How Konica Minolta reinvented inkjet with AccurioJet KM-1

The machine can handle a widest range of substrates and that that too from .06 to .6mm thickness. Thus, it can be used for packaging printing. At the same time, the machine’s duplex printing capability is ideal commercial prints. Again, the machine’s offset like transport technology enables ease of use for operators used in commercial offset technology.

As AccurioJet KM-1 UV Inkjet Press, is a UV press, its UV ink along with inkjet technology enables printing on various difficult substrates like canvas, emboss, etc.

The machine comes with a long and powerful history of Konica Minolta technologies that are being leveraged to change the commercial production print environment.

“Konica Minolta is committed to be amongst the top manufacturers in the commercial and packaging printing arenas, and is investing a substantial amount of R&D dollars to do it. We are continually investing to bring solutions for our clients to add more value to print,” said Manish Gupta, deputy general manager, PP and IP marketing, Konica Minolta.

Years of R&D, combined with real-world market leadership in key technical components – inkjet heads, ink, and processing technologies - were brought together as foundational components that led to the revolutionary new AccurioJet KM-1 Press.

Konica Minolta has a deep inkjet history and the world's largest market share — over 40% — in piezo inkjet heads. The AccurioJet KM-1 takes full advantage of the 20 plus years of Konica Minolta R&D commitment to deliver the graphic arts quality the AccurioJet KM-1 is gaining world-wide recognition for. Konica Minolta has taken that 20 year history of inkjet head technology, ink development, and processing technologies, and put them all together into a cutting-edge new product.

Konica Minolta has developed a new and unique UV-curable inkjet technology for a sheetfed inkjet digital press AccurioJet KM-1, which achieves offset like high quality image with high productivity; 3,000 sheets per hour. A number of AccurioJet KM-1 have already run in the production lines of customers.

The single-pass inkjet printing technology, one of the key technologies for the high productivity, is still a big challenge for image processing. To avoid the dots coalescing, Konica Minolta has developed a new ink formulation and curing process which can control the ink viscosity precisely in the print head and on the recording media. With improved technology, controlling the gloss level of the image is reality. Combining them, Konica Minolta has succeeded to develop a printing system which achieves offset like high quality image with high productivity.

The UV ink that the KM-1 utilises is not the same UV ink printers have traditionally experienced. Gone are the UV ink drawbacks of the past, replaced by an unconventional ink and delivery system that produces startlingly beautiful, graphic arts quality output.

“Konica Minolta has world class business intelligence services and global client services organisations of engineers backed by a network of 24-hour call centres, supporting hundreds of thousands of customers today. Konica Minolta has a worldwide footprint and is a market share leader in the overall print industry,” Gupta said.

The AccurioJet KM-1 allows print service providers to produce fully personalised 1200x1200dpi, 23 x 29.5-inch sheets that compare to offset quality with no plates, no makeready, and no waste. The large B2+ sheet size enables more pages ‘up’ on a sheet than any other graphic arts quality digital technology on the market. Getting more on the sheet means getting the job done faster with fewer sheets, and driving a more profitable bottom line.

The AccurioJet KM-1 Press produces the equivalent of 18,000 full-bleed 8.5x11-inches pages an hour — that’s 300 letter size pages per minute. Since its digital, every one of those can contain variable content. Then when printers learn of the wide array of media types and weights that they can print on without any pre-treatment, they are always intrigued.

“Simply put, users see a wider array of substrates types and weights, better quality, and a lower cost of production all from a single press – the KM-1,” Gupta added.