AUTOMATICALLY FROM DIGITAL IMAGE TO STRETCHED CANVAS

Art print and industry are blending more and more. MH&P machinery enables groundbreaking, high-quality solutions for service providers with growing customer bases in the digital printing sector. Perhaps the norm will soon be to have your own photos both printed and stretched on canvas at a local shop around the corner – on demand. Thanks to innovations from MH&P, this technical standard has long been a reality.

With smartphones accompanying us every step of the day, billions of digital images are taken daily. Young photo enthusiasts storm trade shows such as the Photokina in Cologne. On the Internet, billions of pictures are posted and shared on platforms like Instagram. The photograph is already being treated as the new universal language of the 21st Century.

Unfortunately, even the best snapshots often disappear in file folders, spend their digital existence on hard disks and memory cards, or are forgotten in the Internet jungle. How can this be prevented? Intelligent solutions for fine art printing prove to be increasingly viable and are gaining popularity worldwide. Whoever has the opportunity to print and stretch their best photos on canvas, gladly hangs their images on the wall or finally has the ideal, individual Christmas gift for family and friends. Once freed from their digital prison, photos begin their triumphant journey in the material word: Shot on iPhone? Hell, yeah!

What are the concrete solutions for individual and industrial production?

High quality printing, perfect cut, excellent stretching:

The technological progress at MH&P has made the process from digital print to stretched canvas much easier. At the Photokina in Cologne, MH&P, together with its partners Epson and Fotoba, recently demonstrated the professional and efficient workflow of printing, cutting, and stretching high-class photography. The images were printed with the Epson SureColor SC-S80600, cut into the right format with the FotobaXLD170, and stretched drum-tight with the MH&P ST 60/60 – a highly effective production line that is easy to operate.

Canvas or stretcher frame?

Thanks to MH&P’s new canvas stretching machines, cost-effective cutting and stretching of images has become a standard. For example, the semiautomatic MHP ST can stretch up to 150 canvases per hour with only one, non-technical operator needed. The machine works in a two-stage process, stretching two opposite sides at a time on the backside of the frame. Frame size changes are continuously variable and done in seconds with no extra tools. This provides incredible flexibility, particularly in environments with frequent format changes and small run sizes. The MHP ST can process multiple frames along the length of the feeder table in the second stage, enabling greater yields. The machine automatically detects the frame format for correct stapling. Canvas tension is infinitely adjustable from light to drum-tight – no additional work with wedges is necessary. Especially suitable for small runs and frequent format changes, this automatic canvas stretching machine is just one example of the many solutions MH&P has developed for industrial canvas stretching.

Text: Martina Diehn