T he label market over recent years has seen many changes with the move away from traditional packaging to more eco-sensitive forms and the need to comply with new legislative restrictions. New equipment is required not only to meet the client’s requirements for productivity but also to ensure the products produced both match the expectation of the end-user and are future-proofed to ensure the longevity of any capital equipment purchased and used in production. Added to these customer-driven requirements there is always then the age-old issue of trying to do things quicker at the same cost. Xeikon has brought to its already impressive range a new printer called the LX3000 LION which is the third iteration of the Cheetah press model. With an increased speed capacity from 30 metres to 42 metres per minute, the new model is a high-speed version of the CX300 Cheetah with some serious green add-ons. Xeikon claims that the new machine not only will bring increased productivity but through a series of changes to the basis of the previous model, quality can be assured at a higher rate with minimal input from the printer. Printing at higher speeds comes with additional constraints and also with the requirement to maintain quality which is easier done on narrower web widths. Therefore, Xeikon needed to make changes within the existing machines to increase the speed by 12 metres a minute without the loss of print quality. Xeikon looked at various areas of the machine including extra power where needed, additional heating units to preheat the substrate, and reconfigured the printheads to adapt to charging and de-charging at the additional speeds. Clearly a lot of engineering and design time has gone into improving the speed of the LX3000 LION model. As we are aware when the speed starts to increase the stability of the printing process can start to diminish quickly adding not only to excessive waste but also giving operators little time to intervene and correct the issues causing the problem. Cruise Control Engaged To ensure print at higher speed quality is maintained, Xeikon has designed a clever piece of software which it calls Cruise Control. This new clever press feature is an automated print calibration system which was an upgrade to the existing Quality Measurement Module also known as QMM. As with most closed-loop systems Cruise Control uses a spectrophotometer and a high-resolution camera to monitor both registration and colour. Xeikon uses a wedge image which is printed on the side of the substrate and the camera and spectrophotometer focus on this and if the spectrophotometry sees a Delta E shift under 2, it will make automatic adjustments bringing the copy into tolerance. If the Delta E shift is under 4 then the machine will sound a warning to tell the operator there is a problem which is more serious with the copy. If the variation is larger, then the machine will assume something more drastic has gone wrong with the print run and sound an alarm. Another interesting element of Cruise Control is that it gives an online update on print quality by printing on the side of the substrate a series of traffic lights to give a visual indication of print quality. Xeikon has launched an upgraded version of the famous CX300 Cheetah which is 40% quicker at 42 metres per min and heavily loaded with green credentials. Brian Sims finds out more HIGH SPEED AND GREEN 39 www.printmonthly.co.uk March / April 2024 - Issue 347 UNDER THE HOOD / XEIKON LX3000 LION Colours 5 Max speed 42 metres/min Resolution 1,200 x 1,200dpi Toner ECO toner Print width 322mm Statistics
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