The brand-new, next-generation, single-pass EFI Reggiani BOLT digital textile printer from Electronics For Imaging, Inc (EFI) has been launched during an open house event at the EFI Reggiani facility in Bergamo, Italy.
The EFI Reggiani BOLT
The advanced, ultra-high-speed digital single-pass printer has the potential to revolutionise the textile printing market, providing users with high uptime and reliability, outstanding performance, superior printing uniformity and accuracy, long print-head life and minimal maintenance needs, according to the company. The EFI Reggiani open house has created huge interest in global textile market opportunities, with nearly 300 customers and journalists attending to see the new BOLT in action, the company continues.
"The innovative development of our new single-pass printer comes from Reggiani's speed of innovation in digital textile printing, its 70 years of history, and our proprietary knowledge of high-volume analogue rotary printing," says Adele Genoni, EFI Reggiani vice president and general manager. "Our EFI colleagues' proven, worldwide expertise in single-pass technology and, most importantly, EFI Reggiani's serious commitment to listening to and addressing our textile customers' needs, have allowed us to achieve incredible results with our newest print technology.
The launch of the EFI Reggiani BOLT
“The EFI Reggiani BOLT re-writes the rules of digital textile single-pass printing, delivering superior throughput and quality with a highly competitive return on investment for customers. We are excited to bring this technology to our customers and see their businesses succeed and grow."
The company says that the BOLT offers an innovative, low-maintenance, fast start-up recirculation print head that delivers better, more-uniform printing with superior uptime. Thanks to its cutting-edge print head concept and high-performance ink delivery system, the BOLT has throughput speeds of up to 90m/minute (more than 8,000 sqm/h) at a 600 x 600 dpi resolution. It features high-end greyscale imaging in drop sizes from 5 to 30 picolitres, and also provides premium-quality 600 x 4,800 maximum-dpi resolution printing, allowing customers to address the full range of design needs. The print head has been developed in partnership with a leading print head manufacturer and will be available exclusively for EFI Reggiani, the company adds.
What’s more, the BOLT meets growing requirements for high-quality, ecologically sustainable digital textile imaging in apparel, décor and other markets. Paired with an EFI Fiery digital front end (DFE) print server offering unique, high-speed processing capabilities on demand, the BOLT printer is a robust, industrial platform designed for 24/7 operation and continuous productivity that drives high-volume throughput while reducing the cost per metre.
The EFI Reggiani BOLT is unveiled
Additional new features and enhancements on the printer include:
Enhanced maintenance features: The printer's contactless wiping system prolongs print head life and quality. Plus, the printer comes with an assisted alignment system for its test calibration scan unit and features extractable printing beams for easier maintenance.
Extended colour gamut and superior image quality: Due to EFI expertise in colour management and flexible colour configurations, customers can easily reproduce a wider variety of work, including designs featuring plain colours, geometric patterns, fine lines, deep blacks and smooth gradients.
Proprietary IP combining digital and rotary technologies: One or more analogue printing stations, which may be easily connected as an optional feature, can be integrated into the digital printer for special effects.
Furthermore, the single-pass machine is a Fiery Driven printer, featuring an EFI Fiery DFE with RIP and colour management technologies running on Fiery XB bladed hardware for maximum performance. Fiery technologies for the printer give textile printing businesses the ability to successfully produce highly challenging jobs with the finest detail, demanding colours, smooth gradients and more. EFI colour scientists developed special algorithms and custom screening for this Fiery system to deliver vivid print results, including high saturation without losing detail, and superior colour even when using the fastest print mode, says EFI.
Close up of the EFI Reggiani BOLT
Fiery technologies for the new Reggiani BOLT printer also will include a one-year subscription to EFI Fiery DesignPro, a powerful textile and fashion design suite that runs inside designers' Adobe Creative Cloud applications, EFI continues. Fiery DesignPro reduces the time needed to create colour books, repeats, colourways and prepare files for production to minutes instead of hours. Together, the new Reggiani BOLT single-pass printer and Fiery technologies address key market trends as customers face pressure for faster time-to-market, quick fashion cycles, shorter print runs and more customisation, according to the company.
Mark Hanley, of IT Strategies Inc, in a panel discussion prior to the official unveiling of BOLT, said: "Users of BOLT will need to be fully digitally orientated. It's going to take time to realise the machine's full potential, so education is key and EFI Reggiani offer a good after care service."
He adds: "The BOLT proves that artisanal printing is becoming a thing of the past - the printer now takes care of the artwork for you. And the fact that the printer uses pigment inks is very interesting for the industry. As far as I'm concerned, the more pigment solutions available the better. The fact that BOLT can print 90m/minute with pigments aids the industry's poor sustainability record which is a real positive."
Hanley concludes: "Single-pass solutions currently form a very small percentage of the textile printing industry. For that reason, when new single-pass printers are launched, it's brilliant for the industry because the more single-pass solutions come to market the quicker it will be for OEMs to launch more, new single-pass machines in the future."
The BOLT printer is the newest in an important series of EFI Reggiani innovations. In the last 15 months, the team has developed a totally renewed range of digital scanning printers with cutting-edge technologies, launching a new model every quarter to offer customers solutions to whatever their requirements may be for easily scalable textile printing. The list of EFI Reggiani advancements includes two recent launches – the COLORS digital printer, which provides unparalleled performance with up to 12-colour printing, (Dolce & Gabbana have recently invested in five of these machines), and the TERRA pigment ink with binder solution featuring in-line polymerisation, a process that speeds up customers' printing with one of the industry's greenest production technologies.
