Some might say that Sepiax is following in the footsteps of HP with their Latex ink/printer combination.
Sepiax, the Austrian 'Green Ink' manufacturer announced at the Ecoprint show back in September the AQ160 printer that will work with the Aquares range of water based inks.
Without a doubt the industry is moving into an eco friendly space with HP perhaps forcing the pace with the introduction of Latex printing a few years ago but as we all know there are other water based inks available now.
Sepiax is considered one of the better ones in that when used properly it has most of the attributes of solvent ink but machines have to be re-tuned to use these inks, something most printers are loathe to do. Perhaps this is the reason that Sepiax have decided to launch a dedicated machine.
Built in Germany, the AQ160 1.6m roll-to-roll printer features specialised heating systems that reportedly ensure ‘perfect curing’ of Sepiax Aquares ink. These systems also include pre-heat, under-plan heat, post-heat, and even an infrared heating device on the carriage. Yet with all this heating, the printer is reported to use only a little more power as a normal solvent machine.
Using Epson DX5 piezo printheads, the printer can print on almost any flexible media, including conventional film used for vehicle wraps, etc. making it an ideal option for those printers wanting to get rid of the solvent ink pollution problem.
With HP and Mimaki now entrenched with Latex inks, we now have Sepiax as a third contender.
It may look like a David and Goliath scenario when we put Sepiax up against the HP and Mimaki giants but Sepiax has enormous financial muscle, so don't discount them. No mention of the speed of the machine, the print resolutions and the pricing has been announced yet, so it will be interesting to have this additional information and to see how this David fares against the Goliaths.
Sepiax
www.sepiax.com
Anitech
www.anitech.com.au
