Xaar’s Ultra High Viscosity to unleash creativity

As part of Xaar’s ImagineX platform, Ultra High Viscosity technology ensures that Xaar’s printheads deliver high impact, productive and efficient results for volume digital label and packaging printing applications. 

Xaar said that by enabling an extended high color gamut and fluids with larger particles and more pigment, colors are more vibrant and whites and blacks stronger. The capability to print high opacity, especially whites, in a single pass is beneficial for delivering impact on many labels and direct-to-shape packaging printing applications.

Moreover, fluids and inks with viscosities of up to 100 centipoises (cP) can be jetted in a single pass, further opening opportunities for label and packaging printers to deliver new and exciting finishes for clients across a wider variety of packaging materials. 

According to the manufacturer, printers can also benefit from energy savings because UV fluids, which previously required heating to 45 degrees before jetting, can now be laid down at room temperature.  

The Ultra High Viscosity also enables high-build varnish embellishments to add texture, visual impact, and functionalities from braille to the latest haptic effects for a high-end look and shelf presence for rigid and flexible packaging.

‘We are already seeing how Ultra High Viscosity technology is opening up new possibilities for Xaar in a number of applications, particularly label and packaging,’ commented Graham Tweedale, general manager of Xaar’s printhead business unit. ‘Whereas previously inkjet printheads have typically been only able to jet fluids of around 8 to 12 cP, our technologies enable printers to jet much higher viscosities, achieving a wider color gamut and unparalleled opacity, and can be used to print an extensive range of special effects.

‘In addition, after many years of requests from clients to be able to print higher molecular weight photopolymers to increase resistance and flexibility for printed materials, our Ultra High Viscosity technology has realized this capability, truly unleashing the power of inkjet.’