VUTEk GS3200 Super-wide Format Printer - IT Enquirer

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can from the operator panel be switched
over to dark inks. This will double the
available nozzles for the dark colours and
will therefore have following benefits:
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Double the speed of the printer
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Low waste when switching from 4 to
8 colours or the other way around
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A quicker return to printing.
exclude media handling before the actual
print run starts.
For our tests, we used two different parameters.
First is handling a job: positioning a
roll of media of 3.2 meters wide by an operator
and an assistant. Secondly, we measured
the time it took to switch from roll to
plate. Finally, we also measured the time it
took for an actual print run to finish.
Flexibility in terms of control
The VUTEk GS3200 is controlled by a
machine control panel, but the actual
printing job is sent to the printer through
an EFI Fiery XF RIP controller.
The advantage of this workflow is that
the Fiery RIP acts as
a colour capabilities
controller as much
as a (Postscript) print
job controller. The
Fiery RIP will for
example detect errors
in the print file
before it ends up at
the printer’s control
panel. These errors
can therefore be corrected
before the job
gets queued, leaving
the operator with a
‘clean list’ of jobs that are guaranteed to
print correctly.
Performance
Speed on super wide format printers is
expressed in square meters per hour, but
almost no vendor will explain how they
measure. For example, tests can include or
The VUTEk GS3200 uses a proprietary technique,
called ‘smoothing’ by the EFI/VUTEk people. This is
a software controlled technique of firing ink droplets.
Without smoothing reflective banding can occur as a
result of the print head firing droplets from left to right,
and from right to left.
VUTEk has solved this problem by developing an algorithm
that mixes some of the droplets from the leftto-right
firing sequence with the right-to-left sequence.
This effectively and efficiently produces smooth transitions.
We used two different speed setups, both
with 8 colours: one with 600 dpi and the
other with 1000 dpi.
At 1000 dpi and heavy smoothing applied
(highest possible quality, identical to photo
print), we witnessed the GS3200 providing
a sustained throughput speed of 30 square
meters per hour on a solid area of blue,
including changing
the media in-between
printing jobs, which
took 45 seconds to be
exact. The test was
performed using one
3.2 meter roll printing
a landscape fill of 180
cm x 140 cm.
At 600 dpi and light
smoothing, performance
rose to 84 square
meters/hour.
In real-world circumstances,
these figures are quite high. Although
some manufacturers will advertise
much higher speeds, the top speed at
which a super wide format printer is capable
of producing usable quality results is
sometimes 50% lower than the brochure
text promises.
The VUTEk GS3200 isn’t a speed demon,
but the quality level at which this printer
outputs a job is far higher than what one
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