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Agfa Grand Sherpa Universal AM 65, 90 replaces earlier Agfa eco-solvent printer
Since Mutoh Belgium designs and manufactures many of the Mutoh printers in Europe , it is not surprising that their major OEM partner is also in Belgium : Agfa.
We got to see all the Mutoh Spitfire printers and the Agfa Grand Sherpa Universal AM version at FESPA 2005. Our comments are readily available in the FLAAR Reports on " Annotated List of Eco-Solvent, Mild-Solvent."
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| Agfa Grand Sherpa Universal AM eco-solvent printer as seen by Nicholas Hellmuth at FESPA. |
Review of first impressions of Agfa Grand Sherpa Universal eco-solvent printer
In the meantime, the Agfa Universal at PMA '04 looked as though its quality was better than the Agfa Universal at either ISA or SGIA during 2003. Eco-solvent is a touchy subject since the first generation ink in 2002-2003 was not adequate. These early problems are one reason why FLAAR has researched and written a report on eco-solvent, mild-solvent, and lite-solvent based ink printers. This FLAAR Report is in Nicholas Hellmuth's series on solvent ink printers.
Price comparisons are tough because prices vary by country, so we review only the image quality and capability of the printing engine.
In the meantime, Agfa withdrew suddenly and without explanation from the eco-solvent market. With much fanfare they introduced the Agfa Grand Sherpa Universal AM at FESPA ’05; they had this printer at two booths at GraphExpo (Print ’05). But then this entire line of printers literally disappeared. I never saw any notice of why.
Of course FLAAR found out why, and we are now updating our publications on eco-solvent, lite solvent, and mild-solvent for autumn 2007.
FLAAR Reports on Eco-Solvent, Lite-Solvent, Mild-Solvent
For the last three years we have worked primarily on UV-cured flatbed inkjet printers. But we do continue with our interest and coverage of eco-solvent, mild-solvent, lite-solvent, and the new bio-solvent. Indeed in early 2007 we spent a week at the Mutoh Europe demo center, R&D center, and factory in Oostende . Three reports results from this already.
If you order the Solvent ink FLAAR Report Series from FLAAR now , you get five years of Nicholas Hellmuth's experience in checking out solvent ink printers all bundled in one convenient batch of PDF downloads. These reports are all in full-color and provide independent assessment of the pros and cons of DGI , Infiniti , Oce Arizona , Mutoh Toucan , Mimaki JV3 , Seiko ColorPainter 64S , ColorSpan Gator 72si and other inkjet printer brands.
The part you need in this series is Professor Hellmuth's discussion of mild-solvent, eco-solvent, and lite-solvent wide format printers.
All reports are readily available from our university center for public education on digital imaging.
Most recently updated September 17, 2007.
First posted March 10, 2004 . Updated August 9, 2005.
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| Kwangko Sprin |
Eco-Solvent Printers |
| Gerber Jetster |
| Kimoto Philyrassystem |
| Mutoh Phoenix |
| Mild-Solvent
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| Bio-Solvent
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Air Purification Solvent or UV Ink Odors |
| Island Clean Air ICA |
| PAT Technologies |
Solvent Printer IR Dryers |
| Black Body Digi IR Infrared Heaters |
Inks |
| Latex Water-Based Ink replaces Solvent ink |
Interesting inks & |
| UV-Curable ink, OEM (in preparation) |
| UV-Curable, third-party ink Encres Dubuit (others in preparation) |
Fine Art Photography Giclee & Proofing (on other FLAAR sites) |
Epson 4880 |
Epson 7880 |
Epson 9880 |
Most of our updates for 2008 onward are in FLAAR Reports in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. It is more efficient for us to make new information available in PDF format. So if the web page itself is not updated, check out www.wide-format-printers.NET to see if the printer, RIP, or other subject is covered in an update in a PDF download.
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