Like other technologies, it’s taken for
granted. But, modern printing is a miracle
of engineering precision, where producing
a beautiful print is almost as complex
as building a beautiful car. Thanks to
Renishaw laser measurement technology,
one company’s large-scale printers are
considered the safe bet for consistency,
reliability and stunning images.
William Caxton could never have imagined it.
More than 500 years after England’s printing
pioneer produced the country’s first books, we
live in a world obsessed with the printed image,
where product packaging, billboards, shop window
displays, bus shelters and almost every available
product and public space is taken up with a highresolution visual image or photograph. These
images are so ubiquitous that the only time we
really take notice of them is either when they’re
absent, or when they’re particularly eye-catching.
Inca large-scale digital printers must combine
speed, quality and repeatability which is more
difficult at large sizes
IN302
Stunning large scale images achieved
with speed and repeatability
Such is our insatiable appetite for fresh visual
stimulation that the people and the companies who
produce these images need printers that are built
both for speed and, if they want to stop us in our
tracks, for high-quality.
The build quality of a printer has a direct impact on
the print quality. Even the tiniest misalignment in the
machine’s chassis can be amplified, through the
print “head” causing “banding” and other registration
errors which show up in the image. Certainly not
what you get when you buy a printer from Inca,
especially if you’re paying more than £1 million for
the company’s largest and latest design.
Dr Will Eve relies on the Renishaw XL-80
laser calibration system to guarantee printer
positioning accuracy
Meeting customer demands with calibration
“Today’s printing companies want a combination
of speed, quality and repeatability,” says Inca’s
Director of Technology, Dr. Will Eve. “They also want
print at large sizes, which makes the other three
more difficult to attain. To help us achieve all four,
we check all of our printers with a Renishaw XL-80
laser.”
The Renishaw XL-80 calibrating a printer axis
Case study
Inca Digital Printers Ltd understands the technical
and business needs of industrial printers. The
Cambridge based company develops and
manufactures digital flatbed inkjet printers aimed at
companies wanting to efficiently respond to market
needs for short run prints, particularly high quality,
full-colour images produced on a variety of rigid or
flexible substrates.
Renishaw has been designing and manufacturing
laser interferometer systems for over 20 years.
In fact, before Inca invested in the Renishaw
XL-80, the company had been using one of
Renishaw’s most successful laser systems: the
ML10. With its ±0.7 ppm linear measurement
accuracy it established the global benchmark for
the calibration systems used on machine tools, coordinate measuring machines and other position
and motion critical systems
Building on the success of the ML10, the new
compact XL-80 has a linear measurement
accuracy of ±0.5 ppm and a greatly improved
dynamic measurement performance, including a
maximum linear measurement speed of 4m/s.
Setting up the Renishaw XL-80 is quick and easy
Calibrating long rails at high speed
“We use the XL-80 for both static and dynamic
measurements,” says Dr. Eve. “When we’re
building our machines, we take measurements
along the length of the main rails - some of them
up to 11.5 m - to make sure the chassis is aligned
when it arrives from the fabricator. Then, when
the machine is built, powered up and tested, we
use the Renishaw XL-80 to measure the accuracy
and repeatability of the moving machine. Although
our previous ML10 laser was excellent for up
to 1 m/s measurements it could not measure at
the machine’s full speed. With the high speed
measuring performance of 4 m/s of the new XL-80
we can now discover any positioning errors and
store the error values in a file in the machine’s
control system. This then uses the values as the
basis for its dynamic compensation. So we know
the printer head will always move as intended.”
Amongst other things, the new XL-80 was
conceived with portability in mind. It is much
smaller and lighter than its predecessor which,
for a company like Inca Digital, where its large
machines are built in situ around its everexpanding assembly and testing area, is a
considerable benefit.
XL-80 portability
“We need to be able to quickly move the XL-80
from one area of the factory to another,” says
Inca’s Mike Cummins. “The fact that the whole
system fits into a relatively small case, which one
man can carry comfortably, is a great attribute.”
Machine guide rails can be up to 11.5 m - the XL-80 is
more than capable of calibrating the full length of the
table at the machine’s top speed
“Once in a while we also take the laser on site,”
adds Dr. Eve, “to recalibrate a customer’s machine www.renishaw.com/calibration
in the field - this could be anywhere: the US,
Canada, Europe, Japan, China, Australia or New
Zealand...In these cases the compact size and
light weight makes it easy and economical to take
the XL-80 on a plane.”
All of which adds up to a beautiful, pin-sharp
image, time after time.
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*H-5650-3020-01
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