A custom Roll-to-Roll printer for flexible decorative materials used in bathroom applications

Printing a decorative design on a flexible material supplied in rolls requires simultaneous control of print quality, material transport and web tension throughout production.

For this project, the customer wanted to integrate high-definition digital printing into its production process to print a pattern on a flexible decorative material intended for bathroom applications.

To meet these specifications, Ardeje Printing designed a custom InfinityA1000 Roll-to-Roll printer: a turnkey industrial digital printing system developed around the customer’s material, the design to be reproduced and its production constraints.

 

Controlling the feed and tension of the material

When printing on flexible materials, print quality depends as much on the performance of the inkjet system as it does on precise substrate transport.

Variations in tension or incorrect web guidance can alter the position of the material beneath the printheads and affect the consistency of the printed design. The InfinityA1000 Roll-to-Roll therefore incorporates a material handling system composed of tensioning rollers.

This architecture guides the material throughout the printing process and allows the web tension to be adjusted according to its mechanical properties. The web speed and applied tension are defined based on the substrate’s behaviour to maintain consistent printing conditions.

Four Ricoh printheads for high-definition decorative printing

The print carriage is equipped with four high-definition Ricoh printheads. This configuration provides the precision and level of detail required to reproduce the customer’s decorative patterns.

Printing is performed in multiple passes. During each pass, the carriage deposits part of the design while the material transport system advances the substrate in a coordinated manner.

The number of passes is defined according to several criteria:

  • The level of detail in the pattern;
  • The required graphic finish;
  • The characteristics of the material;
  • The target production speed.

These settings provide the right balance between design quality and printing time.

An architecture designed around the application

The InfinityA1000 is based on a modular architecture. The dimensions and configuration of the printer are determined during the design phase according to the characteristics of the application.

Several factors are taken into account:

  • The width of the roll material;
  • The dimensions of the designs to be printed;
  • The format of the final decorative components;
  • The available installation space;
  • The organisation of the production flow;
  • The equipment located upstream and downstream of the printing system.

This approach makes it possible to design a printer suited to both small-format applications and large-scale materials.

For this project, the machine dimensions and material handling system were specifically defined according to the size of the decorative material and the customer’s production requirements.

 

Settings adapted to the behaviour of the material

Fabric, foam and plastic film behave differently as they are unwound. Their flexibility, elasticity, thickness and surface properties directly influence material transport and printing conditions.

The process configuration can therefore be adjusted according to:

  • The type of substrate;
  • Its width and thickness;
  • Its flexibility and mechanical behaviour;
  • The substrate transport speed;
  • The tension applied to the material;
  • The number of print carriage passes.

The objective is to define a suitable operating window for the material in order to achieve a consistent decorative finish that meets the required quality level.

A turnkey solution developed around the application

This project illustrates the approach taken by Ardeje Printing when developing industrial printing systems: analysing the application, studying the material, carrying out print trials, defining process parameters, designing the machine architecture and supporting the customer through production start-up.

The InfinityA1000 Roll-to-Roll was designed to deliver the required print quality while maintaining precise control over material transport and web tension. Every component contributes to the final result, from unwinding the roll to curing the printed design.

This approach can be applied to other projects involving the digital printing of fabrics, foams, plastic films and other flexible materials supplied in rolls.

Discover the InfinityA1000 industrial printer

Would you like to integrate digital printing into your production process?

Tell us about your material, your design and your industrial constraints so that we can identify the configuration best suited to your project: https://ardeje-printing2.odoo.com/contactus

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