New technology: The Cluster Coup

Packaging Solutions

Mouvent, a new company founded by a joint venture between Bobst and Radex and focused exclusively on digital print using pioneering digital technology, has revealed information behind its range of innovative digital printers. The Mouvent Cluster is a new approach, which uses clusters instead of fixed size print bars by colour, arranging them in a modular, scalable matrix. The result is one system that can be simply adapted for all substrates, of all widths, for all markets.

‘This is game changing technology,’ said Piero Pierantozzi, co-founder of Mouvent. ‘Until now, printing systems have been tailor made to the requirements of each industry. The cluster technology is completely flexible and can be adapted and used for any market and any substrate. We believe this will completely revolutionise digital printing, making it more accessible, more flexible, cheaper and simpler, while maintaining the highest quality standards.’

The cluster technology was developed by Radex, a start up company owned by multiple stakeholders with a long track record in the field of drop on-demand inkjet digital printing. Radex and Bobst created Mouvent as a joint venture in June 2017. The cluster technology is the centerpiece of new machines developed by Mouvent for a wide variety of markets such as textile, labels, corrugated board, flexible packaging, folding carton and more.

Mouvent has already revealed some of its machines including the eight colour digital textile printing machine TX801. It is associated with high print resolution of up to 2000 dpi and high productivity with an output of up to 200 square metres per hour. In multi-pass machines like the TX801, the cluster moves across the up to 1800 mm wide substrate at 100 metres per minute, with one colour per printhead and up to eight colours per cluster.

Mouvent has also announced its first range of label printing solutions, which include two all new, high speed seven colour UV ink printers (LB701-UV and LB702-UV) and a groundbreaking water based ink digital inkjet label printer in the narrow web segment. With single pass machines like these, the substrate is running through at up to 100 metres per minute below the fixed clusters, at one colour per cluster.

Each Mouvent Cluster prints up to 170 mm wide. Additional clusters can be added (so two clusters is 340 mm wide and so on) in theory without any limit. Therefore, whatever the substrate width, the technology can be adapted accordingly. With 10,000 operating hours, the lifecycle of the cluster is extremely long. What is more, they are very light in weight, at around 1.8 kg, and can be easily replaced.

Beyond its digital printing presses, Mouvent offers a fully integrated, complete solution – it develops, engineers, tests, and industrialises digital printers based on the Mouvent Cluster, it writes the software around the printers, develops inks and coatings for various substrates, as well as providing a full servicing offering. The company is promising a new standard in inkjet label production cost and quality, in ink pricing, head durability, quality and machine performance.

‘By using the same clusters, the same software, the same spare parts and the same ink systems for all machines, we can design them as simple and compact as possible while keeping operating costs for our customers at a minimum and predictable,’ said Piero. ‘Simplicity is our engineering philosophy.’

Mouvent will be showcasing its cluster technology in a range of digital label presses on its booth (Hall 3/A60) at Labelexpo in Brussels.