As part of a planned doubling of its industrial print sales by 2030, direct-to-garment and direct-to-film vendor Brother has launched its first wide-format printer, the 1.6m latex WF1-L640.
Based on a Roland DG chassis, the machine uses modified Brother piezo-electric printheads from the company’s textile printers, with three drop sizes down to 5pl and print resolutions of up to 1200 x 1200dpi. The two printheads are arranged in a staggered formation to apply optimiser (primer) first, then CMYK. Print speed in eight-pass standard quality mode is just under 15sqm/hr and the WF1 is aimed at applications such as banners, drawings, window graphics, storefront signage, trade show graphics, vehicle wraps and outdoor advertising.
The water-based pigment ink is Greenguard Gold certified, making the print also suitable for indoor applications like wallpaper, floor graphics and posters in restaurants or educational institutions. The CMYK inks are claimed to achieve a wide colour gamut and are supplied in 750ml pouches to reduce plastic waste, with a roller system to squeeze out as much ink as possible. The printer is driven by Roland’s versaWorks software but Brother says it is in discussions with other Rip developers and cutting machine vendors to expand the choices; the company also clarified that the ink type is actually a resin but felt that the term latex was better understood in the target market; Roland DG, Mutoh and Epson also offer resin printers.
The Brother WF1 has a list price of €19,495 and the ink pouches are €130 each. The printer holds six cartridges at once, CMYK plus two optimisers.
Brother also used Fespa 2023 as a platform to announce two new textile direct-to-garment and direct-to-film printers.
