PrintEx VIDEO: Fujifilm launches Acuity Ultra

Fujifilm showed its new Acuity Ultra as the centrepiece of its stand, which is described as ‘a high quality, cost-effective, super-wide UV platform for the production of high-end interior graphics and outdoor signage’.

Troy Neighbour, senior product manager at Fujifilm said, "The Acuity Ultra achieves both speed and quality thanks to the R+D that Fujifilm has put into the ink and head dynamic. It has developed bespoke waveforms that optimise the dot. That dot is just 3.5pl. And there are two heads per colour, in fact you can have four heads per colour."

Fujifilm says the Acuity Ultra forms a key part of its industrial strategy, offering increased size and quality to make the production of high-end interior graphics more profitable. Built around Fujifilm’s UV cured inkjet technologies, it offers almost photographic levels of quality, with tighter registration and higher production speeds, at a cost that is set to shake up the super-wide format marketplace.

Available in both five-metre and 3.2-metre models, the Acuity Ultra is available with up to eight colour channels, using a new, high-quality, low film weight Uvijet GS Fujifilm ink. Greenguard approved, Fujifilm says this ink has been especially designed to deliver the highest quality, and is fully emission-compliant for interior graphic display work.

With a 3pl drop size ensuring what the company says is the highest possible quality, the Acuity Ultra is aimed at the high-end indoor display market, especially for luxury brands, with the quality comparable with litho and leading water-based ink systems.

Based around conventional UV technology, it also runs at much higher speeds than LED cured machines – but as the vacuum table is efficiently water-cooled, there is not an excessive build-up of heat on the print plate, meaning no shrinkage and no issues with heat sensitive materials.

With a throughput of up to 236sqm per hour, the Acuity Ultra is capable of printing on three rolls simultaneously, as well as printing super-wide format graphics up to five metres in width. Linear motors ensure smooth edge-to-edge printing with no vibrations at the end of the run, and the printer can handle substrates ranging in thickness from 0.1mm to 2mm.

The Acuity Ultra is on stand F37 alongside Fuji Xerox at PrintEx.