Behind the Launch of Mouvent's 'Next Generation of Inkjet' Technology

During a ceremony held on Thursday, July 6, in Switzerland, Mouvent was introduced as the newest member of the BOBST Group and a digital printing company with a new approach to inkjet. Mouvent’s Cluster technology was introduced to provide an alternative to traditional printheads, and serves as the foundation of the company’s two label presses and textile press it also unveiled at the event. Now, Mouvent Co-Founder Piero Pierantozzi, says Mouvent’s “next generation of inkjet” will be on display at Labelexpo Europe.

Mouvent revealed its Cluster technology, along with label and textile presses at an event on July 6. Photo via Mouvent.

Mouvent’s debut label presses are the 170mm LB701-UV and the 340mm LB702-UV. Both machines are based on Mouvent Cluster technology, which utilizes clusters, rather than single-color print bars at a specific size. According to a press release from Mouvent, these clusters can be arranged in a matrix that is both modular and scalable, depending on the application the printer is using it for.

“The Cluster is really, truly scalable,” Pierantozzi said in a telephone interview. “That means it scales up automatically with the number of heads and you don’t have to use different parts.”

While Pierantozzi says the Mouvent Cluster represents the next step in inkjet printing, the team behind Mouvent is hardly a new entity in the digital printing world. He explains that the company’s background traces back to Graph-Tech, an inkjet technology developer that was sold to Domino in 2012. After the sale, Pierantozzi says the former ownership team developed Radex, also an inkjet solutions development company.

Pierantozzi explains that the Cluster technology was developed over the course of three years, and when it came time to seek out a partner to help in the launch of the technology, Radex connected with BOBST to launch Mouvent as a joint venture.

“With the Cluster, our goal was to develop a technology that you can use one to one without changing in different sizes, in different machines and different markets,” he says.

For the label market, both presses that have been announced feature seven-color UV inkjet printing and can print on both paper and flexible films. According to Mouvent, they can reach printing speeds of 100 m/min and can produce a native resolution of 1,200 x 1,200 dpi and an optical resolution of 2,000 dpi.

In addition to the scalability, speeds and quality that the Mouvent Cluster provides, Pierantozzi explains that another advantage to Mouvent’s label presses are in their smaller footprint, compared to competitive digital presses.

“We have looked at the inkjet printer more like a desktop printer,” Pierantozzi says. “If you look at the label machine we have presented, they are really small. They’re only 1.10 meters in height and 1.10 meters deep, so they have become very small machines. The Mouvent machine is easier to handle.”

Another advantage that Pierantozzi says Mouvent provides is that all aspects of the machinery and technology are developed in house, which he explains makes for an easily navigable business model for customers.

“The whole machine is an in-house development,” he says. “The electronics, software and mechanics. We really do everything on the machine. It’s not a machine where we’re buying parts from here and there and put together a printing machine. It’s in-house development and production.”