Xaar has added a new Creativity print mode to its Versatex Printbar to improve its ability to create embellishments for label printing.
The Versatex brand started off as a print engine that was originally announced back in 2022 as a solution that industrial users could integrate into a production line for a print width of up to 420 mm. It included an ink supply system and data path as well as a printhead, with users free to choose whichever head is the most appropriate for their needs from Xaar’s ImagineX range.
A year later, Xaar announced a complete printbar under the Versatex branding using the Nitrox Elite printheads for use with UV-curable fluids. The Nitrox heads offer up to 360 dpi so the Versatex unit uses two rows of heads to achieve 720 dpi resolution. There are six heads in each row giving a print width of 410 mm. As such it’s primarily aimed at the narrow web label market and can be retrofitted to presses or converting lines to add a high opacity white, cold foiling or additional colors as well as variable data.
The new High Creativity mode builds on this by allowing users to vary the varnish layer from 15.5 to 100 micronThere are plenty of other printbars available for that market but the primary advantage of the Versatex printbar is its ability to handle high viscosity fluids and to produce high laydown, which is particularly useful for creating embellishment effects. This gives users the option to not just print a varnish layer, but to build up that varnish to produce tactile effects, including tactile warning triangles that meet European standards.
So this year, Xaar has improved that printbar by adding a new print mode, High Creativity, which allows for more variability in the varnish effect. Previously, users had to choose one of three print modes. The fastest is High Productivity, which can run at 75 mpm and produce a 11.5 micron layer. The High Quality mode allows for a thicker layer, at 15.5 microns, but is slower at 50 mpm. The High Build is the slowest at just 25 mpm but produces a 100 micron layer.
The new High Creativity mode builds on this by allowing users to vary the varnish layer from 15.5 to 100 micron, though it only runs at 25 mpm. This gives the dual effect of a standard and high build varnish layer, as well as gloss and matte effects, in a single pass.
Graham Tweedale, Xaar’s CTO, explains, “The new High Creativity print mode is entirely enabled by software. There are no hardware changes required as Versatex comes with two banks of Xaar Nitrox printheads. This is an entirely new capability which can be implemented in any of the Versatex Printbars going forward from here.”
The print bar can run white ink with opacity up to 85% at 50 mpm, or standard colors including spots or black at 100 mpm. It can handle coated and uncoated papers as well as supported and unsupported film, including PP, PE and PET, as well as foil. It will take substrates from 40 to 250 micron.
The Nitrox printheads use Xaar’s ThroughFlow recirculation system. In addition, the Versatex printbar includes a workflow that allows operators to drop a printable job into the queue and make amendments on the fly, and which can be integrated with other standard workflows. There’s also a sensor to pick up synch marks for printing effects onto pre-printed substrates. It uses Phoseon FireEdge Led units to cure the UV fluids, and it comes with a control cabinet for all the electronics and controls that can be placed up to five meters away.
You can find further details on the Versatex printbar, and the original print engine, which is still available, from xaar.com.
