The company claims it will compete directly against screen printing.
Martin Winkler, Durst’s segment manager for textile printing, explains: “It’s not just about pure print speed but the simplification of printing processes so that the user can start production immediately. The Alpha series combines new process technologies in order to make the interaction between print head, ink system, material, type of fabric as well as pre- and post-treatment manageable and reproducible at all times.”
The Alpha series offers print widths of 190 cm and 330 cm to suit the type of material being run through the machine. Four ink configurations exist for the machine, with acid, reactive and disperse dye sets, as well as pigment ink for cotton and polyester applications.
The Alpha Slots Piezo High Speed printheads are specific to this model and it can be configured with up to eight colours that achieve a native resolution of 600 dpi and a print speed of 460 lm/h.
The printheads also feature continuous ink circulation in all ink circuits to maintain consistent ink quality and stand-by availability. An emergency mode automatically kicks in if a print head fails to deactivate the affected print head row and continue printing with the greatest possible number of print heads. The heads should be user-replaceable.
The inks are Durst’s own Oeko-Tex Standard 100 as well as a GOTS-certified reactive ink system. Durst has also developed a new pigmented ink (Alpha Ink P) which can be used on a wide variety of textiles. No pre- or post-treatment is required for standard materials such as cotton or polyester though an integrated spray system allows other materials to be chemically pre-treated before printing.
The feed system adapts automatically to different textiles and roll diameters. Durst has also developed a Textile Workflow System that includes one-step profiling for new materials and color matching.
“The Alpha series makes digital textile production more economical and efficient,” said Winkler. “Super multi-pass technology allows us to achieve similar production capacity as with screen printing and provide 24/7 reliability that is not possible with single-pass technology.”