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Meital 302 is beta version of alpha stage Meital-3000 10 UV flatbed printer

The Meital 302 is a new name for the Meital-3000 10 UV-curable flatbed printer. The Meital-3000 10 UV flatbed printer was among the first one wide-format printer to harness the Xaar HSS 1001 printhead for a wide-format printer. Most other use of the Xaar HSS 1001 printhead has been for narrow-format applications.

Meital 302 printer was exhibited at FESPA trade show 2009.

The Meital 302, based on the prototype Meital-3000 10, is the first dedicated flatbed printer that I am familiar with that has two independent flatbed tables to hold flat rigid materials: one to load while the other table is printing. But since DRUPA 2008 other printers have begun to offer two tables: the HP Scitex FB7500 has two tables (large tables too).

At DRUPA 2008, this was the prototype, with one table, in the One Solution booth. Now, today, summer 2009, Meital is no longer associated with One Solution, and the printer has advanced to a two-table model that exchanges the tables past each other. Perhaps in the future we can show a Flash animation of this; if we get to the factory we can do this.

Plus there are alternative methods of loading and unloading multiple thick material (especially for small to medium size boards), namely a continuous load-unload system. The Durst Rho 800 has the best known of this kind of system though the HP Scitex FB950 has a similar idea (inherited from the earlier ColorSpan 9840uv which became the HP Scitex FB910). Now, since February this year (2009), the WP Digital Virtu RS25 (2.5 meter version of the Virtu RS35) also offers the option of a continuous load+unloading system. I inspected this at the Spuhl factory in Switzerland in late February. I have also inspected the Durst Rho 800 both at the factory in Lienz, Austria as well as in the printshop in Ohio that was satisfied with this printer. This is a good way to learn about these printers: visit the factory and then visit an actual printshop that already has one installed.

As a result of the availability of access to these printers there are now full-color FLAAR Reports on the Virtu and on the Rho 800 (just look in the vertical column at the right of every page).

FLAAR prefers not to issue any recommendation, neither pro nor con, until we can inspect a printer in its factory and headquarters demo room, and until we can undertake a site-visit case study of a real-world usage of the printer in a true production environment.

Meital-3000 10, the alpha version, as first shown at DRUPA 2008

Since the booth at DRUPA was clearly identified as being of One Solution S.A. and as many of the personnel in the booth were from One Solution and were well known to most people in the industry, it was logical that the several thousand people who passed by this booth associated the alpha stage prototype Meital-3000 10 printer in the booth with the distributor who was showcasing this printer, namely One Solution S.A. This is part of history, DRUPA being the most visited printer trade show in the world.

One Solution S.A. was a new company in Belgium formed of experienced people from the world of wide-format inkjet printers and other fields.

Meital was a company consisting of many key design engineers from NUR. It is the custom in Israel to move from one company to another every several years.

But now, in 2009, One Solution S.A. is no longer the distributor. Meital no longer is exhibiting in their booth. This kind of separation happens in business, just like in families.

I did not see Meital listed as exhibiting at ISA 2009 so will not be able to say much more.

The Meital-3000 10 UV flatbed printer for advertising POP POS with Xaar HSS 1001 grayscale printheads.

At ISA 2009 there are many brands to select from

At ISA in April 2009, there are many other flatbed UV-curable printers which are already mature and readily available, so these are the factories and demo rooms where FLAAR is doing its evaluations during summer 2008 and early 2009. I spent two days inspecting the Teckwin TeckStorm at it's factory in China (second year for visiting that factory; changes and progress were notable but their flatbed has fewer issues than their hybrid).

Then I was invited to spend two days at the Gandinnovations factory and demo room in Toronto, to test their NanoJet. I have been at the UV printer factories of Oce Arizona 250 and Arizona 350 in Canada, at the factory of both Dilli and IP&I in Korea, three times to the factory of GRAPO in the Czech Republic, and five times to the factory of Durst (three times in Brixen factory (Rho 351R, Rho 320R) and twice in Lienz factory, Durst Rho 700 and Rho 800).

Thus it is not surprising that many FLAAR Reports have resulted from factory visits to inspect UV-curable inkjet printers in-person, in depth, including testing them in the factory demo room. We have not yet been to the factory of Meital nor to any demo center, so are not yet able to release any evaluation. It is unclear which distributor has replaced One Solution S.A. and we do not yet have the name of a distributor yet for USA, Canada or Latin America.

We rate a distributor exists for North America when they exhibit either at ISA, GraphExpo, or SGIA 2009 as well as when a demo room exists with the printer in full function in the US. Many European manufacturers also do not yet have a US distributor, so many printers do not yet have local tech support or a local demo room.

But since many of our readers are throughout Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa, etc, we take notes at the leading trade shows in these areas. If we see any Meital printer at any year 2009 show (other than FESPA, where everyone comes no matter what), we will take note.

Here is the Meital 302 showing samples at FESPA 2009.

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Most recently updated March 26, 2009 to indicate that One Solution S.A. is no longer distributor of Meital printers.

First posted May 29, 2008. Updated July 14, 2008, after Shanghai 2008 trade show. Updated February 24, 2009.