Gulmen Digital, a manufacturer of commercial label printing and finishing machines located in Melbourne, Australia, has developed the inkjet-powered Quantum Jet 333 industrial label printer, in order to satisfy market and application demands for high quality and faster turnarounds.
With 30 years of experience in the label and packaging industry, Eddie Gulmen, president and founder of Gulmen Digital, identified an opportunity in the market for a 330mm-wide printing system. An additional consideration for Mr Gulmen was navigating the challenges of Australia’s vast landscape and spread-out population, leading Gulmen Digital to develop a process colour, mid-range platform that bridges the gap between high capital cost equipment and high-quality performance.
This led him to develop Quantum Jet 333, which integrates Colordyne’s ChromaPlex LT aqueous pigment inkjet engine to offer high speed and high resolution for short-run labels and tags. As a result, the system can consistently produce high volume jobs at 1600 x 1600dpi print quality whilst running at speeds up to 45m/min. Quantum Jet 333 can print on various types of materials used for labelling and product identification. An intuitive colour touchscreen simplifies operation of the printer.
Gulmen Digital views the new high speed, high-resolution and low capital cost system as a ‘great fit’ for printers in the consumer products space, as well as for print businesses looking to reduce costs by offloading work from their flexo presses without sacrificing the quality of the printed product.
Mr Gulmen said, ‘Inkjet is brilliant. From the computer to printing, it’s straightforward like that. You create the artwork, place it in a folder with automated colour management, set the copies and off it goes. Digital printing allows users to save on material and labour. Plus, with digital the job can be finished faster.
‘The goal is to get to a point where a single person can manage a fleet of these printers. This platform will provide opportunities for further process automation to control the printer, like automatic unwind loading with turret rewinds and intelligent camera systems for fault detection and recovery.’
Taylor Buckthorpe, director of sales and marketing at Colordyne, said, ‘Colordyne has played a role in advancing inkjet technology, but it’s partners like Gulmen Digital that identify the fit for end users that make it exciting to continue innovating.’
