On its stand at drupa, Canon has announced new features for its Colorado M-series, a modular 1.6m roll-to-roll printer with optional UVgel white ink.
Canon says these additions offer both new and existing customers an expanded application range and open opportunities to enter new market segments, such as packaging and industrial print.
New FLXture Micro-texture Printing for Special Effects
A new feature now available for the Colorado M-series printer is FLXture, a five-ink-layer printing technology that adds micro-texture to large format prints for subtle surface detail, replicating the sensory feel of materials such as wood and leather. Creative print applications can be designed with an easy-to-use recipe in PRISMAguide XL software, which intelligently prepares the layers of UVgel ink for printing.
Whether the requirement is for a subtle background texture, elegantly embossed lettering or to highlight parts of an image on high-value packaging, labels or other products, FLXture can enhance printed applications with additional surface textures without complicated combinations of different materials. FLXture is available both for new installations, as well as current users, on the latest software releases for the Colorado printer and PRISMAguide XL.
New UVgel Factory System for Packaging
For converters looking for a financially viable alternative to outsourcing very short runs of printed packaging or for print service providers wanting to explore packaging applications to diversify their offering, the new UVgel Packaging Factory extends the Colorado’s application capabilities to deliver the digital equivalent of litho lamination.
Producing customised printed sheets of liner material for subsequent lamination to a corrugated base substrate, the UVgel Packaging Factory brings the benefits of digital print-on-demand to this high-opportunity sector, and can create impactful printed packaging for retail, consumer and high-value goods.
The integrated system of the UVgel Packaging Factory comprises a Colorado M5W roll-to-roll printer with a Fotoba jumbo roll media loader and output trimmer and stacker. It can handle a jumbo roll (up to 2,000 metres long) of the same media used in litho lamination, delivering sheets of high-quality, instantly dry and highly scratch-resistant output at up to 159m2/hr.
The FLXfinish+ option with the Colorado M-series offers further design creativity, enabling the addition of matte, gloss or mixed matte and gloss effects on the same print, without additional varnish. As with offset litho printed sheets, the digitally pre-printed sheets can be handled via the regular litho lamination process. And with the UVgel Packaging Factory’s high level of automation, print jobs can be left running unattended. The UVgel Packaging Factory is now commercially available in the EMEA region.
Maximised Productivity for a Broader Media Range
In a further step to maximise productivity by reducing the need for roll changes for longer jobs, a new, enhanced Jumbo Roll Interface kit option now enables the Colorado printer to handle jumbo rolls of all types of media, including transparent, structured, metallic and dark-coloured media.
UVgel Benefits Extend into Industrial Print
The capabilities of the Colorado M-series and UVgel also extend to industrial print applications, specifically printing graphic overlays for membrane switches, which are printed electronic circuits that use pressure to open and close a circuit. Printed on a polymer substrate, such as polyester or polycarbonate, the ink used for graphic overlays needs to be hard-wearing and flexible to prevent delamination. In these aspects, UVgel technology excels, being robust enough not to require laminating in many instances, and being specifically developed with the elasticity for printing on flexible media without cracking. No additional or optional features are required for this application.
Duncan Smith, Country Director, Production, Canon UK and Ireland, comments: “Offering the unique benefits of Canon’s UVgel technology, the Colorado was designed right from the start to deliver the optimal combination of quality, productivity, automation, application range, operating cost and sustainability. The system’s resulting success in the market showed what a great combination of benefits it offers and, together with customer feedback, inspired us to develop the modular Colorado M-series. Launched last year, the M-series has, in turn, set a new standard for productivity and substantially expanded the range of applications that customers can create.
“And we’re not stopping there. Leveraging the benefits of UVgel technology and the modularity of the Colorado M-series, the advances we’re announcing today focus on application diversification and automation. With our continuous technology developments and our strategy and commitment to customer-led innovation, we’ll continue to deliver innovations that provide our customers with competitive advantages by increasing their capabilities and helping them to tap into new profitable creative applications, products and markets, such as packaging and industrial print.”
“We passionately believe this long-term strategy of modularity and versatility will change the way large format graphics and other applications are being produced for the better, and will benefit our customers and the wider society.”
The Colorado M5W with new FLXture technology as well as the UVgel Packaging Factory are being shown on the Canon stand in hall 8a at drupa 2024. In close collaboration with our partners Fotoba (hall 9) and Lamina (hall 12), Canon will demonstrate the complete end-to-end process – from printing to laminating and cutting into the final packaging application using Zünd flatbed cutting systems. In addition, the UVgel Print Factory will be shown live at drupa on the Fotoba stand in hall 9.
For more information about the Colorado M-series, please go to: https://www.canon.co.uk/business/products/large-format-printers/colorado-m-series/
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