Mimaki announces Tx400-1800B, a large format textile inkjet printer with adhesive belt carrier system

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Mimaki Engineering recently announced that from 25 February 2010 onwards, it will ship its new direct-to-textile and dye sublimation inkjet printer, Tx400-1800B that features a newly developed adhesive belt carrier system. The new model Tx400-1800B stabilizes flexible materials that tend to stretch and contract during printing was announced as an additional version in the series following on from the Tx400-1800D that was launched last October.

Background
In the past textile large format printing implied long print runs and mostly rotary screen-printing machines. Now increasingly on-demand short run production is required that can be better accommodated by inkjet technology.

While screen-printing involves cumbersome production processes that cannot economically produce short runs, digital textile printing is designed to do exactly this. Inkjet printers feature an economic and cost-saving workflow and production process. It only requires the exact amount of ink that is needed for the application, decreases water usage and therefore lowers significantly the environmental footprint for production of short run textile printing in line with today’s needs.

Until now there was some reservation about productivity and running costs in digital textile printing, but the Tx400-1800B equipped with a newly developed Adhesive Belt Carrier System, changes this perception. This device stabilizes flexible materials that tend to stretch and contract during printing enabling higher printing speeds as well as ink cost reduction. Tx400-1800B is claimed to be one of the most environmentally friendly large format printers for digital textile printing.

Benefits
1. Adhesive Belt Carrier System
The Adhesive Belt Carrier System locks the fabric in the belt thus enabling conveying without applying tension. This way even media that stretch or contract can be printed. In addition, this belt carrier system is equipped with belt encoder that ensures evenly feeding of the fabric, without the issue of unevenly printed areas.

2. UISS for long unattended print runs
Tx400-1800B automatically switches ink supply from an empty cartridge to a full one of the same colour thanks to Mimaki’s UISS (Uninterrupted Ink Supply System) thus enabling long unattended print runs-even overnight.

3. Profitable printing with cost-saving inks
Significant cost-savings can be achieved by adopting Mimaki’s 2-liter bulk ink containers that come at a very competitive price and enable highly profitable digital textile prints.

4. Further Benefits
· 2.5 times faster print speeds:
Tx400-1800B enables print speeds of 25 sqm/h (600 x 600 dpi / 8 colour mode).
A newly designed powerful heater system allows for fast drying at high speeds.

· Ink drop volume adjustment:
According to the substrate and design used the ink drop volume can be adjusted in order to achieve excellent vivid and detailed images.

· Web tension control:
Automatic tension over the whole width of the print on light as well as heavy substrates is ensured through to the take-up device.

Different kinds of ink:
Reactive dye ink, acid dye ink and dye sublimation ink can be accommodated thus enlarging application possibilities.

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