Domino Printing Sciences has launched a N730i press, the ‘most significant’ product the company has launched since it started in the digital label press business. It is also the first press to use new Generation 7 ink jet platform.

‘This is the most significant new product we have launched since we started in the digital label press business,’ commented Philip Easton, director of the Domino Digital Printing Solutions. ‘It has been a huge collaborative team effort, spread over five years, involving our colleagues at Brother Industries, supplier partners, our development team and our existing customers. Today, we are so proud of what the N730i delivers, as we truly believe it is setting new standards in high performance inkjet label printing.’

The N730i incorporates new features including the Brother Bitstartm 1200dpi piezo print head, the SunLight graphical user interface, and the latest automated Domino i-Tech intelligent technology featuring i-Tech SetAlign and i-Tech CleanCap2.

Louise Adcock, global product manager at Domino Digital Printing Solutions said: ‘We have almost 1,000 global installations already using our existing Generation 6 ink jet platform. During the development of the N730i, we really listened to our customers, so we are confident that this press will enable label converters to get the best return from their digital printing investment. Based on customer feedback, we focused on three key areas: providing consistent print quality at high speed, ease of use and flexibility.’

The new press is designed to print all jobs, including the ‘silk-screen-like’ white at 70m/min (230ft/min) with consistent print quality.

The Brother Bitstartm 1200dpi print head uses a combination of drop sizes of 2.1pl and nominal drop sizes of 2.8pl and 3.3pl to provide consistent ink density across the image, with sharper edges and smoother gradients. Patented triple-layer polycrystalline micro piezo technology minimizes cross talk and delivers precise nozzle control for optimum drop placement accuracy.

Domino’s i-Tech features represent developments designed to improve efficiency, use, function and reliability. i-Tech SetAlign is a new automated system that sets density and accurately aligns the print heads for uniform print quality across the full web width. Domino has also enhanced performance with i-Tech CleanCap2, an automated print head cleaning and capping system reducing manual operator intervention and waste. Other i-Tech features include the established i-Tech ActiFlow, UltraMix, and WebRev.

‘In basic terms, our customers win business against their competitors on the labels they can produce, they make a profit from delivering them efficiently. The N730i’s consistent high print quality will mean they will win more business, while high speed combined with reliability means they can also print it efficiently,’ added Adcock.

The existing user interface has been rewritten for the N730i with the development of the new Domino SunLight. It features a modern look and feel with a new version of Esko digital front end, including improved variable data printing performance, and producing process colors including orange and violet, for lower ink usage and an increased color gamut. It also adds support for the JDF/JMF data transfer, allowing automated job set-up and reporting.

The N730i is available with optional flexo stations for priming to facilitate consistent quality even on challenging media types, and for spot colors or varnishing, or for reverse white for cost-effective shrink sleeve applications.

The new press also includes Domino’s own in-house developed UV90 ink set with fade resistance including abrasion and scratch resistance. The UV90 white ink is often used as a silk-screen replacement achieving an opacity of up to 76 percent. The Textures by Domino printing capability enables tactile three-dimensional label design effects to be created.

‘When we introduced our N600i and then the N610i digital label presses, our focus was to be as good as flexo. With the N730i, we believe we are offering a quality of output that sets a new high-performance inkjet standard, and perhaps now flexo needs to start catching up,’ concluded Easton.