After making a big impression on the Xaar stand at last year’s drupa exhibition, sales of the Octopus (which utilises Xaar print heads) have been strong. Prepress specialists Cyrachrome have an exclusive agreement with the Czech Republic company to distribute the printer in Australia and New Zealand.

Originally designed four years ago by Grapo to meet the demands of its own advertising company, the flatbed and roll-to-roll printer has seen over 40 systems installed in Europe and another 100 on order for 2005.

The Octopus X4 accommodates flexible and rigid substrates up to 2050mm wide (max. print 2040mm) and 50mm thick including plastic, wood, glass, metal, ceramics, textiles, paper and cardboard (including corrugated surfaces). Applications include outdoor signage, banners, point of sale display materials and vehicle graphics.

The printer features four Xaar XJ-500 print heads (500 nozzles per head) in CMYK format. Four large-capacity (6 litre) metal tanks deliver the UV ink (from leading manufacturer Sun Inks) to sub-tanks positioned above the piezo inkjet print heads. An air-cooled UV lamp mounted on the print carriage cures the ink as it is printed.

Print resolution is 360 x 360 dpi. Full-width uni-directional print speeds range from 28 sq m/hour (2-3 passes) to 7.5 sq m/hr (7-8 passes). Bi-directional printing increases these speeds significantly. The printer also includes built-in PC control with custom-designed software and RIP with CMYK colour management.

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