What is Duraflex Technology?
Duraflex is the latest offering from Memjet. It’s a print technology not to dis-similar to the current Memjet technology but everything’s moved to the next level. You still have the fixed with printhead and nothing moves other than the material during the print process but there are now both A4 & A3 wide print heads coming.
Duraflex will use pigment ink rather than water based ink currently used with Memjet. The advantage of this is that pigment ink is a lot more durable. Chemical, UV & water resistance will be far greater.
Duraflex Printhead Specs:
- Widths – A4 or A3+ printheads
- Resolution – 1600 x 1600 dpi
- Speed – Up to 30 inches per second / 46 m/min
- Inks – Aqueous pigment inks. Fast drying and very durable. Water based so safe and more environmentally friendly.
- Colours – CMYK with “edge to edge” ability
- 2x Nozzle redundancy
Who will use Duraflex Technology & Why?
Duraflex is designed for high volume printing where quality, speed, durability and a low cost per print are key. There will be many applications for Duraflex but we’ll be focussing on what this tech can bring to label and packaging printing. Memjet printers are already our highest selling print technology and Duraflex is just the next generation of this. Industrial printers as well as end users with high volumes of printing will use this.
Do we think Duraflex will be integrated into label printers?
Yes is the short answer. Memjet has been so popular and successful in the world of labels that we can’t see it not being used. We (HD Labels) will most likely be one of the first users of Duraflex in label as we run a print service in house and this will be perfect for us. Brands like Afinia have led the way in terms of Memjet printers and I expect them to do much the same with Duraflex.
UPDATE – Q3 2022 should see the launch of the all new Afinia X350 Digital Label Press. This will use the Duraflex
technology and will be the first lower cost solution to do so. It will be aimed at those needing to print high volumes of labels or flexible packaging.
See the Afinia X350 Digital Label Press in action – Afinia X350
The difference will be that the costs of the initial purchase of the machinery could be much higher. I think these systems will be for professional printing but as always, the rule of thumb with printers is that the more you spend on one the lower the running costs are. I expect that to be the case with any Duraflex label printers once released.
When will we see Duraflex label printers available?
There is one system available currently which is very large and expensive. This is aimed at the very high end printers and is north of £120k. 2022 will see the launch of at least one more affordable / mainstream model of a Duraflex label printer. We aim to launch this in April / May 2022 and the development models are already in action. Watch this space for updated details as we will be shouting about this as soon as it’s with us.
We will have demo units running at HD Labels of the Dureflex label printer. Get in touch below if you would like to be made aware as soon as it’s ready.
Afinia X350 Duraflex label printer.
Make sure you keep up to date with the latest print technology
HD Labels supply all levels of label print technology so make sure you keep in touch. Request samples, demonstrations from the team and we’ll help you find the right label solution for you.
