Mimaki unveils new textile & dye inkjet printer

06 Feb '10

4 min read

Mimaki Engineering Co., Ltd (President: Akira Ikeda; Headquarters: Nagano, Japan) announces that from February 25, 2010 onward it will ship its new direct-to-textile and dye sublimation inkjet printer, TX400-1800B that features a newly developed Adhesive Belt Carrier System.

Now the new model Tx400-1800B which stabilizes flexible materials that tend to stretch and contract during printing is announced as an additional version in the series following on from the Tx400-1800D that was launched last October.

Background
In the past textile large format printing implied long print runs and mostly rotary screen-printing machines. Now increasingly on-demand short run production is required that can be better accommodated by inkjet technology.

While screen-printing involves cumbersome production processes that cannot economically produce short runs, digital textile printing is designed to do exactly this. Inkjet printers feature an economic and cost-saving workflow and production process. It only requires the exact amount of ink that is needed for the application, decreases water usage and therefore lowers significantly the environmental footprint for production of short run textile printing in line with today's needs.

Until now there was some reservation about productivity and running costs in digital textile printing, but the Tx400-1800B equipped with a newly developed Adhesive Belt Carrier System, changes this perception. In contrast to the earlier model this device stabilizes flexible materials that tend to stretch and contract during printing enabling higher printing speeds as well as ink cost reduction. Needless to say the Tx400-1800B will be one of the most environmentally friendly large format printers for digital textile printing.

Benefits
1. Adhesive Belt Carrier System
The Adhesive Belt Carrier System locks the fabric in the belt thus enabling conveying without applying tension. This way even media that stretch or contract can be printed. In addition, this belt carrier system is equipped with belt encoder that ensures evenly feeding of the fabric, without the issue of unevenly printed areas.

2. UISS for long unattended print runs
Tx400-1800B automatically switches ink supply from an empty cartridge to a full one of the same color thanks to Mimaki's UISS (Uninterrupted Ink Supply System) thus enabling long unattended print runs-even overnight.

3. Profitable printing with cost-saving inks
Significant cost-savings can be achieved by adopting Mimaki's 2-liter bulk ink containers that come at a very competitive price and enable highly profitable digital textile prints.

4. Further Benefits
- 2.5 times faster print speeds:
Tx400-1800B enables print speeds of 25 sqm/h (600 x 600 dpi / 8 color mode). A newly designed powerful heater system allows for fast drying at high speeds.

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