Mouvent’s cluster technology

Mouvent, a new company founded by a joint venture between BOBST and Radex focused exclusively on digital print, has revealed the technology behind its range of 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 DOD inkjet digital printing. Radex and BOBST created Mouvent as a joint venture in June 2017. The cluster technology is the centrepiece of new machines developed by Mouvent for a wide variety of markets such as textile, labels, corrugated board, flexible packaging, folding carton and more.

High flexibility, high quality, low cost

Mouvent has already revealed some of its machines including the 8-colour digital textile printing machine, TX801. It is associated with its high print resolution of up to 2000dpi and its productivity with an output of up to 200sqm/h, producing at one of the lowest costs per square metre. In multi-pass machines like the TX801, the cluster moves across the up-to-1800mm wide substrate at 100m/min and can apply up to 16g/sqm of ink, with one colour per print head 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 7-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 100m/min below the fixed clusters, at one colour per cluster.

Each Mouvent Cluster prints up to 170mm wide. Additional clusters can be added (so two clusters is 340mm 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 life cycle of the cluster is extremely long. What’s more, they are very light in weight, at around 1.8kg, and can be easily replaced.

Beyond 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 Pierantozzi.

Mouvent will be showcasing its cluster technology in a range of digital label presses in Hall 3, Stand A60 at this year’s Labelexpo in Brussels, 25-28 September.