The following appears on printweek.com
Screen-print press manufacturer Thieme has announced the upcoming launch of the Thieme 3000 D, its first digital device to have been developed completely in-house.
The 3000 D, which will be launched at Fespa next year, is a highly-customisable, multi-pass UV inkjet, wide-format printer based on a combination of Thieme’s screen printing technology and Konica Minolta’s KM1024 printheads.
Thieme has designed the press as a modular system that can operate as a standalone digital press or be integrated into an existing manufacturing line for industrial printing applications.
According to Thieme, the design flexibility, which includes the possibility to have a hybrid press that combines digital printing with a screen printing station, means that 14m variations are theoretically possible.
These include the size of the press, material handling through the press (including everything from the way the material enters and exits the press to rotations and alignment adjustments within the press), as well as printing and drying options.
The press offers a maximum eight ink channels, with a number of configurations possible from the available ink set (CMYK, Lc, Lm, Lk, White), in addition to an optional primer and topcoat.
At present, the maximum number of printheads the 3000 D can be fitted with is 24 (three rows of eight colours), although Thieme printing systems manager Armin Gerland said that this was expected to increase once the press moves beyond the beta stage.
The 3000 D is the first digital press to carry the Thieme brand. However, it is not the first digital device Thieme has manufactured; the German firm supplied the chassis and material handling technology for the co-developed Agfa M-Press, which was launched in 2005 and mothballed in April of this year.