New Printer Paints Really Big Pictures
 
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
LAS VEGAS (Microbytes Daily News Service) --- You might say the
biggest impact among printer offerings at Comdex Fall is being
made by a product designed in Japan, handled by a Dutch
distributor, and carrying an Italian name. The new Michelangelo
Model V4 Paint Jet System isn't exactly an impact printer, but
the device, designed to be connected to an IBM PS/2 computer,
does create big output -- more than 5 feet by 5 feet -- and
qualifies it as one of the more unusual products introduced at
the show.
 
Users scan in a picture they wish to reproduce, and a controller,
designed by Data Mate, directs a paintjet sprayer to put down
three primary-color paints (yellow, magenta and cyan), line by
line, to create larger-than-life images on nearly any surface.
 
The sprayer can be placed in front of just about any type of
surface; its acrylic resin pigment paint dries quickly and is
weather resistant and water repellent, the vendor says. The
system can reproduce full-color pictures on concrete, brick,
wood, poster board, tile, styrofoam, cloth, paper, and glass.
 
Some of the more unusual examples produced in the booth were
color photographs on venetian blinds and cloth. The company
suggests using the system to place advertising on interior and
exterior walls of buildings, automobiles, shop windows,
illuminated signs, shutters, and curtains.
 
Printing, er, painting out a 5-foot-square image, however, takes
as long as 4 hours. And the price, like the images the printer
produces, is big. Representatives of distributor Fleming-Dobler
B.V. estimated the price for a full working unit to be in the
range of $100,000.
 
Contacts:
 
Data Mate Co., New Taro Building 2-2-12, Fujimi,
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan; phone 221-1666 Tokyo; fax 221-1187
Tokyo;
 
Fleming-Dobler B.V., PO Box 30, 6930 AA, Westervoort, Holland;
phone 08303-14871; fax: 08303-15212.
 
                              --- David Reed
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
