Bobst and Radex launch Mouvent to focus on print using pioneering digital technology

Bobst, one of the world’s leading suppliers of equipment and services for packaging and label manufacturers, and Radex, a company with a long track record in the field of DOD (Drop-On-Demand) inkjet digital printing technology, have partnered to launch Mouvent – a joint venture that will become the digital printing competence centre and solutions provider of Bobst. Mouvent, which is comprised of 80 employees in Switzerland, will focus on “inventing and delivering the future of digital printing.” Central to this digital innovation is a digital printing technology developed by Radex based on a highly integrated ‘cluster’ that “represents a quantum leap for the industry.” Because of its intelligent and compact design, it will be the centerpiece of “revolutionary new machines developed by Mouvent for a wide variety of markets such as textile, labels, corrugated board, flexible packaging, folding carton and more.”

As well as digital presses, Mouvent develops, engineers, tests and ‘industrializes’ these printers based on the Mouvent Cluster. It also writes the software and develops inks and coatings for various substrates while providing a full-service offering. The company is promising a new standard in inkjet label production costs and quality – in ink pricing, head durability, quality and machine performance. Its first press launch is the TX801, an 8-colour digital textile printer producing high print quality on textiles with up to 2,000 DPI optical resolution and “unmatched” printing speed. The company has further promised a full product pipeline to follow.

“We truly believe this is a watershed moment for the future of digital printing independent of the industry or market,” said Jean-Pascal Bobst, CEO of Bobst Group SA. “Current industry trends – including high demand for digitalization, short runs, fast availability, promotion and versioning, personalized and seasonal products, and increasing sensitivity towards cost and environment – are driving demand for high quality and affordable digital printing machines. Through Mouvent, we aim to initiate a quantum leap in this area, ultimately providing the market with what it needs most – highly reliable industrial digital printing on different substrates at a competitive cost.”

The innovative cluster design is and will be the basic building block for all systems, current and in development, said Bobst. “Our radical new approach is to use a base cluster which is arranged in a modular, scalable matrix instead of having different print bars for different applications and different print widths,” said Piero Pierantozzi, Co-Founder of Mouvent. “The Mouvent Cluster is the key technology behind the Mouvent machines, resulting in high optical resolution for a crisp, colourful, very high printing quality, as well as a never-seen-before flexibility and possibilities in terms of machine development. Simplicity is our engineering philosophy.” The companies added that Mouvent printers are the smallest digital printers in their category – closer to desktop printing than to traditional analogue printers like flexo – making them very compact, lightweight and easily accessible. The modular, compact system allows easier settings and start-up with less fine adjustments required – resulting in a productivity boost. The compact design has many other benefits, including faster changeovers, simple implementation and low cost.