Vegapress digital printing

The Chinese market has had a strong expansion in the digital sector.

….. ”from 41 in 2015 to 823 in 2021 and is rising at an increasing rate of 300 units per year confirmed in 2022, 2023 and 2024”

Source: Webinar between the main Chinese machinery manufacturers.

The market share is divided between 3 main players. Among these, Atexco is the only company with 30 years of history and with strong experience and a dedicated structure in the installation and assistance of its machinery overseas, boasting over 2000 active customers beyond the domestic market.

The history of Hangzhou Honghua Digital Technology, known as “Atexco” begins in Hangzhou in 1992 as a software house. Today it is a world-leading manufacturer of very high-speed digital printing machines, capable of proposing itself as a manufacturer and sole interlocutor for inks, software and digital printing machines for both the textile and paper markets. The recent listing on the stock exchange has allowed it to expand its product portfolio and build the most innovative factory for the production of digital machinery. In fact, the company has recently completed its new "smart factory" built in an area of ​​approximately 260,000 square meters, which makes it the most innovative industrial hub for the production of digital machinery in China.

In numbers:

Over 2000 customers worldwide

Leading company with over 30% market share in the textile market

Over 500 employees

Over 260,000 square meters of production area

Listed in the domestic market

Two owned ink production companies

1000 tons of ink produced in Tianjin factory alone

Machinery certified by TUV Germany

Atexco Smart Factory

• 260,000 square meters of area
• 1.2 billion CNY invested, 155 million EU
• Haas CNC machines, from the USA
• High beam horizontal machining center
• Fanuc automatic welding robots
• S-axis gantry milling center
• Automatic tube cutting and drilling center
• RAS multi-bending center, fully automatic and perfect sharpening
• Bystronic laser cutting machine, from Switzerland
• Fully automatic painting line with drying system
• Production capacity of the entire plant 3000 sets per year
• VegaPress series capacity 250 sets per year

Advantages of the Atexco smart factory:

• Production of the machines entirely in its own plant
• Technical office of the main supplier, Kyosera, within the same building
• Proprietary machine management software. Maximum availability in the integration with other software for the management flow
• Ink of own production
• All-in-one digital solution, from the reel to the book block. The machine is composed of unwinder - printing tower - (Mono tower-1; CMYK towers-2 towers) - buffer (paper magazine) - cutting unit - book block square collection system or rewinder.
• The cutting and collection unit has automatic format change and the collection of sheets creates a homogeneous and staggered stack when creating each book block. This facilitates the collection of the book block for subsequent processing. In fact, from the machine output, the resulting book block can be sent directly to the trim cutting or binding. This system shortens the production processes and allows you to save significant investments in packaging equipment.
• Personnel: no special skills are required. For two machines, it is possible to use 1 worker thanks to the high level of automation and the intuitive interface

  Increased productivity (high speed). Its production speed can reach max. 150 m/min for both 440/660 models

• NO CLICK! Cost of consumables, maintenance and operation lower than all the players in the sector. The ink is produced and sold by the same company without intermediaries. The water-based pigmented ink is not only more environmentally friendly than toner or other inks, it is also cheaper to produce. The machine is built with widely used industrial materials (Siemens, Schneider, Inovance, etc.). Consequently, the materials are tested by several industries, are stable, are available from the main electronics distributors, and have a low cost among spare parts dealers.

Vegapress

The development of the Vegapress project began in 2016. The first installation in an actual production took place in 2018. Since then, the Vegapress 440 model has had over 300 sets installed to date. The machine is continuously developing and is increasingly establishing itself as the most convenient alternative to offset. The range has expanded thanks to the 660 and 880 models, respectively capable of printing 66cm and 88cm.

Technical characteristics and nomenclature

• The models differ mainly in three aspects:
• Printing width, printing speed, output.
• The nomenclature “Vegapress 440 M 600dpi SD“ includes the three main characteristics.
• Below is how to read the characteristics of the model.
• 440: print width 432 mm, max. paper width 455 mm
• 660: print width 648 mm, max. paper width 660 mm
• 880: print width 864 mm, max. paper width 880 mm
• M: mono
• C: color CMYK
• SD: roll to sheet printing, double-sided
• RD: roll to roll, double-sided printing
• HYBRID: cutting and rewinding unit (double output)
• Mini: 440 model contained in space and costs.
• HD: Kyocera print head 1200 dpi Max. speed 150 m/min
• 600 dpi: means Kyocera print head 600 dpi Max. speed 75 m/min

The machines are real production lines capable of unrolling, printing, cutting, trimming and collecting book blocks in a single step.

Our machines have been designed to meet your needs for reliability, productivity and competitiveness in printing manuals, publishing, school, transactional, etc.

Each machine is designed to fit into your reality and respond to these needs with maximum flexibility in terms of formats and speed.

Knowing your needs is the starting point.

• How many shifts does your company work?
• What is the expected annual print volume?
• What is the company's budget?
• Roll, sheet or book block output?
• What are the main printed formats?

The machine must not cost, it must pay for itself and make the company earn money.

Atexco, after having achieved leadership in its domestic market with Vegapress, has equipped itself to export this successful business model to other countries. The first overseas sale dates back to 2022 and since then it has been a crescendo of installations. The first market where it found success was India, then Turkey, subsequently Europe with Poland and Italy. Below are some signals from the web of its passage in the various countries:

Below is the link of our first installation at Grafica Effe 2:

Atexco digital machine in India: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4KSXh9Ol-A&t=11s
Offset VS digitale Webinar del dealer indiano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndLVZ1y0hKk
Quali sono i libri più convenienti da stampare in digitale? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjzYpObPysE

Alcuni case History di installati nel mercato interno:

Huzhou SY case history: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3JNJLMPB1Y
9 ore di produzione timelaps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU07cNEJBJg&t=4s
Atexco canale youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@atexco4158
VegaPress official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUoUueQb8d4
Vegapress: https://youtu.be/mmSdfG8Knxs
Riqiang Digital printing house: https://youtu.be/CPqW14fGsFo
YM a Pechino: https://youtu.be/JcyS7Uay6LU

Atexco has a factory in Tanjin capable of producing 10,000 tons of digital ink per year. It has also acquired a factory in Germany and has an R&D partnership in Osaka, Japan.

These investments allow it to offer its customers an integrated solution of machine, software and ink among the most competitive on the market.

Today Vegapress can use two types of ink:

1. Offset Ink: Suitable for uncoated offset paper.

2. HQ Pigment Ink: Ink with more pigment and greater drying capacity. Improves the gloss in uncoated offset paper and also allows printing on coated paper.

This ink is easier to dry and adapts to the characteristics of coated paper in terms of drying and anchoring

Average consumption calculation

Thanks to the high number of installed units, the average consumption calculation of installed units is very reliable and reflects the reality of the majority of companies.

The average of installed units provides us with the following data:

1 kg of BLACK ink can print from 50,000 to 65,000 A4 pages = from 3,125 to 4,062 square meters

1 kg of CMYK ink can print from 12,000 to 20,000 A4 pages = from 750 to 1,250 square meters.

Predictive software estimate

Another method for calculating the ink consumption of a job in advance is to use the software of a machine. In fact, the software on board the machine is able to estimate the ink needed to print a job file.

Warning:

Ink consumption depends on several variables:

- the degree of absorbency of the paper

- the percentage of image coverage on a page

- the definition of the images. Images with different levels of precision call to the print heads different sizes of ink drops. For this reason the data reported by the software is precise but may not correspond perfectly to reality. In fact, the ink calculator software to analyze the files, calculates the data in the best way but does not include all the variables. It is therefore useful to have a reference value. For a more accurate data it is always recommended to print a test page and check the consumption afterwards.

Hidden consumption

There are two types of consumption that no one talks about: consumption during the head cleaning phase and consumption of the flashlines in the color machine.

Consumption during the head cleaning phase: pay attention to the consumption that no one talks about. During the head cleaning phase, one of the activities consists of purging the nozzles. The purged ink will then be eliminated and therefore will not be used in printing. It is correct to point out that cleaning the heads also has its cost in terms of ink consumption. In any case, we are not talking about large quantities of ink.

Flash Line Ink Cost:

This consumption is very low and can be ignored but it is good to know it.

1200 ink drops of the largest size are dense and parallel to form a 1 inch line.

Multiple 1 inch lines form a complete flashline. 1 inch equals 2.54 centimeters.

Inches:

For VegaPress 440 series, 432 mm = 43.2 cm = 17 inches

For VegaPress 660 series, 648 mm = 64.8 cm = 25.5 inches

Maximum ink drop size:

For Kyocera 600 dpi print head, there is 12 pL, 12 pL = 0.0000000012 ml

The formula of flashline ink = 1200 How many inches Maximum ink drop size How many lines Ink density

For Kyocera 1200 dpi print head, there is 5 pL, 5 pL = 0.0000000005 mL For example, the customer is interested in VegaPress 660M-SD

Then the ink consumption for the whole width = 1200  25.5  0.000000012mL * 61.2=0.00264g

It is cut 3 A4 of 660 printer, there is about 0.00088g for each A4.

How many lines of flash line are there in a color machine?

Usually there is the setting of 6 lines as flash line. Of course, you can set 8 or 10 lines.

Ink density in grams / ml conversion

It is recommended to use 1 ml * 1.2 g / ml = 1.2 g, 1.2 kg / L as a conservative calculation.

How many kg of ink does a machine consume?

From our experience, for the 440M model, it can consume up to 1 ton per year per work shift. For the 660M model, up to 1.3 ton per year per work shift.

Ink drop:

• For the 1200 dpi Kyocera print head, there are three ink drop sizes such as 1.5 pl, 3 pl and 5 pl
• For the 600 dpi Kyocera print head, there are three ink drop sizes such as 5 pl, 7 pl and 12 pl

Printhead Brand: Printheads are Kyocera Japan.

The models are 64K or 80K for HD model.

Industrial version 600 dpi for other models.

Quantity of heads for each model:

• Mini: 8 pieces
• 440M: 8 pieces
• 440C: 32 pieces
• 660M: 12 pieces
• 660C: 48 pieces

Printhead life: The life of the printhead is about 3 years, maintenance and correct use are essential to ensure its durability and print quality. There are machines that have been using the same printhead for over 5 years, but at the same time, some printheads have been replaced before 2 years of life. Even after 3 years of use there are relatively few cases of replacement of all the heads. It is almost always replaced one at a time. The most frequent reason for replacing the printhead is not damage or breakage of the head but clogged nozzles.

The factors to keep under control to limit clogging of the nozzles as much as possible are the following:

• Humidity of the environment. Never work in an environment that is too dry. Humidity should always be above 50%.
• Ambient temperature. Never work in an environment with a temperature higher than 20 degrees and lower than 25 degrees.
• Paper dusting. Less dusty paper and web cleaners are important elements to increase the life of the heads.
• Sudden power surges. UPS recommended.
• Infrequent use of the print heads. The heads must not remain stationary for more than 3 days.
• Incorrect cleaning or shutdown maneuver.
• Use of quick-drying ink, HD ink for coated paper, requires greater skill in managing the heads. Inaccurate management significantly increases the risk of clogging the nozzles.

-Cutter accuracy: +/- 0.5 mm on uncoated offset paper. On coated paper the accuracy is lower because the sheet is more slippery.

-The machine collects the book blocks in a staggered manner. The staggered distance between two books is approximately 4-6 mm

Types of cutter (vertical cutter):

MODEL

MANUAL CUTTER: knob + cutter

New pneumatic cutter: cutter

Advantage: this cutter can be moved along the entire axis.

Disadvantage. It is activated or deactivated manually with the machine completely stopped.

Advantage: It is activated or deactivated automatically with the machine in motion. Disadvantage: this cutter can only be moved a very short distance of +/-15 mm.

Mini

1 pc

440 m

1 pc

440c

1 pc

660 m

2 pieces

660 c

2 pieces

-Stacker: the maximum mechanical height of the stack is about 18 cm. You can set the desired height at which the machine will bring the stack to the output.

In 18 cm there are about 2500 pages of 70 g/m paper.

The operator can set the data of the stack pages, for example 2000, so every 2000 pages the job will be delivered.

There is the "STACK CHG" button on the cutter, which allows manual delivery of the job. That is, by pressing the button the machine will deliver the job. This is used to allow the operator to check the print quality at any time.

Cutting speed and printing length

Vegapress 660M-SD Cutting speed

Cutting length (mm)

Maximum cutting speed (m/min)

150-760

75

Maximum

760 millimeters

Minimum

150 millimeters

Vegapress 660M HD SD cutting length

Cutting speed

300mm-760mm

150 m/min

150mm-300mm

Length*0.5 (if length 180mm, speed 90m/min; if 150mm, 75m/min

Maximum

760 millimeters

Minimum

150 millimeters

 The max. cutting length is 760 mm, the minimum is 150 mmFor now, the max. Cutting length is 760 mm, the minimum is 150 mm.

The aluminum drying roller is a new version, the temperature degrees of the cylinder can be adjusted by an LCD screen. The aluminum roller is heated by electrical resistances. The thermal energy is transferred to the paper for the entire surface without dispersion in the air as in the case of IR so it has lower energy consumption and better efficiency.

NO CLICK. Our maintenance policy does not include clicks.

Preventive maintenance will be performed every 6 months by our technicians.

Corrective maintenance will be performed on call.

The good efficiency of the machine depends on the daily actions of the operator who can

rely count on the support of our engineers remotely.

The manufacturer's warranty operates in the first 12 months from the date of installation.

Maintenance cost

Maintenance costs are mainly linked to two items.

The cost of the heads and the cost of the operator's technical intervention.

All the other components are industrial and therefore have consumer market costs and are available from the main electronics or hardware distributors. (not like spare parts for offset machines!)

Effe 2