The ColorSpan® 9840uv is an industrial-grade, high-speed, UV-curable flatbed printer designed for printing high quality graphics on inexpensive rigid or flexible roll materials. The ColorSpan 9840uv is a high-performance 98-inch (2.5m) production printer that produces extremely durable, high-quality output for outdoor and indoor applications on media up to 2.75 inches (70mm) thick. Its SolaChrome UV pigmented inks offers an exceptionally wide color gamut for reproducing bright vivid colors and excellent adhesion on the widest range of substrates. What’s more, ColorSpan 9840uv includes outstanding automated features to ensure print quality and enhance your productivity. It’s easy to operate and easy to maintain — and it’s especially smart to own.

Vacuum Belt Media Drive — Using 15 vacuum zones it ensures accurate and consistent feeding of media through the print zone regardless of media size, placement or quantity of pieces to be printed. Two heavy-duty 36 inch x 101 inch (91 cm x 257 cm) roller tables are attached to the front and rear of the printer to accommodate sheets up to 98 inches (2.5 meters) wide and 80 inches (2 meters) in length. The tables can easily be removed to accommodate an optional roll-fed media supply and take up system for printing of roll-to-roll flexible media.

Advanced Media Loading — The printer automatically adjusts the printhead height to accommodate a wide range of material thicknesses up to 2.75-inches (70mm). A pneumatically-operated media alignment bar raises and lowers to assist in loading sheets parallel to the print direction and the printer automatically detects the media’s edges making back-to-back and edge-to-edge printing easier than ever. Input and output media rollers are also pneumatically controlled to hold warped media flat throughout the print zone.

Full-size Touch-screen Color Display — The printer’s operator control interface uses a 12-inch color touch-screen display panel. Its dynamic graphical user interface is simple to use and the printer’s status (such as ink levels, vacuum level, UV lamp status and media configuration) are visible at a glance.

Micro-Quad™ Printheads — Sixteen (16) industrial-quality, long-life piezo-electric printheads are configured as four interlaced heads using 384 jets per color. These 600-dpi printheads jet a micro-sized 25-picoliter droplet. The result is higher quality prints at lower production costs when compared to typical 360-dpi, 70-picoliter, 6-color printers.

Production-Oriented Speed — Designed-engineered as a production sign system, the ColorSpan 9840uv uses 16 piezo-electric printheads with 1,536 total jets. The printer boasts a 600x300-dpi print speed of 811 square feet (75.4 m2) per hour or a 600x600-dpi print speed of 438 square feet (20.9 m2) per hour in its Billboard Quality print modes. Its Production Quality modes are 438 square feet (40.7 m2) per hour at 600x300-dpi and 225 square feet (20.9 m2) per hour at 600x600-dpi.

SolaChrome™-UV inks — UV-curable, pigmented inks, available in cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Each comes in a sealed 3-liter container that allows for easy, no-mess ink changes while protecting the ink from light exposure. SolaChrome-UV inks, which have no solvent odors, are designed for reliable jetting, low maintenance, extended head life, low cost of operation and long-term outdoor display life – 2 to 3 years depending on application. SolaChrome-UV inks cure instantly and print directly on inexpensive uncoated rigid and flexible substrates for durable, indoor and outdoor graphic applications.

Advanced Automation Eye — Consisting of a high-resolution imaging sensor, colorimetric spectrophotometer, and embedded software, the printer automates the setup and calibration steps critical for achieving and maintaining print quality.

AutoSet Calibration – analyzes dot placement of printed patterns and automatically sets the head-to-head alignment and bi-directional (bi-di) dot placement alignment to compensate for variable print speeds, head height settings and media thickness.

AutoJet Calibration – eliminates banding in prints and extends the useful life of the printheads by mapping out jets that are not up to performance standards and compensating by using another jet in their place.

AutoTune Scheduler – schedules the AutoJet calibration to occur during unattended print runs to ensure maximum print quality and minimize waste or reprints.

AutoEdge Detection – uses the image sensor to aid in the loading of rigid materials by detecting right, left and leading edges. It also checks for and warns user if the board appears to be loaded askew.

Linearization – the on-board spectrophotometer supplies color and density data to the external RIP’s color management software. The color management system then linearizes the color curves to ensure accurate and consistent color.

Color Profiling – using the on-board spectrophotometer, the ColorSpan 9840uv prints and automatically reads hundreds of color swatches to allow the RIP and ColorMark+ color management software to create custom ICC and ColorMark® profiles for 3rd party media.