UNDER THE HOOD / JETRIX LXIR320 23 April / May 2023 - Issue 246 email: news@signlink.co.uk Following the unification in Germany, there was mountains of work to do, not only to bring two countries together that had diverged in direction for 45 years, but also to find a new identity for the unified Germany to which people could relate. This is not an easy task. Recent history obviously did not give too much inspiration and by reaching deeper into the past the idea to replace the Palast der Republik of the DDR with a reconstruction of the old Berliner Schloss (Berlin Palace) that stood in the same site up until its destruction in 1950 took hold. The old Schloss was built on an island in Berlin which is encircled by the river Spree at the opposite end of Unter den Linden of that of the Brandenburger Tor. The problem was that due to being severely damaged in World War II and then completely removed in 1950, few people had a memory of what it looked like in its grandiose past. The solution, whilst reconstruction took place, was a massive printed drape of the old Schloss which meant that during the seven years of reconstruction work, the building could be ‘seen’ in its completed form by Berliners, as it slowly rose from the ground. When the drape was removed in 2020, the building that stood behind appeared to be an identical stone replacement of the drape and you had the feeling it had been there for years. A great idea, but the first problem the printer faced was how do you produce so much printed material in such detail that it will pass as a real building? InkTec has the answer Whilst the manufacturer was not directly involved in this particular trompe l’oeil , InkTec has the answer should an opportunity arise again. The answer being its recently released extra-wide-width roll-to-roll digital LED-UV printer – the JETRIX LXiR320. This printer is the latest from the South Korean manufacturer which is building a solid reputation for producing high-volume inkjet printers which can match the volume of print with quality. The LXiR320 has a maximum printing width of 3.2m and depending on printing quality, it can produce up to 110m2 per hour which is a significant amount of printed material – enough to cover a Schloss. At the heart of the machine and the key to the productivity level is the clever inclusion of up to 14 Konica Minolta KM1024i print heads. These are cutting-edge technology high-speed heads with four lines of 256 nozzles, in total 1,024. This gives each printhead the ability to place a dot with great accuracy onto Square metres of colour ▲ InkTec has produced a largeformat printer that can deliver highresolution output in the JETRIX LXiR320 South Korean manufacturer InkTec is making a big impact in a colourful way with its wide-format roll-to-roll digital LED-UV printer, the JETRIX LXiR320. Brian Sims takes a closer look under the hood the substrate which you could argue is a necessity on a product that is inspected close up. Even when you upscale to a project the size of the Berliner Schloss, this level of quality is important. This new generation of printhead has an independent drive system which means the drive frequency is three times greater than the previous KM1024 model. The head also has a new inbuilt heater which means it can provide a stable internal temperature so high viscosity inks can be used with no ill effect. To assist with the variable print quality required, the KM1024i heads can deploy ink droplets in eight different ink droplet sizes which ensures there is a greater richness of gradient of colour and high definition. Multi-volume Whilst the ink deployment is handled by the KM1024i heads, there is still the matter of handling the substrate and ensuring it is Printheads: Konica Minolta KM1024i Heads: 14 Resolution: Up to 2160 dpi Colours: CMYK, Lc Lm and white Maximum substrate width: 3.2m Productivity: 18 to 110 m2/hr Statistics ▼Konica Minolta KM1024i print heads inside the JETRIX LXiR320 produce up to 2160 dpi
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