Eight years after Screen surprised the world with its first high-speed web-fed inkjet press, the Kyoto-based company today announces the next generation of inkjet printing with the launch of the Truepress Jet520HD. Screen has manufactured more than 700 inkjet presses since the market-defining Truepress Jet520 was originally launched and it remains today the best-selling inkjet press for the transactional, direct mail and book printing markets. Despite this success, Screen has recognised that the market for inkjet can be extended by offering a significant improvement in print quality and by widening the range of materials that can be printed.

With this in mind, Screen set about developing a next-generation inkjet printing machine where quality is the driving force. The result is the new Truepress Jet520HD, a ground-up design with new paper transport, new drying techniques, new printheads and new screening technologies that make the most of new wide-gamut inks.

Starting with the basic specifications, like many of the current inkjet machines on the market today, this new model is 520mm wide but there the similarities end. The first big difference is the combination of speeds and resolutions. The highest quality output is achieved at 50 m/min with a resolution of 1200x1200dpi while the fastest speed is 120 m/min at a resolution of 600x600dpi.

In addition to the high resolution, the Truepress Jet520HD benefits from the printhead’s ability to produce variable size droplets. In combination with the company’s unique screening algorithms, different size droplets can be precisely placed to maximize print quality and minimize ink consumption.

The next key difference is a new high density ink which is very close to the standards used in offset printing worldwide. Using ink with such a high density allows the operator to choose between printing with the highest quality or to minimise costs by using less ink than current inkjet technologies.

Most inkjet web presses today can only print on a limited range of substrates, typically 60gsm to 170gsm. The new Truepress Jet520HD can print on material from 40gsm to 250gsm which significantly increases the flexibility of the machine in terms of the work that can be produced. Printing high-quality variable colour on 250gsm board creates many new direct mail opportunities such as post cards and one-piece mailers.

While the initial machines will be launched as four-colour units, the Truepress Jet520HD has a modular structure to allow for extra head units to be added in the future. Each printhead will be controlled independently so that if you are only printing with one colour, all of the other printheads remain capped. However, there is no time delay when switching from a single-colour to multi-colour job.

All Screen’s inkjet printers have a reputation for their ease of use and simple maintenance routines, and this has led many users to opt for a self-service approach. The Truepress Jet520HD will be no exception. For example, the use of industrial printheads means that head changing is not a regular event and even when they do need to be changed, the unit is easily accessible and changing a head is simple.

The Truepress Jet520HD will be launched with an optional inspection unit based on Screen’s highly regarded JetInspection. JetInspection is a system that checks the whole page and compares the printed result to the RIP data to give a unique level of security. JetInspection has been redesigned for use with the new press, including complete integration with the machine’s GUI.

Last but not least, the Truepress Jet520HD benefits from being driven by Screen’s Equios workflow software. A new version of Equios will be launched with the printer that has new features to optimize the machine’s performance such as In-RIP Smart Imposition, ICC Profile Editor and Spot Colour Editor. Using the latest Adobe core, Equios will be able to process all levels of variable data at the full engine speed.

Because the focus of the development for the Truepress Jet520HD has been on increasing the market applications for high-speed inkjet, the new machine will not replace the current family of Truepress Jet520s. The Truepress Jet520 still offers excellent value. Similarly, Screen will continue to sell the Truepress Jet520EX Mono for black and white printing for the higher speeds required in some volume applications, and the Truepress Jet520ZZ delivering up to 220 m/min.
The first European installation of the Truepress Jet520HD will be in Holland at direct mail printer Nic.Oud (www.nicoud.nl) in November 2014 and the second in Switzerland at direct mail printer Baumer (www.baumer.ch).

Nic.Oud provides direct mail for companies in The Netherlands, such as Makro and Sanoma, and its ‘game-changing’ Truepress Jet520HD press will play a key role in driving future growth.  The press will transform the company’s personalised, on-demand print services by enabling them to provide its retail and marketing agency customers with powerful, personalised content which matches online campaigns in delivering high-response results.

“Quality is extremely important to our customers and, until now, inkjet quality has just not been at the level we wanted for the direct mail products we produce for our leading brand customers,” says Maurice Gelissen, CFO, Nic.Oud.  “We have spent a lot of time evaluating a lot of presses and conducting blind tests and the Screen Truepress Jet 520HD is absolutely the best. A significant feature is its ability to print onto a broad range of paper and board weights. So, not only does this press open up a new era in ultra-quality, hyper-personalised, direct mail production, but gives us the power to produce a variety of other materials such as cards, paper wraps, books and magazines. The new press has huge potential and gives us a significant opportunity to offer highly creative print services to our customers to make their communications much more dynamic and effective.”