Roland unveils sublimation package

Roland DG is showing a new sub €30,000 sublimation package for printers looking to add soft-signage printing at Fespa in Cologne.

The deal includes an eight-colour, 1,440dpi Texart RT-640 printer, launched this year, a Texart CS-64 calendaring unit and Roland Ergosoft RIP. The Texart has a production quality print speed of 22.0m²/h and a maximum speed of 32.6m²/h.

“The idea is that a customer can buy this and then set themselves up as a signmaker. Normally the printer and the calendar would be €36,000 or €37,000 alone,” marketing manager for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Benelux Karel Sannen said.

The company has a seamstress on stand (6-Q15) making cushion covers from the Texart output.

“We have a lot of signmakers visiting the show. It’s easy to do sublimation, the difficulty is what do you do with the roll of textile. We want to show people. The main focus is cushions but we are showing other interesting workflows for signs too.”

A partnership between Roland and Lightbar is also having its first showing outside the UK. The Lightbar solvent-UV ink system will be shown alongside the VersaCAMM VS-640i print and cut model at the show. 

Roland said the Partner Solution product offers immediate drying, much improved scratch and chemical resistance, as well as significantly lower operating costs when compared to latex.

The company has also unveiled a new RIP and print management software for Mac OS X at Fespa this week, which it said will increase speed and efficiency.

Rolandprintstudio is now available across the EU region and can be used with Roland printers, printer/cutters and standalone cutters. It features the Adobe PDF Print Engine, which renders artwork using native Adobe functionality; enabling users to work through the entire RIP - print - cut process. 

Roland said this increases overall production speeds and eliminates problems often associated with layers and transparencies. The software’s 64bit processing capabilities allow it to maximise the available operating system resources and deliver “blisteringly fast RIP speeds” Roland says.