Ricoh has launched another direct to garment printer, the Ri100, essentially an entry-level desktop version of the Ri6000 that was launched last year.
It’s suitable for printing short runs of promotional and personalised items like T-shirts, cloth bags, cushion covers and sweatshirts. It prints mainly to cotton, including blends of up to 50 percent cotton. It uses Ricoh greyscale drop on demand printheads, offering up to 1200 dpi resolution. It includes automatic maintenance and supports wireless printing. The printing is said to take roughly two minutes.
There’s an option to include a separate heat press, the Ricoh Rh 100 Finisher, which has the same 399 x 698mm footprint so that the printer can be stacked on top of it. This does make for a fairly neat solution that should appeal to retailers as well as designers looking for a prototyping solution.
Graham Kennedy, who heads up Ricoh Europe’s Commercial Inkjet Business, commented: “We are delighted to build on the success of the Ri 3000 and Ri 6000 with this compact entry level option. Its affordability and ease of use will attract a new audience to garment decoration and allow operations to expand their range of services fully supported by the highly knowledgeable and responsive Ricoh team. It has never been easier to start Direct to Garment printing with a complete solution from one vendor.”
The Ricoh Ri 100 will be available in the UK, Netherlands and Spain from April. It will be available in the rest of EMEA later in the spring.
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