the FLAAR Report site-visit case study).

Another print shop in Minneapolis has a Gandinnovations Jeti flatbed, and they do lots of Coroplast.46. What materials can this printer not print on at all? Don’t try to print on materials that are too dusty, or have too much texture such as filaments.

47. Can you print on mirrors? Have not yet tried to print on mirrors.

48. What exotic or atypical materials can you print on? We have printed on

• fiberglass insulation, • 25 lb ceiling tiles• Plexiglas• Green glass

Substrates

Applications


49. Heat concerns: will the heat generated by the UV curing lamps cause adverse effects to some delicate forms of heat-sensitive media? Which materials might curl, distort or discolor from the heat?

Heat sensitive materials would include polyethylene, polypropylene, shrink-wrap, very thin and thermal sensitive papers, plastic coated cartons, PVC and aluminum foil (www.dotprint.com/fgen/prod1297.htm).

Oce lists several other common signage materials as sensitive to the heat of UV lamps. For these reasons we have a separate FLAAR Report on applications and materials.

50. What about build up of static electricity? What kind of materials cause this? Do some materials generate static electricity which cause the media to attract ink in areas not supposed to be printed on. How is it manifested?

You do need to be aware of how to prevent static electricity build up:• No carpets or rugs on the floor.• Use a humidifier during winter months to avoid dryness• Learn which media are susceptible to gathering a static charge.• Consider a printer that has specific anti-static features:

• Grounding• Static bar(s).

It is also worth thinking about whether a dedicated flatbed might have a different level and scope of problems with static build up than a roll-to-roll system.

Otherwise, the end-user states there is not a particular issue so far with static electricity.

51. What liquid cleaning material should you use to clean your materials? Which kind of cleaner, and which kind of materials per cleaner?

We use alcohol just on glass. Otherwise we use a sticky pad on a roller to clean materials.

52. How often is pre-treatment required, either receptor coating or other special surface treatment to the material to be printed?

What causes problems is anomalies on substrates that were not originally designed for being printed on by UV-curable inkjet printers.

53. Which substrates must be or ought to be prepared before printing by being corona treated?

From the comments it was clear that corona treatment is clearly necessary on some materials. Seemingly the manufacture does not provide information to the end users on this. In distinction, Vutek provides information and a work-around (see our FLAAR Reports site-visit case study).

http://www.dotprint.com/fgen/prod1297.htm


54. Which substrates ought to be laminated, top-coated, or otherwise post-treated? Realize that top-coating (a UV clearcoat) may be useful on some materials and even possibly required on some applications. This may require an additional machine, space, training, and further ventilation considerations. You are not protecting against the sun, you are protecting against the ink rubbing off slippery surfaces such as glass or marble.

Lamination can also serve to provide a glossy finish on a material that is naturally matte.

55. Although this printer “prints on almost all materials,” what is the adhesion rate with most materials? Does the ink easily scratch off certain materials?

Ink does not stick on floor tiles unless you prepare the tiles.

The people who are successfully printing on floor tiles have undertaken a lot of experimentation on how to prepare the tile surface before printing and how to varnish after printing.

The Luescher ink info PDF states the following:

The inks have been developed to have good adhesion to a wide range of substrates and especially many plastics including

• Vinyl• Calendared vinyl• ABS• Acrylic• Polycarbonate.

Adhesion to olefinic plastics such as polyethylene and polypropolene can be achieved after adequate surface treatment.

56. What problems in feeding exist, such as skew to one side? Skew will be something you have to be careful about with any printer that is not a dedicated flatbed. A dedicated flatbed is a printer where the media does not move; instead the media stays fixed to a vacuum table and the printhead (or the entire table) moves. But not all dedicated flatbeds can accept roll-to-roll materials.

Skew results because no one single feeding system can accommodate all kinds of surface characteristics or thicknesses of materials.

57. What about edge-to-edge printing (borderless)? Yes you can print edge to edge but you have to protect the bed from overspray.


58. Can you print on textiles or fabrics? How do you handle the ink that gets through the weave?

We have not yet tried textiles.

59. What other kinds of applications can you print? The web site for Design Image lists the following applications:

• Point-of-Purchase• Retail store signage• Banners• Floor graphics• Tradeshow displays• Entertainment displays• Casino graphics and signage• Outdoor signage• Interior design

60. What kinds of applications are not something you should try? What applications print mediocre, or poorly, and why?

The biggest problem with UV-cured inks on vehicle graphics is when the material has to stretch or conform to the shape of the vehicle, especially over rivets, decorative trim, or anything that is not flat. Most UV printers are not recommended for vehicle wrap unless they use a special ink made to be flexible. Also be careful by making sure that adhesion and cleanser-resistance is adequate.

Applications

Applications


61. Is there a special ink for flexible material, and another ink for rigid material? What other inksets are available? Is there any choice in inks?

Since the Luscher is a flatbed-only printer it does not really need to have a special ink for roll- to-roll material. This is not a printer you would tend to use for vehicle wrap anyway.

The original inks are “Crystal UDG.” This is a generic ink in the sense it intends to be one-kind fits-all substrates.

62. How many colors are used to produce output - four, six, or eight? 7 plus white. Actually Luscher offers light yellow as well, but most color specialists agree that light yellow is a waste. Light yellow does not really contribute enough to make it worth its presence.

Light black (in other words, gray) is unusually for a UV-cured inkjet palette.

63. Is white ink available? Yes, but white ink has issues, such as curing a layer as thick as the white ink must be. These issues are not yet resolved.

64. What is the shelf life? Does the white ink need special attention? (Titanium dioxide may settle out if it sits too long). What company provides the white ink?

9 months. No statement on white.

65. Is spot varnish available? Presently there is no spot varnish capability.

66. What company makes the inks? Choices include DuPont, Jetrion (Flint), Sericol, Sun, Triangle, KonicaMinolta, Tetenal and several others.

Printer manufacturers occasionally change their ink source, but the initial ink source for Luscher was SunJet.

67. What is the longevity outdoors? What about in the full sun in direct sunlight? The Luescher ink info sheet states a modest 1 to 2 year exposure. This is either less than most other UV inks, or more honest.

68. What about solvents such as cleaning solvents? Do they mar, dull, or wash away the ink or change the surface quality, especially on vehicle wrap?

Ink


• Ammonia (in Windex and comparable cleaning liquids)• Acetone• Cleaning alcohol• Gasoline• Soap and water with sponge• Soap and water with a broom (frequently used to clean vehicle wraps in Latin America, for

example)• Scotch-tape pull-off test

69. What is the true drying (curing) time of the inks used with this set of lamps? What factors influence the true (total) drying time?

The ink does not necessarily totally cure within seconds. Some colors, depending on how thick the ink is laid down, may cure “instantly.” But several factors may result in a cure that takes 24 hours, 48 hours, or weeks. If you set the print mode for “glossy” this reduces the lamp intensity. These prints will outgas for weeks. Since my PhD is not in chemistry I don’t know how much of this time the inks are still curing.

The UV Curing Lamps

70. What technology is used in curing lamps: microwave, continuous (mercury arc), or flash (pulsed Xenon)?

The UV lamps and curing are precisely one of the issues with the Luescher printer. These lamps are indeed the aspect that could still be considered still to be in beta-stage. Luscher is naturally working hard to alleviate the problems and has partnered with Phoseon Technology to try out pinning with semiconductor UV lighting.

Previously the first company that tried LED lighting for UV was Inca, with the Spyder 150. This product achieved a nice gloss, but was otherwise unsuccessful in the marketplace (in part due to its small size).

The downside of the Phoseon Technology solution is that it is new (a polite way of saying relatively untried) and costs $100,000. That’s almost as much as an entire Zund 215 printer, and more than a ColorSpan 72UVX.

As a result of the high cost, the Design Image photo lab in St Louis decided not to chose this semiconductor UV lighting option.


71. Do the lamps have water-based cooling?Yes, the lamps have chillers.

72. How long does the lamp last, in terms of hours of operation? How many hours are used up by each “strike” (by each time you turn the lamps on)?

Two lamps went bad (not from age) and had to be replaced.

73. What color management sensors or measuring tools are on-board? It would not be expected that most printers have any of their own color management tools. The ColorSpan 72UVR is the only UV-cured ink flatbed printer that we know of that offers color management features actually built inside the printer.

Color Management Features

Productivity and Rol (Return on Investment)

74. What productivity claims does the printer manufacturer made? Linear inches a minute is a more realistic measure of productivity than square feet because square foot measurements assume the bed is full. Most jobs do not necessarily include a full bed of material.

75. How much time does it take to set-up each new size and shape of rigid printing substrate?

This aspect is not listed in any spec sheet. You learn this only if you spend an entire day in the demo room, but doing the loading and printhead height calibration yourself. Then you get a further comparable reality check when you start production in your own print shop.

This factor will make or break your production goals. It makes little difference how fast a printer will print if you have to spend 7 frenzied minutes to align and set-up each new print job by hand.

So find one of these printers that is already installed, and learn from them what productivity obstacles exist and what real throughput is.


SUMMARY: Image Quality Issues Relative to Applications

77. Is text sharp or fuzzy? What is the smallest text that you can easily read? What about ink splatter, either where a dark color adjoins a lighter area, or with black text against a lighter background?

If the printer is running right, the text is sharp.

78. Can the system produce glossy finish? To what degree is surface glossiness an issue? Can you select glossy or matte or do you get what the system provides and that is all? If you get only one, or the other, which is it you get?

You can’t really achieve a glossy finish: you must laminate to get a glossy finish.

General Considerations

76. How many printers of this model are in use; in the USA; in the rest of the world? As of autumn 2006 there were four printers of this model in the US:

• Sacramento• Texas• St Louis• Minneapolis

Minneapolis has the highest concentration of UV-curable printers in the world: I know of an L&P Virtu, Gandinnovations Jeti flatbed, several ColorSpan UV printers, a Vutek 200/600, a single print shop has four or five Durst Rho UV printers, and now a Lüscher JetPrint.


ConclusionsPros The owners still feel they have made the right choice.

Downsides Local tech support is clearly a major issue, as is down-time waiting for spare parts. “Sometimes

they do not call back. Not always a person on the ground who is available either.” Software is complex. Most problems are software related. Printer is clearly still in beta-stage. The printer is not cheap to begin with, and the LED light upgrade costs $100,000.

When we were back in St Louis about six weeks later we heard that “the Luscher printer was down a week to 10 days.”

Comments by the Editor

Due to the size of the bed, it is not easy for a single person to load large sheets or for one person to effectively clean a large sheet or board. But the President of the print shop said that they have only one person to operate the printer.

Comments by the management:“What we have seen so far and that includes printing on white styrene, and white gator, and cheap white paper, all just for tests and training purposes looks outstanding, easily pleases us. So far there are no unpleasant surprises with the image quality or performance. We are getting the white ink system installed this week. The printer was ordered as a 7 color with white, but it already had an upgrade to the white, which shipped with the machine but was missing a couple of parts to make operational.”

Six months later the management felt “We are more involved in mechanics of this printer than we expected.”

The owners of this printshop are used to the quality of a Durst Lambda and a LightJet. So they commented, “UV printers do not produce continuous tone output.” However the IP&T, the Aellora

Most recently updated November 2006. First published September 2006.

Lüscher JetPrint UV-Cured Inkjet FlatbedSite-Visit Case Study 18Introduction to UV Curable

Inkjet Flatbed Printers

2005-2006 Updates on UV-Flatbed Printers

www.wide-format-printers.netwww.wide-format-printers.net

www.wide-format-printers.net

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UV-Cured Inkjet Flatbed? What is it really like to have a ... · Luscher JetPrint. The official brand name in Switzerland has an umlaut, so Lüscher. This should be transcribed in