Durst

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Durst Phototechnik AG
IndustryPrinter Manufacturer
Founded1936;86 years ago (1936)
FounderJulius and Gilbert Durst
Headquarters Brixen, Italy
Products Photographic printing equipment
Number of employees
250 (2017)

Durst is an Italian manufacturer of photographic printing equipment.

Contents

History

Established in 1936 by two brothers, Julius and Gilbert Durst, who were enthusiasts in the field of photography, encouraged by their mother, who was also a keen photographer and had her own darkroom.

Products

A Durst F60 enlarger Durst F60 Enlarger-a-RJP.jpg
A Durst F60 enlarger

Durst ended production of their enlargers in late 2006 due to a drop in sales, probably due to growth of minilabs and later digital imaging. In the 70 years of manufacturing enlargers their sales peaked in 1979 with 107,000 sold. Durst have filed over 500 patents for various components and designs of enlargers.

Now, Durst produce a range of photochemical (Durst Lambda and Theta printers) and super wide format inkjet printers based on UV polymerization ink technology. The quality of the output of these products is exceptional, as was the case with the company's historical enlargers, for high quality image reproduction and high versatility of application, from paper and plastic materials to ceramics and wood.

Lambda and Theta photographic printers

The Durst Lambda and Theta models are widely used in the photographic printing industry to produce digital C-Type prints on light sensitive colour and monochrome papers and transparency display materials such as Kodak Duratrans and Duraclear. Images are produced by exposing light sensitive material with RGB laser light which is then developed through the relevant chemical process. The Lambda is a standalone machine that requires a separate chemical processor and takes a roll of paper 50 inches (130 cm) wide, whereas the Theta uses a roll measuring 30 inches (76 cm) and has its chemical processor built in. The Theta is also capable of holding two different paper types at once.

The Durst Lambda is a continuous roll-to-roll single beam, three-laser (RGB) exposure system giving total size flexibility and achieves an image quality which is superior to all large format printers - photographic, inkjet and electrostatic). The Durst Lambda exposes digital information (raster pixel) directly to conventional photographic media at full continuous tone with a linear writing speed of up to 65 cm (26 in.) per minute with the choice of two resolutions of 200 and 400 ppi (equal to an apparent resolution of 4000 dpi). The Lambda produces images with the highest possible resolution (68 billion colours) and with a radiometric repeatability of 0.025 D per colour. Prints can be produced to an infinite length and when the 50 inch paper width is exceeded, images are automatically divided-up and exposed in strips.

source:Techniques, Metro Imaging

Durst inkjet printers

Durst expanded in 2003 into UV Curable Digital Inkjet Printers with the Rho 160, and now produces a full line of Large Format, Textile, Ceramic, Label and Industrial Inkjet printers for a variety of applications. [1] The Durst Rho 500 Roll-to-Roll Printer and the Durst Rho P10-250 Flatbed Printer have both won "Product of the Year" at the Specialty Graphics Industry Association Awards. [2]

Related Research Articles

Printer (computing) Computer peripheral that prints text or graphics

In computing, a printer is a peripheral machine which makes a persistent representation of graphics or text, usually on paper. While most output is human-readable, bar code printers are an example of an expanded use for printers. Different types of printers include 3D printers, inkjet printers, laser printers, and thermal printers.

Plotter Computer output device that draws lines on paper by moving a pen

A plotter is a machine that produces vector graphics drawings. Plotters draw lines on paper using a pen, or in some applications, use a knife to cut a material like vinyl or leather. In the latter case, they are sometimes known as a cutting plotter.

Laser printing Electrostatic digital printing process

Laser printing is an electrostatic digital printing process. It produces high-quality text and graphics by repeatedly passing a laser beam back and forth over a negatively-charged cylinder called a "drum" to define a differentially-charged image. The drum then selectively collects electrically-charged powdered ink (toner), and transfers the image to paper, which is then heated to permanently fuse the text, imagery, or both, to the paper. As with digital photocopiers, laser printers employ a xerographic printing process. Laser printing differs from traditional xerography as implemented in analog photocopiers in that in the latter, the image is formed by reflecting light off an existing document onto the exposed drum.

Inkjet printing Type of computer printing

Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range from small inexpensive consumer models to expensive professional machines. By 2019, laser printers outsold inkjet printers by nearly a 2:1 ratio, 9.6% vs 5.1%.

Dye-sublimation printing Digital printing technology with wide color range

Dye-Sublimation Printing is a digital computer printing technique which uses heat to transfer dye onto materials such as a plastic, card, paper, or fabric. The sublimation name was first applied because the dye was considered to make the transition between the solid and gas states without going through a liquid stage. This understanding of the process was later shown to be incorrect, as there is some liquefying of the dye. Since then, the proper name for the process has become known as dye-diffusion, though this technically correct term has not supplanted the original name. Many consumer and professional dye-sublimation printers are designed and used for producing photographic prints, ID cards, clothing, and more.

Dots per inch Measure of dot density

Dots per inch is a measure of spatial printing, video or image scanner dot density, in particular the number of individual dots that can be placed in a line within the span of 1 inch (2.54 cm). Similarly, dots per centimetre refers to the number of individual dots that can be placed within a line of 1 centimetre (0.394 in).

Thermal-transfer printing

Thermal-transfer printing is a digital printing method in which material is applied to paper by melting a coating of ribbon so that it stays glued to the material on which the print is applied. It contrasts with direct thermal printing, where no ribbon is present in the process.

Digital printing Method of printing

Digital printing is a method of printing from a digital-based image directly to a variety of media. It usually refers to professional printing where small-run jobs from desktop publishing and other digital sources are printed using large-format and/or high-volume laser or inkjet printers.

Film recorder Device that copies content from a computer system to film stock

A film recorder is a graphical output device for transferring images to photographic film from a digital source. In a typical film recorder, an image is passed from a host computer to a mechanism to expose film through a variety of methods, historically by direct photography of a high-resolution cathode ray tube (CRT) display. The exposed film can then be developed using conventional developing techniques, and displayed with a slide or motion picture projector. The use of film recorders predates the current use of digital projectors, which eliminate the time and cost involved in the intermediate step of transferring computer images to film stock, instead directly displaying the image signal from a computer. Motion picture film scanners are the opposite of film recorders, copying content from film stock to a computer system. Film recorders can be thought of as modern versions of Kinescopes.

Gelatin silver process Photographic process

The gelatin silver process is the most commonly used chemical process in black-and-white photography, and is the fundamental chemical process for modern analog color photography. As such, films and printing papers available for analog photography rarely rely on any other chemical process to record an image. A suspension of silver salts in gelatin is coated onto a support such as glass, flexible plastic or film, baryta paper, or resin-coated paper. These light-sensitive materials are stable under normal keeping conditions and are able to be exposed and processed even many years after their manufacture. This was an improvement on the collodion wet-plate process dominant from the 1850s–1880s, which had to be exposed and developed immediately after coating.

Pixels per inch (ppi) and pixels per centimetre are measurements of the pixel density of an electronic image device, such as a computer monitor or television display, or image digitizing device such as a camera or image scanner. Horizontal and vertical density are usually the same, as most devices have square pixels, but differ on devices that have non-square pixels. Note that pixel density is not the same as resolution — where the former describes the amount of detail on a physical surface or device, the latter describes the amount of pixel information regardless of its scale. Considered in another way, a pixel has no inherent size or unit, but when it is printed, displayed, or scanned, then the pixel has both a physical size (dimension) and a pixel density (ppi).

Enlarger

An enlarger is a specialized transparency projector used to produce photographic prints from film or glass negatives, or from transparencies.

Contact print

A contact print is a photographic image produced from film; sometimes from a film negative, and sometimes from a film positive or paper negative. In a darkroom an exposed and developed piece of film or photographic paper is placed emulsion side down, in contact with a piece of photographic paper, light is briefly shone through the negative or paper and then the paper is developed to reveal the final print.

Dot matrix printer Computer printer popular in the 1970s and 1980s

A dot matrix printer is an impact printer that prints using a fixed number of pins or wires. Typically the pins or wires are arranged in one or several vertical columns. The pins strike an ink-coated ribbon and force contact between the ribbon and the paper, so that each pin makes a small dot on the paper. The combination of these dots forms a dot matrix image. They were also known as serial dot matrix printers.

Minilab Photographic film developing and printing system

A minilab is a small photographic developing and printing system or machine, as opposed to large centralized photo developing labs. Many retail stores use film or digital minilabs to provide on-site photo finishing services.

An Iris printer is a large-format color inkjet printer introduced in 1985 by Iris Graphics, originally of Stoneham, Massachusetts and currently manufactured by the Graphic Communications Group of Eastman Kodak, designed for prepress proofing. It is also used in the fine art reproduction market as a final output digital printing press, as in Giclée.

Wide format printers are generally accepted to be any computer-controlled printing machines (printers) that support a maximum print roll width of between 18" and 100". Printers with capacities over 100" wide are considered super-wide or grand format. Wide-format printers are used to print banners, posters, trade show graphics, wallpaper, murals, backlit film (duratrans), vehicle image wraps, electronic circuit schematics, architectural drawings, construction plans, backdrops for theatrical and media sets, and any other large format artwork or signage. Wide-format printers usually employ some variant of inkjet or toner-based technology to produce the printed image; and are more economical than other print methods such as screen printing for most short-run print projects, depending on print size, run length, and the type of substrate or print medium. Wide-format printers are usually designed for printing onto a roll of print media that feeds incrementally during the print process, rather than onto individual sheets.

LightJet is a brand of hardware used for photographic printing of digital images to photographic paper and film. LightJet printers are no longer manufactured but are however remanufactured and resold; and their lasers are still manufactured.parts and service still available.

Flatbed digital printers, also known as flatbed printers or flatbed UV printers, are printers characterized by a flat surface upon which a material is placed to be printed on. Flatbed printers are capable of printing on a wide variety of materials such as photographic paper, film, cloth, plastic, pvc, acrylic, glass, ceramic, metal, wood, leather, etc.). Flatbed digital printers usually use UV curable inks made of acrylic monomers that are then exposed to strong UV-light to cure, or polymerize them. This process allows for printing on a wide variety of surfaces such as wood or canvas, carpet, tile, and even glass. The adjustable printing bed makes it possible to print on surfaces ranging in thickness from a sheet of paper often up to as much as several inches. Typically used for commercial applications, flatbed printing is often a substitute for screen-printing. Since no printing plates or silkscreens must be produced, digital printing technology allows shorter runs of signs to be produced economically. Many of the high-end flatbed printers allow for roll-feed, allowing for unattended printing.

Art photography print types refers to the process and paper of how the photograph is printed and developed.

References

  1. "Durst Phototechnik AG - Durst. The industrial inkjet specialist". Archived from the original on 2014-12-27. Retrieved 2014-12-26.
  2. "Product of the Year Competition". SGIA.org. Archived from the original on 2014-12-26.