The new printer is a 2.5×1.3m UV flatbed machine. It comes in two configurations; the KX5 and the KX5-R, which has an optional 2.2m-wide roll-to-roll feature. The new machine uses a patented inkset that the company said had been specially formulated to give strong adhesion to difficult substrates, such as glass, acrylic and metal, without the need for a primer. According to the company, it is guaranteed not to chip when routed or cut. It can also be printed onto softer substrates, such as polypropylene, and then folded without cracking. The KX5 employs the same next-generation 6 picolitre Konica Minolta 1024 printheads as can be found on the Jetrix 1212, which, according to Inktec, offer “photographic quality” and can print at up to 1,440dpi at speeds of up to 30sqm/hr. It also features a multi-layer print function that enables users to schedule their print in layers instead of having to do multiple passes. Inktec launched the KX5 in the US at the IFA show in April and one machine has since been installed at a US reseller, Seiko America. The list price for the new machine is around £90,000 depending on the...

The new printer is a 2.5×1.3m UV flatbed machine. It comes in two configurations; the KX5 and the KX5-R, which has an optional 2.2m-wide roll-to-roll feature. The new machine uses a patented inkset that the company said had been specially formulated to give strong adhesion to difficult substrates, such as glass, acrylic and metal, without the need for a primer. According to the company, it is guaranteed not to chip when routed or cut. It can also be printed onto softer substrates, such as polypropylene, and then folded without cracking. The KX5 employs the same next-generation 6 picolitre Konica Minolta 1024 printheads as can be found on the Jetrix 1212, which, according to Inktec, offer “photographic quality” and can print at up to 1,440dpi at speeds of up to 30sqm/hr. It also features a multi-layer print function that enables users to schedule their print in layers instead of having to do multiple passes. Inktec launched the KX5 in the US at the IFA show in April and one machine has since been installed at a US reseller, Seiko America. The list price for the new machine is around £90,000 depending on the...

However, she’s just as passionate about the role of ‘people power’ and how it enabled her to blaze a trail in change management at The Daily Mirror, become one of the lynchpins of realising founder David Mitchell’s dream of creating the ‘Capita of print’ at Astron, and build a £100m-turnover telecoms business from scratch. So giving the ‘Fed’ and the industry at large a makeover should be a walk in the park by comparison. Darryl Danielli You’ve had a fairly colourful career in print, how did you get in to the industry?Kathy WoodwardHow far do you want to go back? I graduated with social sciences degree from Lancaster, did a postgraduate degree at Manchester and then joined ICL. So I was in high-tech when it was exciting. I did quite well there [becoming organisational development manager] and loved it, you’ve got to remember that at the time ICL was competing with IBM and ICL’s entire turnover was less than IBM’s R&D budget, but we were still producing products that could compete and a large part of that was around the people story. How did you get your foot in the door at ICL?To be honest, I got in because my dad was worldwide support director. He had about 5,000 engineers under him, so it was absolutely jobs for the kids. After I had been there a while though, out of the blue I got a call from a headhunter asking if I wanted to come and talk about a job that was one of the ‘major cultural change stories’. So I went along, it was for The Daily Mirror, so the British Newspaper Printing Corporation (BNPC), to manage their cultural change from Fleet Street to the new Mirror colour printing plants, where they were going to put in 21 Colorman presses. Presumably you bit their hand off?Not really. Tony Britton, Alan Rowe and someone from editorial interviewed me and I just thought they were bonkers. I had a great career at ICL and had a lovely life and just assumed I would never hear from them again. But then they called back and said ‘we want you – how much?’ I can’t remember if I tripled or quadrupled what I was on at the time, just thinking that would be a polite cheerio and they just said ‘yeah, that’s fine, when do you want to start’. That must have been a pretty daunting introduction to print though?Yes, but it’s when I absolutely fell in love with print. I remember standing on the deck at Watford when we had all 10 presses pumping out 700,000 copies per hour and I thought it was the most exciting thing I had ever...

However, she’s just as passionate about the role of ‘people power’ and how it enabled her to blaze a trail in change management at The Daily Mirror, become one of the lynchpins of realising founder David Mitchell’s dream of creating the ‘Capita of print’ at Astron, and build a £100m-turnover telecoms business from scratch. So giving the ‘Fed’ and the industry at large a makeover should be a walk in the park by comparison. Darryl Danielli You’ve had a fairly colourful career in print, how did you get in to the industry?Kathy WoodwardHow far do you want to go back? I graduated with social sciences degree from Lancaster, did a postgraduate degree at Manchester and then joined ICL. So I was in high-tech when it was exciting. I did quite well there [becoming organisational development manager] and loved it, you’ve got to remember that at the time ICL was competing with IBM and ICL’s entire turnover was less than IBM’s R&D budget, but we were still producing products that could compete and a large part of that was around the people story. How did you get your foot in the door at ICL?To be honest, I got in because my dad was worldwide support director. He had about 5,000 engineers under him, so it was absolutely jobs for the kids. After I had been there a while though, out of the blue I got a call from a headhunter asking if I wanted to come and talk about a job that was one of the ‘major cultural change stories’. So I went along, it was for The Daily Mirror, so the British Newspaper Printing Corporation (BNPC), to manage their cultural change from Fleet Street to the new Mirror colour printing plants, where they were going to put in 21 Colorman presses. Presumably you bit their hand off?Not really. Tony Britton, Alan Rowe and someone from editorial interviewed me and I just thought they were bonkers. I had a great career at ICL and had a lovely life and just assumed I would never hear from them again. But then they called back and said ‘we want you – how much?’ I can’t remember if I tripled or quadrupled what I was on at the time, just thinking that would be a polite cheerio and they just said ‘yeah, that’s fine, when do you want to start’. That must have been a pretty daunting introduction to print though?Yes, but it’s when I absolutely fell in love with print. I remember standing on the deck at Watford when we had all 10 presses pumping out 700,000 copies per hour and I thought it was the most exciting thing I had ever...

The new pink, white and beige inks join the existing Zircon range of blue, yellow and brown. The oil-based range is compatible with the single pass, four colour Xennia Ultramarine ceramic tile printing system and with other “major digital ceramic printing machines”. The inks can be used for printing on both fired tiles and a range of unfired glazes. The range’s USP is a colour strength and density previously hard to reach on single pass digital printers, said Xennia. “Zircon white, pink and beige show strong colour vibrancy and high opacity. The inks offer a high level of colour stability across a wide range of glazes, eliminating colour differences between wall and floor tiles,” said Olivier Morel, Xennia’s chief technology officer. “The wider gamut achieved when using Zircon colours allows the designer to reveal the finer details in the highlight and shadow areas that are embedded in marble, stone, wood pattern effects which has previously not been visible,” added Morel. The Xeninx Zircon range are priced between £10-£40 per kilo depending on volume and colour....