Already a firm favorite with the Screenprinting Business, Durst believes this partnership further enhances their case for this market

Coates Screen, a division of Sun Chemical Ltd., and Durst UK Ltd, today announced an exclusive sales and marketing partnership that will bring high quality digital printing to a large sector of the screenprinting industry.

Coates Screen is one of the world's largest producers of screen inks and Durst UK, is the UK subsidiary of Durst Phototechnik AG Brixen Italy, who have produced innovative solutions for photo image reproduction for more than 70 years. Under the partnership agreement, Coates Screen will sell and market the Durst Rho 160 UV flatbed printer to the screenprinting industry.

“With the Rho 160 printer included in our portfolio of products, we now offer screen printers the ability to take market opportunities that they ordinarily wouldn't have. For example, because of the capabilities of the Rho 160, screen printers no longer will have to say ‘no' to accepting business that requires shorter runs or just-in-time printing,” said Bill Lovegrove, marketing manager Coates Screen.

Mike Allen, Managing Director of Durst UK, said: “The Rho is already a market leader with 13 machines installed in the UK, and Durst UK will continue to market it across the wide spectrum of actual and potential markets.”

“The Coates Screen/Durst UK partnership brings together two recognized leaders in their respective industries, to best utilize their combined talents and resources in the screenprinting and digital image marketplaces,” continued Mike Allen. “Coates Screen's comprehensive knowledge of the screenprinting industry and its relationships with customers around the world provides a formidable platform for marketing the Rho to this market, one in which we are very committed.”

The Rho 160
The Durst Rho 160 is a high performance production inkjet printer/press, designed for heavy duty, continuous production on various media in the photographic, commercial, screenprinting and printing industry. This new screenless large-format direct digital printing device offers high flexibility and efficiency. Printed materials do not require any additional finishing and are ready straight off the press.

The Durst Rho 160 is a breakthrough in wide format printing. It offers a combination of high quality printing, fast production speeds, low cost consumables and high flexibility with easy and fast media change with minimum waste to make wide-format printing simpler and more profitable than ever before. Rho 160 prints directly to standard, uncoated roll media and boards up to 62 inches (160 cm) wide and rigid material up to 1.58 inches (40 mm) thick for lowest production costs and highest flexibility.

Coates Screen
Coates Screen develops and manufactures a wide range of screen printing inks for every application and market. All ink lines are supported by carefully designed color systems to facilitate accurate blending of an unlimited number of user-defined colors. Coates Screen is the leading authority on intelligent scale and automated ink dispensing equipment incorporating color management systems. Coates Screen manufactures and distributes an extensive range of pre press consumable products for the screen printer as well as digital pre press imaging systems.

About Coates Screen
Headquartered in Midsomer Norton, Coates Screen is one of the world's largest producers of screen inks of every kind. Resources include research and product development centres in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. In 2000, Sun Chemical acquired the Coates Group, which includes Coates Screen, Coates Electrographics, Coates Digital and Coates Lorilleux. Coates Screen has a comprehensive and well developed supply and technical network in over 40 countries worldwide. For more information visit www.coates-screen.com .

About Durst
Durst manufactures a complete range of digital products for the photographic, graphic and prepress market. These include: the industry's leading Lambda Digital Photo Printers for the medium and large format printing industry; Rho 160 Direct Digital Production Flatbed Inkjet Printer/ Press, capable of printing on both rigid and flexible substrates using UV curable inks; Preparation Station to control and monitor one or multiple devices from one station, Theta 50 High Speed Lambda Lab, Sigma High Performance 4x5" high-speed film scanner, Epsilon 30 LED printer and Durst Autocutter 32/62 XY automatic print finisher.