EAST DORSET, VT. (May 31, 3:10 p.m. EDT) — Designed to provide an innovative solution to decorating challenges and eliminate printing changeover times that can take up to six hours, Pad Print Machinery of Vermont (Booth N4109) will unveil XD-400-1, the company's first nonpad-based industrial printing machine, at NPE 2006.
With no pads or cliches to change — or no screens to change if it is a screen printing job — Pad Print's XD-400-1 can eliminate downtime between jobs, said Jon Hale, chief operating officer of the East Dorset company. In analog setups, changing from one job to the next can take up to six hours, he said.
XD-400-1 can shrink total manufacturing-to-shipping time, as it uses ultraviolet inks that cure in seconds, said Julian Joffe, president and founder of Pad Print. That permits toothbrushes that have been decorated, for example, to be loaded right into packaging containers, shrink-wrapped and shipped.
XD-400-1 employs a process wherein a piezo crystal receives an electrical charge. The resulting flex acts like a pump to force a drop of ink out of a nozzle and onto the surface.
