Mark Andy has announced the Digital Series HD hybrid flexo press, which largely seems to be a case of renaming its existing Digital Series to reflect recent enhancements to it.
The press itself is a 330mm wide hybrid flexo press with a digital print unit. It takes a modular approach, starting with a basic roll to roll configuration that can then be fitted with inline converting options. It takes pressure-sensitive paper and film, including unsupported paper and film, as well as tag stocks and light carton.
The digital print unit can be configured with either a five colour inkset – CMYK plus white – or eight colours with the addition of orange, violet and green. Mark Andy claims that this white ink has three times the opacity of flexo white and more than double that of conventional EP white. There’s no speed penalty for using the white ink, with the press running at its full rated speed of 73mpm.
The main difference between the HD and the original Digital Series press is an arched IDS that accepts unsupported films and improves operator ergonomics to allow for faster ink changeovers. Mark Andy also says that it has improved the print heads to offer 1200 dpi resolution. The heads can be cleaned manually, automatically or semi-automatically. In theory this is supposed to lead to less downtime. Personally, I’d always recommend users not to skimp on the head cleaning – it’ll extend the life of the printheads and avoid wasting time changing a head in the middle of a job.
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