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DuPont still beta-testing and improving their Cromaprint 25S solvent inkjet printer

There are several ways for a company to have a solvent ink printer to sell. 

• They can manufacturer the printer themselves.

• They can rebrand the printer of someone else.

• Or, rather uniquely, they can take the printer of a manufacturer and improve it, and then sell it.

Mutoh does it the first way: they build their own printers. Oce has gradually learned that developing their own solvent ink printers is too expensive. The technology changes too fast and there are too many competing brands. So Oce now distributes the nice solvent ink printers of Gandinnovations in Europe. Oce also distributed the Seiko ColorPainter 64S in Europe but HP will take over distribution of the next generation of Seiko mild solvent printers. 

DuPont is doing it a different way: DuPont has Shenzhen Runtianzhi Image Technology, Runjiang Group build the printers. DuPont and alpha-testers and then beta-testers work out what parts of the original Chinese printer need to be completely redone. Only when the printer meets acceptable US and European expectations is the printer released. So this is why the DuPont Cromaprint 25S is still in beta stage. 

Raster Printers took the chassis of another printer from Shenzhen Runtianzhi Image Technology, Runjiang Group, the Flora 1.8 meter model solvent ink printer, and had it gradually turned into a UV-cured inkjet printer. After about 18 months the Raster Printers UV version has been released. 

So you get better mechanical parts than the original Chinese version. You also get American back-up. With the DuPont printer you also get DuPont’s know-how in ink chemistry and substrates. So we look forward to when the DuPont Cromaprint 25S is released officially, probably sometime in 2006. We most recently saw the Cromaprint 25S beta version at SGIA 2005 trade show. 

Flora is the model name of the other printers sold by Shenzhen Runtianzhi Image Technology, Runjiang Group. 

Dupont Cromaprint 25S printer at FESPA trade show 2005.

Here the Dupont Cromaprint 25S printing samples at SGIA trade show 2005.

First posted Jan. 5, 2006 after SGIA trade show, December 2005.