"...we needed to maintain a consistently high print speed, no matter what the type of paper." (Kameda)
It seems like you've put out a wonderful product, but in what ways is it superior to what other companies are offering?
- Kameda
- A uniform print speed for all media.
Commercial presses print on all kinds of paper--plain paper, coated paper, thin paper, larger paper, small paper, and so on. Until now, when printing on special paper it was a given that the print speed would slow down to some degree. But when that happens, productivity drops off. So we needed to realize a consistently high print speed, no matter what the type of paper.
What kind of technology enabled you to do that?
- Kameda
- Up to now, in order to melt the toner, thick paper required more heat, so the speed fell accordingly, and productivity dropped off.
With the imagePRESS´s dual fixing system, two fixing units are incorporated where previously there would have been only one. The machine adjusts the settings on the two units according to the type of paper being used, making it possible to output at a uniform speed for all media, from thin paper to those up to 300 grams per square meter, like cardboard.
dual fixing unit system
The two fixing units operate separately according to the type of paper?
- Kameda
- Yes. They also play different roles. The first unit melts the toner cleanly and fixes it to the paper. The second one controls the gloss.
When you say "fixing unit," I get a strong image of applying pressure and heat.
- Kameda
- Basically that's the case, but the excellent thing about these fixing units is that the temperatures of the pressure from above and pressure from below are controlled with extreme precision so that they maintain the same temperature no matter how many sheets pass through.
Did you have difficulty in the early stages given that this was the first time that two fixing units had been used?
- Kameda
- Yes. Firstly, the set-up originally came from simulations, so we were able to predict that a certain level of performance would require a certain amount of heat, and so on. The trouble started when we produced something based on our simulations. All sorts of problems arose, resulting in defective images. In the early stages, the images that emerged were like nothing we'd ever seen before; we all started giving them names. (Laughs.) We analyzed each and every sheet of output individually.
The biggest issue was that the first fixing unit applied heat to an area three or four times wider than before, but depending on how it was applied, various defects appeared in the images. It was extremely troublesome working out how to apply heat to produce a clean image.
