Three months since the launch, 76 units have been sold globally, including one to the Wellington signage company, Agfa says. Nine of these units were sold after the Sydney show.
Sign and Display director, Simon Dewsnap says they recognised a need in the market for low volume, cost effective, digital prints onto rigid substrates and UV flatbed was the right technology for them.
"A high proportion of our existing digital output from our other digital printers is onto self adhesive vinyl and subsequently applied to rigid boards. A UV flatbed reduces our ink cost and eliminates both the self adhesive vinyl and the manually intensive mounting process."
He says they looked at a number of printers in the market and selected the Anapurna M because of its performance and we were more confident of the ongoing support available from Jenrite and Agfa.
"The installation went very smoothly and the training was thorough. We hit the ground running immediately printing production jobs and it hasn't stopped since. The Anapurna is so easy to use it is now easily run by a staff member with no previous printing experience."
At 1.6M wide the unit is producing high quality prints at a highly competitive speed of 12 square metres per hour. Konica Minolta print heads provide a 14 picolitre drop size achieving resolutions up to 720 x 1440 dpi (4 point text) although most production will be run at 720 x 720 dpi.
The hybrid nature of the Anapurna M means that it is very comfortable switching between rigid and flexible substrates. In a matter of minutes it can be swapped from a rigid mode to run roll to roll flexible substrates. Rigid substrates up to 45mm thick can be comfortably accommodated, Agfa says.
"Hybrid UV flatbed machines require highly accurate movement of the substrate through the printer bed. The use of a vacuum bed and a mesh conveyor belt ensures the accurate movement of a wide range of different substrates under the printheads ensuring accurate print registration. While vacuum beds are expensive they are key to ensuring high print quality in hybrid flatbed printers."
Agfa is one of the few manufacturers of UV inks and has developed a technically superior ink through years of research. The six ink colours provide exceptional print quality with a strength of colour that was often lacking in UV curable inks, the company claims.
"The Anapurna M UV curable inkjet inks are stable, allow fast curing and are easy to handle. The excellent jetting performance and good adhesion on a wide variety of substrates enable a wide range of applications. The high image quality, vibrant colours and perfect edge sharpness combined with good outdoor light stability guarantee heavy duty industrial, photorealistic printing results.
"The Anapurna M is a robust machine and is proving very simple to operate. The open architecture allows easy access all parts of the machine while light beams ensure the operator's safety while the machine is in operation."
