The range of printers supplied by NUR Macroprinters is growing just as steadily as the wide format printing market. Whenever drupa rolls around, the industry always stops and holds its collective breath in anticipation of what new products will make their glittering debut, and this year, NUR Macroprinters has not disappointed, with new superwide and flatbed offerings to tease the imagination of printers already in or conidering a move into this growing market.
Fresco sequel
Building on the success of its forebearer, the NUR Fresco II is a new line of products from the NUR Fresco family of products. It is based entirely on the NUR Fresco renowned platform but adds, in addition to a new casing design, a variety of new features, which take the NUR Fresco products into the next level of productivity, versatility and quality.
This new four-colour print mode allows printing of outdoor graphics at a speed of 120sqm per hour in 3200 models and 102sqm per hour in 1800 models. To be used mainly for billboards, wall murals, outdoor banner, scaffolding covers etc, NUR says this mode significantly improves the machine’s productivity through boosting the printing speed by 20 per cent.
The Pause & Resume feature allows the operator the flexibility of intentionally pausing the print job if he likes to service the machine, leave the premises for a short period, evaluate the printed output or any other action which requires pause. Once resuming, the job it will continue from the pausing point. The new double-sided printing feature will allow a customer to easily print an image on both sides of the substrate in perfect registration between both sides. This feature is available for 3200 models only.
A new PrinTop version is introduced with the NUR Fresco II and features printed image preview, job progress bar to indicate the time past and time left for the job, new and improved calibration using a software wizard, and icon-based interface for improved ease of use.
The white-skip feature enables a printer to ignore the image white frame and spend printing time only on the actual image itself. White-skip could be implemented on the X-axis when the head carriage traverses only across areas, which contain a printed image, and/or on the Y-axis when the printer fast forwards the substrate to skip areas where no image exists.
The Vertical Cutter is an optional add-on to the NUR Fresco II. It allows on the fly cutting of a printed substrate. Combined with the existing optional horizontal cutter it allows a complete tiling workflow and streamlines the finishing process.
The new Collector design for the Fresco 3200 allows the accurate collection of the printed substrate in the roll-to-roll mode. Unlike the old collector, which used friction for moving the core, the new collector is passed through the core and attaches itself to it. The core could also be used as a feeding collector when using the double-sided printing option as mentioned above.
The NUR Fresco II will replace the NUR Fresco HiQ as NUR’s high-end, flagship solvent product. As always with NUR products, a complete upgrade path will be available for previous Fresco models.
Together with the NUR Tempo, the NUR Fresco II leads NUR’s comprehensive product portfolio, which caters to all market requirements with the NUR Ultima HiQ and NUR Tempo L targeting the mid-range segment of the market and the NUR Ultima HiQ 3200 4C targeting entry-level customers attempting to gain an affordable access into the production printing arena.
Up Tempo
NUR’s well-known Tempo wide-format flatbed inkjet press has been given a facelift, with the new Tempo featuring two new, higher speed operating modes that enable the machine to print high quality output at up to 82sqm per hour in four colours and up to 50sqm per hour in eight colours respectively. New ICC profiles will also be available for all print modes to ensure high image quality for both text and graphics.
NUR says the new high speed print modes give users the ability to choose an output speed and quality combination that matches the price/performance requirements of every job they handle making the machine faster, more flexible and even more productive than before. This means the machine can now deliver higher overall throughput, faster job turnaround and a faster return-on-investment.
The two new speed modes are included in all new NUR Tempo models shipped. NUR Tempo presses in the field can be upgraded to the new, higher performance level.
Expedio sneak preview
Visitors attending drupa 2004 were given the opportunity to see a new superwide printing technology incorporating UV-curable inks being demonstrated by NUR.
NUR says the Expedio five-metre, superwide inkjet production printer, currently under development, boasts higher speed, quality and flexibility characteristics that distinguish it from and position it far ahead of any wide-format or superwide inkjet production printer on the market today. It is also features multiple roll printing of up to three rolls.
The machine will use UV-curable inks, thereby eliminating the need for solvent emission equipment or special permits and making it environmentally friendly. The UV-curable inks also mean the machine will not require expensive, specially coated substrates for good ink adhesion. It will print on a wide variety of substrates which ensures low operating costs and will allow users to explore new printing applications on specialty media.
The new machine will be capable of printing both eight-colour photo-realistic graphics for close-up viewing at up to 720 dpi, as well as five-metre superwide prints for billboards at super-fast speeds of 360dpi at up to 180sqm per hour. A multi-roll printing capability will further increase productivity.
The superwide printer is scheduled to begin beta testing later this year with commercial shipping planned to commence early in the fourth quarter of this year.
