Detail of the printhead assembly in the Graphium in non-print position 

As well as moving into new freehold premises in July, FFEI has developed a new narrow web inkjet press, the Graphium, which will be shown at Labelexpo, promising improvements over the previous Caslon machines, in partnership with Xaar and Fujifilm Speciality Ink Systems. By Sean Smyth.

In July, FFEI moved into new premises in Hemel Hempstead. A leasehold property, The Cube provides bespoke R&D and manufacturing facilities, as well as housing the company’s administration and sales functions. It is also home to a new narrow web inkjet press, the Graphium, which will be launched later this year.

The company owns the freehold of the premises and has built a sophisticated manufacturing facility. There are cleanrooms to assemble and test the inkjet units advanced imaging products, for the established CTP and growing inkjet systems.

The company still makes litho CTP equipment and develops software, with RealPro a fully highly featured suite of pre-press workflow tools. It has the Caslon, a narrow web inkjet press that was developed as an option for Danish flexo press manufacturer Nilpeter, and uses its transport systems. There are installations in Europe and the Americas, and FFEI upgraded the system and offered additional functionality of spot colour (including white) to broaden the market acceptance.

 

Second generation

The first system was developed in 2006, making FFEI one of the inkjet label pioneers, and much experience has been gained since. This experience was useful in developing the new Graphium press, effectively the company’s ‘second generation’ inkjet press.

It is a modular web-fed inkjet press designed for labels, packaging and speciality print applications. The company has partnered with Xaar for the heads, with UV ink manufacturer Fujifilm SIS (Speciality Ink Systems, or Sericol as was) and with UK flexo press manufacturer Edale which has developed the transport system. 

The print unit of the machine consists of a single unit with six printhead stations (there are options of four, five or six colours) at 330 mm or 410 mm print width. There is interdeck LED pinning using Phoseon systems for all colours, with a full LED curing system planned, although the first press uses traditional lamps.

Unlike the Caslon, this is a single integrated unit for all colours and there is the possibility of using the design to add more heads to allow higher resolution of faster printing when new heads become available. 

The 8×4 metre footprint press has unwind, splicing table, corona treatment and web cleaner, print unit and rewind. Users can specify optional flexo print units before and/or after the inkjet and rewind, and there will be optional finishing units as required. The first version will run at speeds of up to 50 m/ min in four, five or six colour mode. There is easy access at the rear for servicing. When not in use the heads are moved back from the printing position and ink continues the recirculating to keep the heads open.

The software control module and the transport system provides excellent web handling at the print heads that should feed through in improved consistency and quality while eliminating tracking artefacts. FFEI has used Xaar heads exclusively and the companies have pooled their experiences to improve the product with a one year warranty provided for all heads.

 

On show

The front end provides workflow connectivity to accept the majority of file types and has colour management including the important ink saving functions. There is a new screening ‘Adaptive screening technology’ that optimises inkjet drop placement and greyscale capability. Banner printing requires an option on the Adobe RIP, and variable data printing is supported.

FFEI notes that several of its imaging products have taken off in the second generation iteration and it has very high hopes of the Graphium. Managing director, Andy Cook, commented that it was often the second version of its imaging products that became successful, after ironing out faults and designing improvements into the system.

The Graphium will come with a price tag of around half a million pounds for the four colour unit, while the pricing of the new UV ink has not been made public. The press will be shown at Print 13 in Chicago in September, and then European converters have the opportunity of seeing it first hand at Labelexpo in Brussels later in the month. This first machine is the four colour option, and it has been sold to a US based speciality printer with installation planned later this year.