Industrial inkjet printing
Everyone defines industrial inkjet printing differently. Some call textile printers industrial printing (Konica Minolta). But normally the term of industrial printing or industrial printers means either printing other than advertising signs or printing on unusual materials:
- Packaging printing
- Labels
- Printing on glass, metal, stone, ceramic tile
- In-line manufacturing
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Label printout samples. |
I do not include textile printing under the rubric of industrial printing. But one thing is clear, industrial inkjet printing is both narrow-format and wide-format (wide-format is 24 inches and wider). Grand format is a sub-category of wide format: there are no consistent definitions, but 104” and wider is grand format. To others anything over 74” is grand format. Printers at 5-meter widths are increasingly common.
FLAAR does not cover bar code printers, so no coding and marking printers. Our primary focus is on wide-format inkjet printers for signage, display, packaging, labels, and fashion (textile printing) and interior decoration (glass, ceramic tiles, wood veneer, murals, stone, metal).
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Samples of glass and ceramic tiles printouts. |
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There are many printer manufacturers who claim to be industrial printers but I do not accept most of the claims that don't meet realistic levels of competence. To me, a manufacturer of industrial printers would be one of the level of WP Digital (in Switzerland). There obviously are others, and as we have the opportunity to visit their headquarters demo rooms we can add them to the list.
It is widely accepted that industrial inkjet printing will grow in 2010 and beyond. One result is that occasionally the term of industrial inkjet printer is used to define a printer for which this term is not appropriate. This is sort of like greenwashing, where an eco-solvent printer is considered “Green”. So FLAAR is more strict about defining industrial inkjet printers (I don't include most textile printers).
First posted November 23, 2009.
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We are adding new pages and new features every month so it is not always realistic to update old pages from past years. All the old equipment is still available on eBay, so we keep even our old pages. If you wish only the more up to date product reviews, these are in PDFs (not in the web pages, but in PDFs which are linked in the columns at the right of every page). Please realize that we tend to update a page (or a PDF) primarily when it is clear that our readers ask about this brand or model frequently. With over 45 brands of UV printers and over 200 models in the past ten years, it is not realistic to update pages on obsolete brands or unpopular models. If you prefer to speak with Nicholas Hellmuth in person about a printer, you can bring him to your company anywhere in the world as consultant. By later in 2012 more of our web sites will be in 36 different languages with instant translation (and better than old fashioned web page translators of several years ago). So far all the languages are available on www.FLAAR.org and www.3d-scanners-3d-software-reviews.org. Next will be our www.large-format-printers.org. |
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