ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. - With its 12 picoliter micro-droplet printheads and speed of 1,011 square feet per hour, the Screen Truepress Jet W1632UV is accelerating the drive for better quality at Outdoor Dimensions, Inc. in Anaheim, Calif.

“We absolutely love the new machine,” enthused Doug Raver, research and development manager. “After researching a number of competing wide-format UV inkjet print systems, we opted for the Truepress Jet W1632UV. The speed and quality are higher, and the system was right for our budget.”

Founded in 1974, Outdoor Dimensions is a full-service sign and display company that caters to major residential developers. Its print products adorn the interiors and exteriors of apartment complexes, condominium communities and commercial business centers, among other high-profile locations. Wide-format inkjet printers produce high-quality signs, banners and flags at the company’s 110,000-square-foot facility. 

“We operated an Inca Spyder for nine years, and we were very familiar with the platform and the mechanics of that machine,” Raver noted. “The Truepress Jet W1632UV includes many of the features we were accustomed to and some important upgrades that we didn’t have before. In particular, the Truepress has three times the speed and four times the resolution. Not many 5 x 10-foot flatbed printers on the market offer all the bells and whistles that Screen does.”

The Truepress Jet W1632UV, jointly developed with Screen’s group company Inca Digital, accepts media up to 62.9 x 125.9 inches and 1.9 inches thick. The micro-droplet printheads and apparent resolution of 1,200 dpi ensure crisp details, smooth vignettes and photographic realism on printed images. 

An automatic cleaning station keeps the nozzles from clogging. In addition, the Truepress Jet W1632UV can map between missing nozzles, providing continuous printing until there is a chance to replace the printhead.

The print carriage is part of the Truepress bed assembly rather than being fitted to the chassis. Individual printheads are fitted into the print carriage, and each head is then adjusted to the machine. As a result, the printheads are more closely aligned to the bed. This arrangement improves printer accuracy and makes it easier to replace individual heads.

“Replacing inkjet heads is a less costly event as well,” Raver added. “The Jet W1632UV heads are a fraction of the cost of older printhead technology.” 

The media remains perfectly positioned while the print carriage travels on air bearings the length of the bed. The water-cooled heads deliver a uniformity of droplet shape and size critical for time of flight control and drop placement.

Screen's proprietary Truepress inks come standard with six colors (CMYKLcLm). The flexible ink bonds exceptionally well to acrylic, glass, polystyrene and polypropylene, so Outdoor Dimensions can use a broad range of substrates to provide customers with more options.

“We print a little bit of everything on the Truepress, including billboards, site maps, swimming pool signs and backlit signs,” Raver said. 

The Screen system is particularly useful for smaller, high-quality runs.

“We can do a lot of interesting projects, and the quality is noticeably better,” Raver said. “Inkjet banding is nonexistent with the Truepress.”

The Truepress Jet W1632UV also is the ideal solution for printing “bootleg” signs — small directional signs erected each weekend to direct potential homebuyers or apartment leasers to new housing subdivisions or apartment complexes.

“We print thousands of these 18 x 24-inch cardboard signs,” Raver said.