what prints on duratrans?

wonderings

Well-known member
Had a customer who is a local artist ask if we printed on duratran. I gave a blank stare for a moment as I racked my brain for what that was and had no clue. She gave me a brief explanation and I did google it. What I did not find is what prints on this material. We have an Epson 9900 and a new Epson SureColor S40600 being installed in a couple of weeks. Would the eco printer be what is used for something like this or the 9900? Or is this something entirely different and unique?
 
Had a customer who is a local artist ask if we printed on duratran. I gave a blank stare for a moment as I racked my brain for what that was and had no clue. She gave me a brief explanation and I did google it. What I did not find is what prints on this material. We have an Epson 9900 and a new Epson SureColor S40600 being installed in a couple of weeks. Would the eco printer be what is used for something like this or the 9900? Or is this something entirely different and unique?

Duratrans is historically printed on a Durst Lambda printer or similar think contone photo processing. We just retired three of our Lambdas and have replaced the work with an HP Latex. Ultraflexx, Tekra, CMA all have a similar milky backlit PET film for inkjet.
 
We still output Duratrans, actually Fujitrans, on a Durst Lambda. The other main device is a Lightjet. It is a RGB laser device that images photographic material that is then run through a photographic processor with developer and fixer. Lambdas can do up to 50" material. Some lightjets can go bigger. Most of our backlit work is UV inkjet anymore, mostly due to cost.
 
Alright so it is not something any wide format can do, it needs some specific hardware for the task that we do not have. Thanks for the all the info!
 
If you are looking for an outsource vendor obviously you could reach out to Bret if they are interested in that type of work but also you could try Firehouse http://onyx.fire-house.net/

It is not anything we have work for, just a curiosity as a customer asked about it. She has a printer she already uses for it but is not completely satisfied with the quality. Not really something I am interested in even outsourcing ourselves no zero about it. Was curious though if it was something that did run on wideformats I could get a sample roll and see what we could do in house.

Thanks for all the info.
 
Typically when people say Duratrans all they mean is backlit. Backlit on a translucent white material. Properly profiled -- and profiles are the key -- either of your machines is more than capable of printing on any number of materials that are made by any number of manufacturers. Of the two though, for an artist, you'll get an overall better looking print off the 9900.


Mike Adams
Correct Color
 

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