The 9x3.5m, 7.5-tonne Rhotex 500 is taking centre stage on the Italian manufacturer’s stand at the show (1-H100), where it will be running a wide-variety of live applications.
The 500 has a maximum speed of 310m2/hr in high speed mode, which reduces to 125m2/hr in two-pass production mode and 100m2/hr in high quality mode.
It uses Durst’s Quadro S printheads with a 7pl, 14pl and 21pl variable drop size offering 400x600dpi. It has a standard CMYK colour channel configuration, with the option of additional light cyan, light magenta and light black and orange and violet colours.
“The quality of the print is no longer an issue – it’s a given. What has always been the demand is seamless: the Rhotex 500 is about the feel, the touch, the look, our customers don’t want to have a seam in the middle and that is why they want 5m,” said Fabian Sottsas, Durst product manager, roll-to-roll printing.
The 500 can handle coated and uncoated polyester blend textile rolls up to 350kg and 5.05m wide.
“For us the key technical challenge was the guide and transport system for textiles 5m wide,” said Sottsas.
“So what we did was build an entirely new patented transport system.”
The first beta machine was installed at Van Straaten in Amsterdam last month, with a second beta due to be installed at Bonn, Germany-based company Thamm shortly. Figarol in Saint Pierre des Corps, France has also signed up to be an early adopter and will take delivery of its machine later this month.
Full shipping of the Rhotex 500 will begin in May.
Also making its debut at Fespa will be the Alpha 190, the 1.9m-wide smaller sibling of the 3.3m-wide Alpha 330, premiered last year.
“The 190 is identical to the 330 in terms of the inks, media handling and print head technology, it’s just a smaller width,” said Michael Hofer, product manager for industrial textile printing.
The Alpha can be factory configured to run pigment, reactive, dispersion or acid inks. The machine at Fespa is running Durst’s specially developed one-step pigment inks designed for the active circulation printheads on the Alpha, which Hofer said “were unique in the market” by allowing the Alpha to run coated and uncoated substrates.
Prices for the modular Alpha 190 start around €500,000 rising to €1m depending on configuration.
Durst is also using Fespa to show the latest advances in its Durst Water Technology, which was first shown at Fespa last year, with a Rho WT 250 HS being demonstrated on its stand. Also running live will be a highly automated Rho 1312 AF.
“For Durst, Fespa is the key trade show each year, we will be showcasing more machines here than at Drupa for example. This is the right place to showcase our latest technology, but also to talk to customers about their applications and show them what is possible with our technology,” said Sümer Cetin, Durst head of communications.
