HIGH STABILITY STEEL BELT ENABLES ‘SUPER SPEED’

IPCO steel belts selected for Agfa’s new B1 packaging press

Printing systems manufacturer Agfa has incorporated an IPCO stainless steel conveyor belt into its new SpeedSet 1060 inkjet press in order achieve breakthrough speeds of up to 150 m/min.

The belt is manufactured perforated for use with a powerful vacuum that ensures precise positioning of the sheet as it is transported under the print heads.

Matt Brooks is head of packaging at Agfa’s Digital Print Solutions business. “With its killer speed of 11,000 B1 sheets per hour, it is simply the fastest digital packaging press around. The use of a steel belt was an important factor in achieving this ground-breaking performance.”

IPCO is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of precision steel belts for conveying and processing applications. Used in digital printing, steel belts have been shown to be significantly more stable than plastic belts. Research carried out by the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT showed that vibration could be up to 6x less when a steel belt was used.