Agfa-Dotrix Spices Up the .Factory

At Drupa, Agfa-Dotrix demonstrated some enhanced configurations to its high-speed, single-pass digital inkjet press titled the.factory (pronounced "the dot factory"). The Factory is a single-sided, web-fed, digital color press. Designed for short and medium-run production, sampling, customized printing, on-press proofing, and variable-data printing, it uses UV-curable inks (CMYK) and is capable of printing 9763 sq ft/hr at widths up to 24.8 in. wide. It can provide a resolution of 300 dpi with three-bit grayscale or eight levels of gray per spot, resulting in an apparent resolution of 900 dpi.

The Factory's actual printing engine is referred to as SPICE, or Single Pass Inkjet Color Engine. The unit's four printing stations or colorbars"?each equipped with an array of print cartridges"?cover the whole width of the web, so the substrate passes the printing stations only once for each color. The new enhancements include:

--A mechanical interface that connects converting and standard finishing equipment, such as unwinders, rewinders, varnishing units, and sheet-cutting devices.

--An improved UV-curing system to increase the range of substrates suitable for use on the press. The new cooled, double-lamp system allows printing and curing on thinner foils that are commonly used for industrial print.

--An improved automated maintenance unit with automatic inkjet head cleaning, for consistent print quality.

--An improvement to its color-matching capabilities, allowing it to automatically match and convert spot colors.

Price of the Factory ranges from $1.2 to $1.8 million, depending upon configuration of SPICE and peripherals, base unit and curing, and digital front end. (Agfa Dotrix: www.dotrix.be)