Aprion M.A.G.I.C., a technology for grand format printer for signs and billboards

From the time of DRUPA printer trade show onward people occasionally have asked us what we think of the Aprion and its M.A.G.I.C. technology.

Basically we need to see this in production printers, in the real world, and then we will get end-user reports. Otherwise it is premature. After all, look what happened with the Crystal-Jet technology. One of the great printer technologies of its day, yet it never survived a reality check. Same with the Kodak 5260... Kodak spent millions developing it. Kodak spent several more million dollars with full-page ads claiming it was fast as a yellow Ferrari. And then at SGIA '02 tradeshow, the printer disappeared. Indeed a search for the Kodak printer on the Encad website does not even bring up a farewell notice.

In the year 2001 we saw all kinds of advances in UV curable printer technology, so we made a special effort to check out all the UV curable ink flatbed printers at SGIA (late October 2002). Already in 2003 we are doing additional research on UV curable flatbed printers.

We are also beginning to check out actual installations of flatbed printers with UV cured inks. There is a Zund and a Durst Rho just a few minutes from our university, so we are starting with those two models. We also spent plenty of time at Photokina 2002 looking at the few UV curable ink flatbeds which were there.

As a result FLAAR has now issued Nicholas Hellmuth's report on flatbed printers with UV cured inks. It is part of the set of reports by Dr Hellmuth, in the new Series format.

If your company is thinking about sinking a quarter of a million dollars into a flatbed printer, you might want to pick Professor Hellmuth's brain for some tips. A day with him as consultant could be a good investment.

UPDATED: July 06/2001, revised May 13, 2002, updated November 18, 2002; last updated May 26, 2003