The Belgian company dotrix presented with "the.factory" a single pass inkjet device which is ideally positioned for just-in-time production and customised and full-color short runs, especially within the labelling area. The full-colour industrial digital press features a digital front-end with the X-Stream DFE-technology, a part of dotrix’s unique workflow solution concept which ensures complete and digital data processing and management, as Willem Swiggers, Business Development Manager from dotrix claims.
The base unit is a compact industrial roll-to-roll web handling system which prints single-sided and features web-tension control, splice detection, web alignment unit, post-treatment (UV-curing), splicing tools for substrate exchange and an optional pretreatment (corona) and marking reader. The Spice unit (Single Pass Inkjet Colour Engine) is based on piezo-ceramic drop-on-demand technology.
The.factory can print between speeds from 5 to 24 m/min and can produce different tints of the ink by varying the drop volume, Swiggers claims. The screening provides a smooth transition etween two successive gray levels of the printing device, so that these different intensities (gray levels) combined with a stochastic screening, as Swiggers explains, result in superb print quality.
