Xaar has launched its Versatex Printbar, enabling specialist label and flexible packaging producers to digitally print the highest opacity whites and colors and add a wide range of features to their existing presses.

Building on the Versatex Print Engine and Evaluation Kit launched last year, the new Versatex Printbar provides an opacity of 82% at 50 meters per minute, achieving the most brilliant whites and vibrant colors for labels and packaging. 

Textured and high-build print effects, varnishes, foils, and mass personalization all become available with the Versatex Printbar which can both be integrated with new machine configurations or retrofitted onto existing presses. 

Powered by Nitrox printheads with Xaar’s TF Technology, High Laydown and Ultra High Viscosity Technologies, the Versatex Printbar can handle a wide range of inks and fluids, printing at widths of 410mm and at up to 720dpi with eight grey levels at speeds of up to 75 meters per minute.

Adding a Versatex Printbar to existing machines facilitates printers in meeting the growing demand for embellishments on packaging and labels. Xaar’s High Laydown Technology delivers very high volumes of fluid in a single pass with exact temperature control, enabling the creation of high-build inks and varnishes to deliver an extensive array of tactile effects more efficiently. By complying with European standards for tactile warning triangles on labels, their application onto packaging is now much easier without the added complexity of screen printing.

Ease of use and flexibility are key. The Versatex Printbar’s “TIFF catching” workflow enables operators to simply drop a printable job into the software and make amendments “on the fly.” It can also be fully integrated with industry standard workflows, such as Esko, to send the output directly to print for maximum efficiency.

Dynamic synchronization technology also ensures maximum uptime and quick registration with pre-printed substrates. The integrated sync to mark reader can be moved into any position across the web, and once running, can be in full registration within three or four image repeats.

The Versatex Printbar includes a fully integrated and flexible control cabinet that houses all the necessary electronics and controls, and can be easily located up to five metres away for ease of operation and access.

With sustainability in mind, the Versatex Printbar, when compared to screen printing, offers shorter setup times and a higher utilization rate, resulting in small run jobs being completed faster. In addition, the ability to jet higher volumes and viscosities of fluids improves the efficiency of print processes, reducing the need for multiple passes, delivering faster print speeds and cutting energy use and costs. 

Graham Tweedale, COO at Xaar, says, “We are delighted to add the Printbar to the Xaar Versatex range as it enables OEMs and integrators to take advantage of our proven ready-to-market inkjet technology without further development overheads. The highest opacity digital whites and colors, alongside the latest high-build print and visual embellishments, can now be easily added to existing presses, saving time, energy and money across a range of self-adhesive label and flexible packaging applications.”