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Kodak's Versamark DS9100 has been configured to print directly onto wood for decorative wooden floor manufacturer, Gruppo Frati |
Italian producer of wood-based flooring panels, Gruppo Frati, has significantly improved quality and throughput at its Bipan factory following the installation of a Kodak continuous inkjet digital printing system.
The equipment is printing directly onto a wooden substrate, which eliminates a host of steps in the company's finishing process, including web offset printing.
Previously production of the BipanFlor product was carried out by applying impregnated decorative paper onto a fibre wood material, finished to make it look like parquet. Installing a digital printing solution enabled Gruppo Frati to streamline this procedure, reducing costs and above all reducing the time taken for roto-offset printing.
The Kodak Versamark DS9100 system with a nine inch print head was identified as the ideal system to print the 20cm BipanFlor panels, however the system had never been used to print on wood. Keen to try out new applications, Kodak installed the DS9100 for a trial period with successful results.
During this time the printer tackled a variety of challenges, from ink coverage to colour profiling made difficult because the printing surface is not white. Once these issues were resolved by Kodak technicians, digital printing made it possible to eliminate a number of production steps including printing on paper, applying this paper onto the panel and application of a protective film. This offered significant savings as well as increasing print flexibility.
Bipan’s managing director, Dante Frati, said: “Roto-offset printing imposed various constraints on the type of decoration we could print and we could only accept large orders, however now we can create new decorations, such as wood shading and graining.”
With the experimentation phase over, the four Kodak Versamark DS9100 print heads will be assembled with a mechanical transport and panel profiling system in a single configuration. In fact Gruppo Frati has applied for a patent covering the Kodak Versamark DS9100 for printing onto wood including its integration in a transport and profiling system. This has led to a commercial agreement with Kodak to sell the system internationally.
With the changeover to digital printing throughout the site, Dante Frati is hoping to expand his current customer base to include individual customers and orders of any size.
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