Epson Australia plans to launch its new Monna Lisa ML-8000 direct-to-fabric textile printer at PacPrint.

The ML-8000 is a next-generation digital textile printer with high print quality, productivity, stable operation with minimal downtime. It allows easy operation for an affordable price, making it the ideal printer for companies looking to move into local, onshore digital printing and production.

The ML-8000 comes with eight of the latest PrecisionCoreprintheads. The printer ensures performance and usability with its eight PrecisionCoreprintheads that allow it a typical print speed of 155 square metres per hour at 600x600 dpi – 2 pass. Maximum print speed is up to 250sqm an hour at 300x600 dpi, 1 pass. Resolution is up to 1200 dpi, print width up to 180cm, with up to eight colours.

The Monna Lisa ML-8000 is produced with Epson’s print partner Robustelli, which has a history of textile design and manufacturing in Italy’s Como province.

The ML-8000’s image quality is enabled by Epson’s high quality printheads. Epson says its exclusive Microweave and lookup table technologies reduce banding and graininess, and advanced new Multi-Layer Halftone Technology, which randomises the halftone dot pattern on each layer, reducing image degradation caused by dot misalignment. Dynamic Alignment Stabiliser technology also ensures stable print quality, by controlling waveforms on each printhead chip, for higher dot placement accuracy and more uniform dot density on each pass.

The ML-8000 also features symmetrical colour alignment for “consistent colour overlap order” during bidirectional low pass printing, and Accurate Belt Position Control (ABPC) technology automatically detects the belt feeding distance to ensure precise fabric feeding. The result, says Epson, is optimal quality and speed, with superb reproduction of colour gradations, fine details and complex geometric patterns.