Five years after the introduction of the successful I-Fix, Setema of Netherlands announced a completely new high speed II-Fix for the fixation of disperse dyes and pigments up to 5m width at FESPA 2015 in Cologne, in Germany.
Meeting the customer’s requirements, Setema has seen a growing market demand for faster and wider dry-heat fixation equipment consistent with the increasing speed and width of the digital disperse printers and an upcoming interest in pigment as well.
According to Nop Elemans, Director of Setema and developer of the II-Fix, “Customers not only require a higher fixation speed for disperse dyes, also pigment printing is an emerging market. All our experiences in the last five years with our first I-Fix range are put into this development with the result that we now have a particularly compact and efficient fixation unit suited for disperse and pigment fixation”.
“The newly developed II-Fix achieves a four times higher output compared to the existing I-Fix. To make the II-Fix fit for pigment we needed to increase the capacity since pigment requires a much longer contact time than disperse” he said.
The II-Fix is a completely autonomous heat fixation unit that can be used as a stand-alone fixation unit to keep up with several printers or can be coupled in-line to any digital printer without the need of a mechanical or electrical interface. Textile printing and heat fixation are automatically synchronised to a one step process.
Advantages of the II-Fix are:
• Maintaining the textile structure due to the pressure-free heat fixation.
• Supporting in-line workflow as well as stand-alone process
• Small operating space
• Operational within 15 minutes
• Low overall energy consumption due to closed isolated chamber
• An integrated exhaust removes hazardous solvents, which evaporate easily at high fixation temperatures from the ink, thereby keeping the working environment clean.
• Placed behind the printer, the II-Fix will not influence the printing process with heat generation and evaporated solvents.
• High functionality and productivity at a low price.
• Also suitable for universal drying applications.
• Available for the cloth widths: 1.85 m, 2.50 m 3.40 m and 5.00 m
With temperatures between 50 and 220°C and contact times from 15 seconds till several minutes the II-Fix is suitable for a wide range of fixation and drying applications. The electrical heated aluminium drums provide an even temperature in the full width and guarantee a quick heat transfer to the textile. Cleaning is easy because the exhaust hood can be opened, allowing access to the drums. It is delivered complete with its own embedded control-unit.