The Fujifilm's Acuity demo centre at Aura in Mumbai

“It is appropriate for someone who caters to food malls or top brands, where you need catchy images to entice the customers to buy the products,” said Natarajan Vaidyanathan, the managing director at Aura Print Solutions. He added, “The machine can also be useful in the packaging segment. It can offer clients pack mock-ups on clear film without requiring them to commit to an expensive offset run.”

The Acuity LED 1600 is can print upto 13mm thick using high-speed inkjet print head and UV ink. The machine gives maximum resolution of 1,200dpi and the maximum production speed is 20m2 per hour. Its one-pass system allows users to print a single run in two or three layers of colour, white and clear inks. This density and clarity is just what a company with mock-up service needs. 

Since installation, Natarajan and Aparna Badrinarayan who is the head, operations and service at Aura said, the Acuity has brought in "at least a couple of hundred" jobs for the firm.

Badrinarayan says the machine has lived up to its stated speed specifications too, although she points out that the kind of services that Aura uses it for do not require a particularly speedy turnarounds as the runs are so short. The company has also been impressed by the quality of the machine’s output, which Badrinarayan says almost equals that of offset litho. She also predicts that, given time, Fujifilm could well have the Acuity achieving the quality clients expect of final production processes.

For a "tiny" run, she says, it could even be used to create finished products in its current incarnation.

She added, the Acuity is also ideal for displays, signs, labels, stickers, wallpaper and window graphics.

According to PrintWeek India, the chief competitors for the Acuity would be the Roland LEJ640 and the Mimaki UJV 160. Please refer to tech specification (below).

To-date, in addition to the Acuity at Aura unit in Wadala, Mumbai, there have been two installations of the LED 1600 at CIC Vision and Colour Mate Digital in New Delhi.

Mumbai-based Aura Print Solutions has also been appointed by World Graphic Machinery (WGM), an Italian pre-owned graphic equipment supplier, as the exclusive distributor for pre-owned and refurbished sheetfed and finishing equipment. Since then, the Vadodara-based Dot Graphics has beefed up its output with the addition of a pre-owned Heidelberg CD 74-5LX sourced through Aura. The announcement was made at PrintExpo in Chennai.

SPECIFICATIONS for the Acuity LED 1600

Max print width 1,610 mm

Supported substrates Roll, sheet, rigid (up to 13mm thick) (Rigid substrates require the use of a support table)

Max print speed 20sqm/hr

Printhead Fujifilm Dimatix Q-Class Emerald 256-jet head

Ink LED UV-curing ink

Ink colours Eight colours (cyan, magenta, yellow, black, light cyan, light magenta, white, clear)

Max resolution 1,200dpi

Footprint 3,220x780mm

Weight Printer 280kg; tables: 50kg