Once again Durst's stand at Photokina created a high level of interest and excitement across the imaging industry. New products were placed alongside the latest editions of existing machines all demonstrating the Durst ethos of quality, reliability and productivity.

RHO 160 large format inkjet printer
2002 saw the worldwide launch of the RHO 160 large format inkjet printer. The production standard, 'direct to media' RHO spans the imaging market from the professional photo lab through graphic display companies to screen and commercial printers.

Shown at IPEX in the spring, followed by FESPA in Spain and again at Photokina, Durst demonstrated both the reliability and productivity of the RHO. In each case the machine performed without a hitch and the operator was able to show how one person can change the media easily in under 5 minutes.
Now firmly established within the marketplace, there are around 50 units installed worldwide, making the RHO the most successful production flat-bed printer.

Edge to edge printing
A unique feature for the RHO 160 is the recently introduced device which allows problem free, edge to edge flat-bed and roll-to-roll printing. Many manufacturers of inkjet printers maintain that edge to edge or borderless printing is possible with their machines. However, this is only achievable with a tedious, manual masking of the bed of the machine and can result in a contamination of the whole printing bed area as the ink is sprayed over the edges.

Durst has solved the problem by creating a unique separate printing plate with an integrated ink-absorbing system. Easily installed without the need for specialist tools, it ensures that perfect edge to edge printing can be achieved without affecting the machine bed or print materials.

Textile print accessory
With a separate attachment for textile printing, Durst now claims to have the most versatile production flat-bed inkjet printer. All manufacturers of flat-bed printers claim that textiles can be printed on their machines. In reality, this is limited to textiles of a certain rigidity or with the use of support materials. While stronger cotton or flag-type media, with supporting material like blue-backed paper or vinyl, can be printed easily. With thinner materials such as artificial silk, material jams or the stretching of the material during printing can result. Durst has solved this problem with a separate attachment, which can be fitted easily without the use of specialist tools and is supplied as a standard accessory.

About the RHO 160
The Rho 160 is designed for heavy duty, continuous production for indoor and outdoor applications, providing high quality and output with exceptional reliability. In its highest quality mode it will print 33m_ per hour, with just one operator required to carry out all printing functions, including the media change. Maximum printing width is 160cm (62") and printing length it limited only by the media length. Maximum media thickness, 40mm.

Large choice of media
Capable of printing directly from digital files onto virtually any flexible and rigid substrate, the Rho 160 prints onto either roll or sheet fed material, including; paper, corrugated board, foam centred board, textile/fabrics, vinyl (including self adhesive), banner material and many other materials used in the graphics industry.
Because it prints onto materials up to a maximum thickness of 40mm, it can eliminate the need to mount prints onto boards. This helps to reduce both production time and cost and increases the range of substrates available for printing.

Advanced printing technology
A Durst patented roll to roll and sheet fed design features an easy and very fast media change facility, whilst the specifically developed Piezo print heads use special, vibrant pigmented inks for indoor and outdoor applications and long UV durability.

Wide range of features to minimise wastage and maximise output
The Rho 160 benefits from many of the features developed and proven in other Durst digital products, the Lambda for instance. These include: autospooling with 'hot folders' for unattended printing, autonesting, batch processing for documents with multiple pages or print runs, multiple printing for optimal use of large media and fully automated cutting of selected media with the Durst Autocutter XY.
Finally, the system is controlled by a powerful UNIX-Workstation with integrated high performance Cheetah RIP from Durst Dice America with identical operation to that of the Durst Lambda.

Durst Lambda large format laser printer
This year was by no means the first appearance for the Durst Lambda large format digital laser imager at Photokina. In fact it was first shown ten years previously when it immediately became the talking point of the exhibition and claimed by many as: "Just what the industry needed".
For the first time there was a machine capable of producing large format images with the same quality, or even better, than conventional photo printing from digital files. These images could be combined with high quality graphics and text and printed onto standard RA4 photographic material (including reflective, transparent and translucent).
The Lambda soon became the industry standard and now, ten years later, and some 800 units installed, still has no equal.

What makes the Lambda unique amongst digital equipment is that it is capable of evolving in pace with the rapid advances in digital technology. Durst designed the Lambda to be capable of upgrading. Instead of a model becoming obsolete, any changes or improvements can be readily incorporated into an existing machine. In fact, the very first Lambda ever produced is still capable of being upgraded to exactly the same performance as the latest machine to leave the factory.

Two of the major advances in performance of the Lambda are; the increase in resolution from 200 ppi (pixels per inch - equivalent to 4000 dpi) to 400 ppi and the most recent upgrade, which doubles output at 200ppi from 12 in. per minute to 24 in. per minute for widths up to 50 in. (127 cm). This increase in output preserves the Lambda's position as the world's most productive machine of its kind.

Today, the Lambda is still very much in demand and its market leading position, is not about to be challenged.
The Durst Lambda range consists:
* Durst Lambda 130 - With an automatic 5-position turret for quick access to different media and sizes. Images 50 in. (127 cm) by 50 metres.
* Durst Lambda 131 - Single turret, ideal for long production runs of similar sized prints. Economical starter machine. Images 50 in. (127 cm) by 50 metres.
* Durst Lambda 76 - Maximum width 30 in. (76 cm). Max length of roll 80 metres.
Linear speed, 24 in. per minute.

Durst Epsilon Plus
Launched just over two years ago, the Epsilon was designed specifically for the Prolab. As more and more images were being supplied to labs in digital format, so the need for a high quality digital output dramatically increased.

The Epsilon uses specially developed fibre-optic LED exposure technology to expose digital images onto RA4 photographic material (including transparency). The maximum image width is 30 in. (76 cm) by any length up to 36 metres. Resolution is 254 ppi. (pixels per inch).

Like the Lambda, the Epsilon is exceptionally reliable and easy to use. With 30 machines already installed in the UK, it has established itself as a true favourite with the Prolab.

The new version, the Epsilon Plus, was shown for the first time at Photokina and is the natural development of the Epsilon 30. It incorporates many "Plus" features designed to increase the overall efficiency and workflow.

Enhanced productivity.
A big advantage of the Epsilon Plus is the enhanced productivity created by the enlarged wind-up device allowing completely unattended printing for an entire media roll up to 279 ft (85m) long. For example, during the day all orders can be prepared leaving the Durst Epsilon Plus to print the entire printing queue overnight right up to the roll end. Of course, it is also possible to prepare jobs and add files to the queue during exposure.

Flexible applications
The Durst Epsilon Plus offers maximum flexibility in handling all orders. No matter whether cropping, enlargement, package prints, big prints, panelling or multiple prints are needed, the user-friendly Durst software makes everything easy.

Versatile user software
The new software allows you to work fast and efficiently including the Colour Management, Autonesting and Package Printing software.

Durst Sigma high speed film scanner
Also on show at Photokina was the new Sigma professional scanner. Since its introduction in February this year, over 100 units have been installed throughout the world, demonstrating its value to a wide range of professional and commercial photo labs.

The Sigma is capably of producing high quality scans from colour and black and white negative as well as transparencies. It will also handle uncut roll films and cut lengths from APS, 135 and 120, and sheet film sizes from 9 x 12 cm to 4 x 5 in. But what sets it apart from the rest is its speed. For example it will scan a 35mm transparency or negative in 3.5 seconds, producing a 15 MB file. Larger file sizes are possible, up to 70 MB from 35mm, which takes 11 seconds and a maximum file size of 322 MB from 4 x 5 in sheet film (taking 34 seconds).

The Sigma is packed with sophisticated features all designed for high volume scanning. These include a powerful Dual-Pentium workstation with software capable of several scan functions with automatic correction of colour, density, contrast and saturation, automatic adaptive sharpening and a stepless cropping function.

Automatic dust and scratch retouching is carried out by a built-in air-blast system and Digital ICE(tm) ensuring that scanned images are free of dust and scratches to prevent time consuming retouching.

Completing the system is a high quality 21in WYSIWYG true colour monitor which, allows preview images of an entire roll to be enlarged one-by-one for better evaluation and precise crop selection or any other requested adjustment of the images.

Durst Theta 50 high speed digital laser maxilab
Officially launched at Photokina, the Theta 50 is a fully digital lab system based on the laser technology of the Lambda and is designed for heavy duty, continuous production in portrait, social, wedding and commercial labs. It consists of a high speed laser imager with dual paper cassettes and a linked RA4 paper processor.

The Theta represents an all-in-one solution for all print sizes up to 50.8 x 78cm (20 x 30in). This guarantees perfect match in colour and density, resulting in shorter turnaround times and reduced production costs.

The outstanding production capacity of close to 1000 prints 20 x 25cm (8 x 10in) per hour at full speed on the largest media equates to over 60m_ per hour.

Other features include dual paper cassettes for fast printing of mixed orders, dual auto-switchable printing resolution of 200 and 400 ppi (pixels per inch - equivalent to an apparent resolution of 4000 dpi). Image corrections are carried out on-the-fly without involving additional computing time.

Durst Autonesting software and Multiple Print Mode optimises productivity and paper use, whilst the built-in back marker records printing data and customer information.

A powerful Compaq True Digital Unix workstation and optional Durst Job Preparation Station and Durst Dice America Cheetah RIP and Colour Management software maximise productivity.

Support products for Durst imaging equipment
Two additional products shown at Photokina are both designed to increase productivity of Durst's imaging equipment.

XY Cutters
The Autocutter 32/8 and Autocutter 62/6 are designed as stand-alone cutters for media widths up to 81.2cm (32 in.) and 160 cm (62 in.) respectively.

They feature fully automated, unattended cutting of single prints and print combinations generated on the Durst Lambda and Epsilon imagers and, in the case of the Autocutter 62, the Rho 160.

The Durst XY cutters dramatically increase the productivity of large print runs, especially when smaller print sizes are produced. They help to make Durst imaging equipment even more important and profitable production tools.

The cutters automatically cut any combination of print sizes in both X and Y directions and automatically recognise Durst production marks for unattended operation. They cut all photographic media (paper, backlit films, laminated etc.), as well as suitable inkjet media whilst automatically separating the waste from the prints. Durst

Preparation Station
Delivery commenced at the beginning of the year for the new Durst Preparation Station, a remote job preparation UNIX workstation, designed to streamline the workflow of the Lambda and Rho 160 output devices.

Productivity can be increased by up to 60% for the Lambda. The benefit of the new PrepStation is particularly evident at high volume printing sites that operate one or multiple printers.

The software features the same functions and options as the Lambda and enables customers to RIP and queue jobs for multiple Durst printers whilst printing. It also allows you to select the printer you wish to print on, this will assist in making the most efficient media choice for each machine.

The PrepStation can be located in the most suitable area (away from the printing machines), whilst controlling the efficient use of imagers and materials with a more centralised overview of the production flow.