UNDER THE HOOD / EPSON SC-R5000 33 Issue 254 - August / September 2024 email: news@signlink.co.uk There are a number of reasons we select one process over another; the options that are available to printers today are vast and at times it can be difficult to decide which is best for our needs. When we look into the technology available when striving to be greener – a big driver for a lot of our clients today – there is one emerging ink technology which is gaining ground quickly – resin ink printing. These inks are generally thought to be one of the most environmentally friendly options due to needing minimal drying, being water based, and providing no VOC emissions. The products produced can be used in situations where sensitive environments are a factor and used on coated or uncoated stocks. The technology behind resin-based inks is complex but as a brief overview, each ink droplet is a water-based fluid consisting of water, a wetting agent, and humectants (a moisturising substance) and within this fluid the pigment and resin are held in suspension. An optimizer is laid down and the wetting agent of the droplet disperses and the ink is applied for the image. With the resin undergoing the heat of the drying process, the droplet as a coloured dot is set and provides one of millions of dots making up the image. Whilst this technology is quite new, it is of no surprise that the Japanese printing giant Epson has brought to market the first resin printer to join its fleet. The SureColor SC-R5000 is a 64” printer that can print in up to six colours which as expected is the process colours CMYK along with light cyan and magenta. The Piezoelectric printhead uses the well-proven specially developed inks which are known as the UltraChrome RS range. The UltraChrome RS range of inks are also developed with the ability to print up to 98% of the PANTONE solid coated colours which greatly enhances the printer’s ability to produce the eye-catching effects for a wide range of products. As with a lot of the printers from Epson, the SC-R5000 comes with inkjet heads containing the now proven Epson Thin Film Piezo (TFP) technology. The technology contained in the head is deemed by Epson to be a market leader and is in a large number of its printers. In 2007 the manufacturer came to the market with this new concept TFP technology which is used across the complete range of printers and is now truly tried and tested. The Piezo element of a printhead is common to all printers using this technology and has to be produced in very thin sections. Epson chooses not to follow this path and instead uses a proprietary process to form a dense piezo crystal element that is just one micron thick on a silicon wafer. The heads are produced with what Epson calls Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) which means elements of the head are placed 84.7 microns apart on silicon or glass. With ink channels and nozzles produced by the MEMS process, Options in Resin The first printer from Epson that provides resin-based technology for environmentally sensitive materials, Brian Sims takes a closer look under the hood of the SC-R5000 Printheads PrecisionCore TFP Colours CMYK, Lc, Lm Media width (max) 163cm / 64” Resolution 1,200 x 2,400 dpi Thickness (max) 1mm Statistics
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