Features Printing Wide-format Inkjet
Epson Launches Next Generation PrecisionCore

Epson today at Labelexpo in Brussels launched PrecisionCore as its next-generation inkjet printing technology. PrecisionCore forms the heart of new SurePress L-6034V and L-6034VW presses, as well as Epson’s new SureColor F2000 direct-to-garment printer.

The SurePress L-6034V and L-6034VW also represent Epson’s first inkjet-based label presses to employ LED UV-curing ink, jetted by a PrecisionCore print-head array that fits within the company’s existing MicroTFP print-head brand. This single-pass industrial press line, scheduled for commercial release in summer 2014, is available with a white ink channel, SurePress L-6034VW, or without the white ink channel, SurePress L-6034V. Both systems include inline varnish.


Epson is producing the PrecisionCore print-heads in a Micro-Electromechanical Systems (MEMS) industrial facility. The manufacturing scalability and robustness behind Epson’s new print-head, which the company describes as a print chip, allows it to be deployed across a range of sectors from industrial and commercial printing to office products. This is also based on PrecisionCore’s ability to jet a variety of inks onto various marking materials.



“PrecisionCore represents a leap forward in printing performance,” said Minoru Usui, Epson’s global President. “We continue to deliver outstanding quality thanks to superior dot control, and have introduced a new system to ensure reliability. At the same time, scalability allows us to fully leverage our historical strengths of ink flexibility and print-head durability.” 


Epson, the imaging industry’s long-standing dominant force behind piezoelectric, relates the development of PrecisionCore to advances in its high-performance thin-film piezo technology, which is supported through the MEMS chip production for manufacturing scale, quality and cost effectiveness.

“For the first time, one printing technology offers the performance and scalability to fundamentally change how business approaches printing,” said Keith Kratzberg, Senior VP, Epson America. “While today’s industrial printing announcements from Epson showcase the power of PrecisionCore in the prime label and packaging industry, the technology will soon extend to a full range of PrecisionCore-based products designed for today’s office printing environments.”

The SurePress L-6034VW includes six array lineheads which are comprised of 11 PrecisionCore print chip modules (totaling 52,800 nozzles) with multi-size dot control and high native resolution. The linehead is designed to work with Epson’s new low-energy LED-cured UV ink and in-line digital varnish technology, which can ultimately image at a 600 x 600-dpi resolution at up to 49.2 feet per minute. The press works with standard film and paper label substrates between 3.15 to 13-inches wide up to 0.013-inches (0.32 mm) thick. In addition, it enables printing onto heat-sensitive substrates like polyethylene.
 
“The SurePress L-6034VW joins Epson’s current SurePress L-4033A/AW and puts Epson in the unique position to offer two very different digital label press solutions with two different ink sets – aqueous for short-run labels, especially on uncoated and textured paper, and now UV for short- to mid-run labels on a wider range of substrates,” said Mark Elsbernd, North American Region Sales Manager, Epson America. “Prime label and packaging converters now have two options to best suit their client portfolios.”