T here is a big swing from plastic packaging over to paper and more environmentally friendly packaging products. Couple that with the changes in modern equipment and clients are becoming more demanding as to what it is they want on their packaging. It is not unusual now for the smallest of bakers or café owners to want to have the name of the shop or outlet emblazoned all over the paper bag containing the donut or pastry you have just purchased. Depending on the market you are in, this can throw up a number of issues, most importantly if you are a café or a baker, how safe is the product you are about to wrap the donut in? So, this begs the question, how do you satisfy these two key points from your client: low volume but bespoke, food safe, printed products? One company that may be able to help with a solution is Axzyra, a growing company based in Cambridgeshire with very good connections with a manufacturing base in China. What the company can supply is a flatbed inkjet printer in two formats, water-based or UV inks, but with a number of USPs which put it in a very good place to tick the boxes discussed. Size Matters At the heart of the Axzyra AX-Ultra is a transport belt that can transport the product under a printhead which, in a single pass, will deploy four colours (CMYK) when printing water-based inks, or an extra channel of white when you have selected the UV model available. With this technology, you essentially have a moving flatbed printer. You could still be thinking “this seems just like any other flatbed inkjet printer”, but here is the twist. The transport belt is capable of producing a product 2.5 metres long and at a speed of 40m/min, which for a small machine, is unexpectedly quick. This means you can pass the product under the inkjet head at exceedingly good productivity rates, and whilst these machines are generally hand-fed due to the nature of the product, keeping up might be an issue so Axzyra can supply an automated feeder to add to the option list. The substrate or raw product is guided under the head by a number of guide strips and registered on a sensor so the printhead knows exactly where to start printing. Once it has passed under the head the printed product drops into a tray or whichever collation device you choose to use. This is one key difference the Axzyra AX-Ultra has over its competition in as much as typically this type of printer has each individual piece of substrate or product placed there prior to printing and then when printed, requires removal by hand. This machine, with the transport belt, allows for continuous operation. The inkjet head is positioned over the belt on a substantially engineered carriageway allowing the dual row of inkjet heads to deploy either water-based or UV inks anywhere on the moving belt. The clearance over the transfer belt is 80mm which makes the Axzyra AX-Ultra very capable of printing a wide range of different substrates and folded box products to mention a few. The head itself uses CMYK colours for the water-based inks and the same plus a fifth channel for white inks if you want to print in UV. The UV curing is completed with the now ubiquitous LED curing systems adding low power credentials to the Axzyra AX-Ultra. Regardless of the inks you choose to use, the ink is deployed The Axzyra AX-Ultra is a new inkjet printer with a small but very useful footprint and speed to keep up with much larger printers. Brian Sims finds out more SMALL AND SWIFT 47 www.printmonthly.co.uk May / June 2024 - Issue 348 UNDER THE HOOD / AXZYRA AX-ULTRA Maximum speed 40 m/min Colours CMYK + W (option) Inks Water-based (CMYK) UV LED cured (CMYK W) Max. substrate height 80mm Resolution 600 x 1,200dpi Statistics
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