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Fluorescent, white and transparent toners: enter the magical world of OKI - and meet Bianco Digitale!

 

Large format was well represented on the OKI stand in Hall 5 (see previous column).  Meanwhile, on the office half of the stand, pride of place was given to the new range of colors several OKI toner printers can run on:  fluorescent CMY, white and shiny clear toner (aka varnish). These bring a new dimension to color printing, and OKI presented new products and new options for expanding digital printing beyond the traditional CMYK gamut at Drupa 2016.

 

At the forefront of this, the Pro6410 NeonColor is the first printer capable of producing fluorescent colors.  OKI are positioning this machine squarely in graphic arts, for example to help printshops produce textile transfers cheaply and easily and in general, the device is intended to aid creativity.  "This is part of OKI's ongoing commitment to innovation; opening up creative new revenue opportunities for clients," said Jean-Philippe Martinez, marketing director of OKI France.

Fluorescent brings a flashy original touch to media and will be a boon to such diverse markets as textile manufacture and advertising.  What's more, the fourth color can be swapped between white and black in a few seconds to adapt to light and dark materials. The Pro6410 handles media from A6 to A4 and banners up to 1.20m long.

 

A few other OKI LED printers can run white: the Pro7411WT (A4) and Pro9420WT (A3). This range allows the printing of deep and dense white color on a variety of media and even darker media.

Still steeped in the graphic arts, OKI also presented its 5-color technology, CMYK plus white or varnish.  The Pro9541 offers CMYK, plus white or a selective varnish. The Pro9542 runs CMYK plus very dense and bright white.  These options open up a wide range of applications such as printing onto very dark paper or card stocks and onto novel substrates such as transparencies and all types of transfer paper.

 

Xerox Phasers printing white
 

Bianco Digitale is an ingenious and creative project born in the workshop of MC System, the Xerox dealership in Perugia, Italy.  After a year of research, they released modified firmware and toner cartridges for a small selection of Xerox printers and MFPs enabling them to print in white.  The project was extended to enable printing onto transfer sheets and more rigid materials.  This provides the ability to transfer images to black fabrics leaving no residue, for T-shirts, sweaters, shoes, caps, etc.  Now BiancoDigitale have further extended into fluorescent and even phosphorescent (glow in the dark) toners.  "This is the first time we have come to Drupa and we are very happy to be here and to present our project. We have had a lot of success; it's been very positive, "says Lorenzo Lepri, product manager at MC System.

 

 

 

How does it work? The principle works on standard Phaser printers (7800, 6600, etc.) that have the same characteristics as the conventional printer.  This is made possible with a special PostScript 3 RIP that BiancoDigitale developed with DEV Studio, the Italian RIP company.  They buy toner from China and refill and modify Xerox toner cartridges.

Two types of printing are possible with their white toner system. The first is the technology employed by the BiancoDigitale X3 / X4 series - designed for rigid fabrics and materials. This process is available on the Phaser WPs and Phaser fluo-WPs.

The second type is for printing directly onto paper (or card) up to 350g / m² in simplex and 300g / m² for duplex.  The system is identical to that of the transfer machine with the exception that the white toner is applied as the first coat which thus creates the background for color images on dark substrates - black or dark-colored materials that it is not feasible to use on laser or inkjet machines.  This type of printing is possible on the Phaser WPs-DP, DP-WP-fluorescent and H-Neon.

 

BiancoDigitale also provides a conversion kit for the Xerox C60 / 70 with white or fluorescent toner for direct printing on paper (standard, black and colored).  

 

Pro XL is the exclusive distributor in France and Belgium.  BiancoDigitale products have been approved by Xerox.  They're talking to Xerox Europe for wider distribution.  Watch this space for more news!

 

Find more information about their innovations here: http://www.biancodigitale.it/