The Durst Rho 1000, one of the most impressive UV printing machines
The Durst Rho 1000 is the most sophisticated and impressive UV combo flatbed printer machine at FESPA. And again at SGIA 2009, frankly I found the Durst more impressive than the Inca Onset S20.
In terms of industrial production, So far there are 3 models to consider, all of them with automatic feeding mechanisms: the Inca Onset, the EFI VUTEk GS3200, and the Durst Rho 1000.
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Durst Rho 1000, impressive UV combo flatbed printer machine, FESPA trade show 2009. |
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First, the Durst Rho 1000 is fast. The carriage goes once over the material and then a second time while the material is still moving. I will need to ask whether it is printing during both passes or only printing in one pass and then curing in the second pass.
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Here the Durst Rho 1000 printing samples at the FESPA 2009. |
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Specs and Price:
Both the original Rho 1000 and the upgraded version Rho 1000L handle rigid and roll media up to 98” (250 cm) wide Rigid media goes up to 1.58” (4 cm) in thickness. As is traditional in the Durst inkjet printers, this model comes with Spectra heads producing a 30pl. drop size. The standard model comes in CMYK configuration but lc, lm, and White are available options. Process colors are available options too: Orange and Violet, or Orange and Green. The price is around the €1,200,000 (US$1,653,000)*.
The idiom in America, is “built like a Mack Truck” or “built like a tank.” In the USA, in the 1960's to 1970's, the Mack was the macho 16-wheeler truck. The Durst Rho 1000, however, has more European sophistication than either a Mack Truck or a tank.
I will need to inspect the Durst Rho 1000 close-up, to see the print quality. Some aspects of the speed remind me of the GRAPO Shark. Both the Rho 1000 and the Shark are significantly better quality than anything that NUR built.
It is not yet clear how many printheads are in each color bar (whether it is one-pass fixed array, page array printheads). All this will become better known when the presentation is made.
Every structure has advantages: dedicated flatbed or dedicated roll to roll. Durst is a company that has demonstrated that the moving transport belt has advantages over a dedicated flatbed-only concept (Gandinnovations would be a flatbed-only concept and none of their printers are intended for fast production in a conveyor-belt type of situation). The HP Scitex FB7500 is reported by people who have looked at it not to be as high a quality output as the Rho 1000.
As soon as it is possible to do demo testing on the Durst Rho 1000, I can update this page.
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Durst Rho 1000 combo flatbed printer, FESPA 2009. |
*The figures here are the equivalent in US$ in Nov. 2011, but prices for the USA are not necessarily the equivalent in US$ of the official price in Euros.
Most recently updated November 2011.
First posted the morning of the first day of FESPA Digital Europe 2009 in May. Updated October 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 2011 each 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 fine art photography, giclee, decor web site. |
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