EFI™ is a global technology company, based in Silicon Valley, and is leading the worldwide transformation from analogue to digital imaging. The company is passionate about fuelling customer success with products that increase competitiveness and boost productivity. To do that, it develops breakthrough technologies for the manufacturing of signage, packaging, textiles, ceramic tiles, and personalised documents, with a wide range of printers, inks, digital front ends, and a comprehensive business and production workflow suite that transforms and streamlines the entire production process.
The brand-new, next-generation, single-pass EFI™ Reggiani BOLT textile digital printer from Electronics For Imaging, Inc. was launched recently during an open house event at the EFI Reggiani facility in Bergamo, Italy. The advanced, ultrahigh- speed digital single-pass printer has the potential to revolutionise the textile printing market, providing users with high uptime and reliability, outstanding performance, superior printing uniformity and accuracy, long printhead life and minimal maintenance needs. The EFI Reggiani open house created huge interest in global textile market opportunities, with nearly 300 customers and journalists attended to see the new BOLT in action.
“The innovative development of our new single-pass printer comes from Reggiani’s speed of innovation in digital textile printing, its 70 years of history, and our proprietary knowledge of high-volume analogue rotary printing,” said EFI Reggiani Vice President and General Manager Adele Genoni, while speaking to Home Textile Views Editor Arvind Kumar during the event. “Our EFI colleagues’ proven, worldwide expertise in single-pass technology and, most importantly, EFI Reggiani’s serious commitment to listening to and addressing our textile customers’ needs, have allowed us to achieve incredible results with our newest print technology. The EFI Reggiani BOLT rewrites the rules of digital textile single-pass printing, delivering superior throughput and quality with a highly competitive return on investment for customers. We are excited to bring this technology to our customers and see their businesses succeed and grow.”
Highlights of the event
The event began with a panel discussion on the future trends in digital textile single pass and about BOLT the next generation textile single pass. This created huge interest in global textile market opportunities, with nearly so many customers and journalists attending the same. During the session, speakers including Ron Gilboa (Group Director Production Technology- InfoTrends), Mark Hanley (President – IT Strategies), Michele Riva, Sales & Marketing Director and others from EFI Reggiani team discussed the benefits & future prospects of next generation Textile Single Pass technologies, and its comparison with analogue printing method. Also discussed was the growing market of digital textile printing worldwide. This was followed by an interactive question and answer session.
Later, a workshop was organised on ‘Terra pigment solution for a green, fast and competitive process’ and ‘The spectacular COLORS your creativity desires’. This was followed by the factory visit wherein EFI customers and journalists were given opportunity to experience the whole EFI Reggiani Digital Product Range in action at EFI Reggiani Demo Centre. Here they witnessed live demo of Reggiani Power Digital Printer for Direct Printing on Fabric and Paper, Reggiani Terra Solution – Digital Printers for Direct Printing on Fabric, Reggiani Colors – Digital Printer for Direct Printing on Fabric etc. to name a few. At the end, new Reggiani BOLT printer in action was unveiled to the industry.
Cutting-edge printhead technology and highperformance ink delivery
The BOLT offers an innovative, low-maintenance, fast-startup recirculation printhead that delivers better, more-uniform printing with superior uptime. Thanks to its cutting-edge printhead concept and high-performance ink delivery system, the BOLT has throughput speeds of up to 90 mtr per minute (more than 8,000 sqmtr per hour) at a 600 x 600 dots per inch (dpi) resolution. It features high-end greyscale imaging in drop sizes from 5 to 30 picolitres, and also provides premium-quality 600 x 4,800 maximum-dpi resolution printing, allowing customers to address the full range of design needs. The printhead has been developed in partnership with a leading printhead manufacturer, and will be available exclusively for EFI Reggiani.
High-end capabilities, with reduced downtime
The EFI Reggiani BOLT meets growing requirements for highquality, ecologically sustainable digital textile imaging in apparel, décor and other markets. Paired with an EFI Fiery® digital front end (DFE) print server offering unique, high-speed processing capabilities on demand, the BOLT printer is a robust, industrial platform designed for 24/7 operation and continuous productivity that drives high-volume throughput while reducing the cost per metre. Additional new features and enhancements on the printer include:
Enhanced maintenance features – The printer’s contactless wiping system prolongs printhead life and 
quality. Plus, the printer comes with an assisted alignment system for its test calibration scan unit, and features extractable printing beams for easier maintenance.
Extended colour gamut and superior image quality – Thanks to EFI expertise in colour management and flexible colour configurations, customers can easily reproduce a wider variety of work, including designs featuring plain colours, geometric patterns, fine lines, deep blacks and smooth gradients.
Proprietary IP combining digital and rotary technologies – One or more analogue printing stations, which may be easily connected as an optional feature, can be integrated into the digital printer for special effects.
Efficient, high-powered EFI Fiery technology
The Reggiani BOLT is a Fiery Driven™ printer, featuring an EFI Fiery DFE with RIP and colour management technologies running on Fiery XB bladed hardware for maximum performance. Fiery technologies for the printer give textile printing businesses the ability to successfully produce highly challenging jobs with the finest detail, demanding colours, smooth gradients and more. EFI colour scientists developed special algorithms and custom screening for this Fiery system to deliver vivid print results, including high saturation without losing detail, and superior colour even when using the fastest print mode.
Fiery technologies for the new Reggiani BOLT printer also will include a 1-year subscription to EFI Fiery DesignPro, a powerful textile and fashion design suite that runs inside designers’ Adobe® Creative Cloud® applications. Fiery DesignPro reduces the time needed to create colour books, repeats, colourways and prepare files for production to minutes instead of hours. Together, the new Reggiani BOLT single-pass printer and Fiery technologies address key market trends as customers face pressure for faster time-to-market, quick fashion cycles, shorter print runs and more customisation.
EFI Reggiani high-speed innovation in digital printing for textiles. The BOLT printer is the newest in an important series of EFI Reggiani innovations. In the last 15 months, the team has developed a totally renewed range of digital scanning printers with cutting-edge technologies, launching a new model every quarter to offer customers solutions to whatever their requirements may be for easily scalable textile printing. The list of EFI Reggiani advancements includes two recent launches – the COLOURS digital printer, which provides unparalleled performance with up to 12-colour printing, and the TERRA pigment ink with binder solution featuring in-line polymerisation, a process that speeds up customers’ printing with one of the industry’s greenest production technologies.
Some other highlights of the technology are
- Fabric in-and outfeed systems, based on EFI Reggiani’s proprietary knowhow, allow complete flexibility and high performance in fabric management
- Precision conveyor belt enables to reach top speed without compromising on printing accuracy
- Compact printing chamber footprint extractable printing beams ensure easy access to print heads and ink system to the operator
- Plain colours, geometric patterns, fine lines, deep black, smooth gradients…any limit can be overcome thanks to EFI expertise in colour management and flexible colour configuration
- High- efficiency dryer with removable filters based on EFI Reggiani’s expertise. Heavy insulation panels to dramatically reduce heat waste
- Innovative recirculation print head concept, developed with first class print head manufacturer, ensures 3x ink laydown in the same time unit and better printing uniformity.
- High performance and versatile ink delivery system, tailored on print head, overcome printing quality limits, thanks to real time printer start up and minimal maintenance needs
- Contactless wiping system and test calibration scan unit with assisted alignment system make any maintenance operations easier and smoother
- EFI proprietary electronics and software, ensure real time printing and high performance throughout
