Clevedon, UK – With the fast-growing desire of consumers and businesses for personalisation and bespoke goods and services, Roland DG has announced today an exciting new addition to help entrepreneurial printers capitalise on this trend: the VersaUV LEF-200 flatbed printer. Enabling on-demand small-lot customisation of an enormous range of items, objects and accessories, the LEF-200 is the latest in Roland DG’s benchtop UV-LED flatbed inkjet line-up.
The LEF-200 offers outstanding print quality, greater media compatibility, and ease of use for the personalisation and custom printing markets. With a print bed of 508x330mm (20”x13”), the LEF-200 prints high-quality full-colour, white and clear inks on a wide variety of materials including three-dimensional items up to 100mm (4”) thick. To accommodate an expanded range of profitable applications, the LEF-200 features a new on-board primer ink option for priming objects quickly and conveniently. The Roland VersaWorks Dual RIP software, included in the price of the LEF-200, simplifies the process of producing graphics with special effects.
According to Yuko Maeda, division president of Roland DG business development unit: “With the LEF-200 you can customise a wide range of consumer products and promotional items such as smartphone cases, pens, awards, giftware, plates and more.” The new primer ink option allows users to prepare an object for customisation before printing a full-colour graphic. “This makes adding graphics to glass, plastics and other challenging media so much more clean and efficient,” she said. The primer ink option is also compatible with the LEF-300.
The LEF-200 incorporates Roland DG’s proprietary CMYK, white and clear ECO-UV inks for premium quality printing. Clear ink can be printed for spot gloss or matt finishes, as well as unique embossing effects. White ink can be printed as a spot colour or behind CMYK on dark backgrounds or clear materials. To meet individual business requirements, users can choose from three ink configurations: CMYK+White+ Primer, CMYK+White+Clear, and CMYK+White+White.
“We have also added usability enhancements to the LEF-200 for greater efficiency.” Maeda added. Roland VersaWorks Dual enables users to work not only with PostScript? files, but also allows for native processing of PDF files to ensure transparency effects are processed accurately. In addition, white or clear ink data can be generated easily in the RIP, ideal for use in producing transparent personalised accessories with special effects. The position and size of special colour data can also be adjusted in the RIP for perfect registration. Features like rotation and mirroring of the data can be configured in the RIP as well, without the need to return to your graphic design software. The newly available Maintained Clipped Position function is included which enables you to print designated images only. This feature is useful when extra processes such as clear effects are required for printing specific items.
According to Maeda, “With the growing desire to offer consumers a personalised experience reflecting individual preferences and lifestyles, the market for on-demand printing onto a whole array of items is an exciting and growing trend. In recent years, we have seen an increasing number of businesses using our VersaUV LEF printers to provide custom printing of smartphone cases and accessories. With the LEF-200’s greater versatility for applications, the money-making possibilities are substantial and with its ease-of-use capabilities, even operators with minimal digital printing skills can operate the device.”