With its industry-leading speeds, precision geometrics, fast throughput and low running costs, the PIKE printer represents a new performance benchmark for textile printing.
PIKE is based on a full-width array of Fujifilm Samba print elements, specially modified in a joint project for optimum performance in textile printing. These elements are incorporated in a highly accurate but user-friendly print-bar technology, including specialised electronics as well as an ink conditioning and ink delivery system, called ‘Archer®’.
The Archer technology offers both precision and a significantly greater jetting distance than is possible with other heads widely used in current digital-textile applications. Head plates in the Archer are situated 4mm away from the substrate surface, compared with the typical 1.5mm nozzle-fabric distance offered by alternative print heads. The longer jetting distance greatly reduces the risk of ‘head strike’, which can damage these expensive components. It also eliminates the need for ‘neat edges’ for most fabrics, as required in all digital printing systems today. These advantages allow SPGPrints to offer the ‘Archer Print Head Program’, which provides a 2.5 years guarantee on the print heads in combination with the use of PIKE inks. These PIKE inks are optimised for the PIKE single-pass printer and with only six colours, offer a colour gamut that exceeds the HD-gamut of today’s scanning machine solutions.
In addition, Archer technology assures fine line detail, blotches and tonal curves, thanks to its high resolution, large drop-size range and high jetting frequencies.
Regular demonstrations at the ITMA Milan stand will provide first-hand appreciation of PIKE’s standard-setting performance. The first PIKE printer is a 6-colour machine in which each colour is represented by an Archer print bar containing 43 print elements, giving a printing width of 1850mm. The print bar has a native resolution of 1200 x 1200dpi, variable drop-sizes between 2pl to 10pl and a jetting frequency of 32 kHz. As a result of these features, PIKE offers up to 80 percent more ink delivery than any other solution today and a typical productivity of 40 linear metres per minute, with a maximum of around 90 m/min. The modular construction will allow models with up to nine colours. Wider versions of the PIKE, up to 3200mm, are also planned.
