Mimaki TS500P-3200 Superwide Format Sublimation Transfer Inkjet Printer

Reliable Mechanism for High Productivity

"TS500P-3200" operating at a high speed of 180 m²/h increases productivity and delivers beautiful quality printing on transfer paper up to 3.2 m wide. With its excellent capabilities, it meets a broad range of applications including home furnishing textiles and indoor soft signage.

3.2-m superwide format sublimation inkjet printer

• The maximum mountable paper width is 3,300 mm and printable width is 3,290 mm. Generally, home decor fabrics for curtains, bed linens, and carpets are coordinated using the same printed patterns. However, the colors cannot be different when all of the coordinated fabrics are printed by the same printer.

Maximum print speed (180 m²/h) achieves high productivity on 3.2-m wide transfer paper

• To achieve high printing speeds, 12 printheads are arranged in a staggered 3-line array. A range of printing modes is offered to suit the finished print appearance from a high-speed (180 m²/h) draft mode to a high-quality mode.

FIG.1: Staggered arrangement

New printhead and feeding mechanism ensure high-speed and quality printing on 3.2 wide media

• Cockling is well known to reduce product yield and quality and frequently occurs on transfer papers during printing. With its cockling-reduction transfer mechanism and new printhead, the TS 500P-3200 can print on cockled papers with a high head gap setting while maintaining beautiful print quality. Previously, thin papers were used for low-cost printing and thicker papers for high-quality printing. Now, the TS500P-3200 can simultaneously provide cost reduction and high-quality printing on both thin to thick papers.

The new printhead with a high head gap achieves high-quality printing on cockled transfer papers

• Low-cost thin transfer papers tend to cockle. To prevent contact between the printhead and raised surface, a high head gap setting is required (FIG.2). In conventional models, such gap conditions reduce the accuracy of ink droplet placement (FIG.3). The new TS500P-3200 employs a new printhead with a high head gap to ensure accurate ink droplet placement, thereby enabling high-quality printing on thin paper types (FIG.4).

FIG.2: Head gap

Cockling-reduction media transfer mechanism

• 1) The media attach to the platen by vacuum suction. Under suction, the cockled media surfaces are smoothed out.
  
• 2) Auto Media Feeder (AMF) automatically applies the appropriate tension to various types of the paper from thin to thick rolls up to 130 kg, thereby maintaining stable and precise media feeding/take-up for achieving high-quality print results.
  
• 3) Two post heaters are vertically installed on the front side to accelerate ink drying. The temperature of each heater can be controlled separately. To reduce cockling, the temperature of heater 1 can be lower than that of heater 2.

 FIG.5: Section view of printer unit

 FIG. 6: New design AMF

Mimaki’s print technologies for achieving beautiful printing

Waveform control technique assures beautiful printing

• Each ink color has its own specific gravity and viscosity. To achieve precise placement of the ink droplets onto the media, Mimaki designed an optimum waveform that allows the printhead to jet each ink color at the appropriate jetting angle without losing excellent ink droplet circularity even at the high head gap. Moreover, various ink droplet sizes are precisely placed from the minimum size 6pl to the maximum size 24pl. Small droplets create beautiful high-resolution printing, and large droplets are very useful for high-speed printing. Thus, the TS500P-3200 satisfies a wide range of needs including beautiful high-quality printing and productive high-speed printing.

MAPS4 delivers stable high-quality printing

• Generally, swath boundaries are straight lines. Therefore, a slight misalignment between boundaries causes banding or uneven color printing. MAPS4 reduces banding and uneven color printing with blurred boundaries similar to gradation printing.

Uninterrupted printing solutions

• Ink and media shortage, clogged nozzles, and other minor problems influence stable productivity. The TS500P-3200 fully supports continuous printing with reliable technologies.

NCU automatically detects and recovers clogged nozzles

• Clogged nozzles are detected automatically by monitoring ink droplets with sensors. When clogged nozzles are located, these are automatically cleaned, reducing waste printing. Nozzles are checked per transfer file.

NRS for maintaining productivity

• If the clogged nozzles are not recovered after cleaning through the NCU function, the NRS selects substitute nozzles and then restarts printing. This is a significant novelty, since previously, when nozzle cleaning fails, the printhead has to be repaired by a technician, and the printing operation ceases until the printhead is repaired. The NRS allows the printer to continue printing without interruption by using non-defective nozzles as substitutes for defective nozzles until the technician arrives.^*
  
• * NRS may not be activated depending on print modes.

Built-in large (3 l) ink containers for long-time continuous printing

• Large (3 l) ink containers are installed in an external ink supply unit. Ink can be filled into the container during long-time continuous printing. A degassing module is installed on the printhead carriage to allow the use of affordable undegassed inks.