Growing demand for personalized and thus unique product designs prompted Heidelberg to develop the Omnifire 250 and the Omnifire 1000. Using state-of-the-art UV inkjet digital technology, with these printers it is now possible to embellish and print round and three-dimensional objects in a very short space of time.

In both printing systems we use Openair-Plasma^® technology to pretreat the different materials prior to printing. Before using the plasma, we evaluated various other pretreatment methods, but rejected all of them for one reason or another. Either they were not suitable for every substrate, or called for excessive safety precautions, were not compatible with the machines or could not meet the environmental requirements.

At Heidelberg we use type RD1004/PTF570-2 rotary nozzles, working at treatment widths of 50 mm and speeds of 2700 rpm, to clean and activate the substrate surfaces immediately before drop-on-demand inkjet printing. This pretreatment ensures complete wetting and adhesion of the printing ink. Larger areas can be pretreated trackwise by moving the objects under the plasma rotary nozzle. 

Plasmatreat rotary plasma is a key element of our production process which allows us to obtain homogenous wetting, an ensuing consistent color gradient and very stable adhesion of the ink quickly and efficiently on a wide variety of materials. Pretreatment with rotary plasma is also essential for the sharpness and color brilliance of the printed image. Moreover, this plasma process is associated with a very high degree of process reliability, which was of the utmost importance to Heidelberg.

Printing