Revolution becomes reality: Durst launches Gamma 101 DG, the first system for digital printing of structures

Durst announces the launch of Gamma 101 DG, the first printer model of the revolutionary Gamma DG series of digital glazing systems developed and produced by the leading Durst Group based in Italy for printing structures on ceramic tiles. 

Durst announces the launch of Gamma 101 DG, the first printer model of the revolutionary Gamma DG series of digital glazing systems developed and produced by the leading Durst Group based in Italy for printing structures on ceramic tiles. Already in operation at ceramic tile companies, the Gamma 101 DG single pass printer is designed for handling tile widths up to 1000 mm and allows the creation of an unlimited number of unique designs with impressive visual matching and tactile effects to assure a very evident value added. Versions for larger tile sizes are already under development.

Gamma 101 DG, with proprietary Durst RockJET™ printhead technology, allows for the first time the digital application of ceramic glazes with very large particle sizes (>45 microns), similar to traditional glazes for the creation of highly defined structures with significant amounts of glazes applied in a targeted manner, ensuring total shading. The extreme fidelity in the reproduction of the structures in high defintion and in total correspondence with the graphics offers a very natural result, which significantly differentiates them from those made with traditional technologies with very limited and therefore repetitive structures not in register with the design. The visual and tactile effects obtained with Gamma 101 DG make the final product look extremely natural and hardly distinguishable from natural materials. This system finally allows to get out of the current product flattening (appiattimento) through a real technological product innovation that cannot be imitated without having this unique and innovative printing technology in house.

Among the exclusive advantages of Gamma 101 DG are also the very high flexibility and cost efficiency for production runs (small batches), thanks to the fully automated process with very short downtime. This increased process efficiency also opens the door to future on-demand production of ceramic tiles.

"History shows us that crises often inspire innovation. The emergence of new supply and demand trends stimulate the development and fine-tuning of new technologies, thus generating new business opportunities," comments Norbert von Aufschnaiter, Ceramics Segment Manager at Durst. "We are confident that innovative companies will emerge even stronger from the crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the new scenario, innovation will be more important than ever. Product innovations will have to be put on the market even faster, ensuring a very evident and immediately recognized added value for a clear differentiation and to assure to be a step ahead and competitive in the future".

For some time now, the use of almost identical technologies by all companies in the ceramic sector has made product diversification in terms of design and innovation increasingly difficult. That's why Durst has worked tirelessly to develop this revolutionary digital glazing & structure printing system for a true digital production process called Durst True Digital Tile Manufacturing 4.0.