Built on over 40 years of digital print expertise, SmartDFE for Industrial is a platform for building industrial digital front ends. Designed for roll-fed and other industrial inkjet applications, it provides a proven foundation including operator workflows, job management, queues, color management, high-performance RIP technology, and industrial OPC UA connectivity. Your engineering teams can bring production-ready solutions to market faster while retaining the freedom to customize and differentiate your systems.
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Features and benefits
Smart Connectivity
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Driven by industry-standard OPC UA interface:
- Write your own user interface within weeks using the OPC UA API
- Industry 4.0-enabled to connect with smart manufacturing and cloud data services
Smart Control
- Press operator's controller
- Full, brandable front end
- Harlequin Direct at Heart: designed to drive the fastest, widest and highest-resolution inkjet devices
- Stream full variable data directly to the device electronics
- Instant printing, no need to RIP ahead
- Easily scalable with extended gamut and special colors
Smart Quality
- Create a library of predefined media definitions describing all the settings needed for perfect color and quality
- Enable your customer's press operators to achieve the best quality without the need for print specialists
- Supercharged by ScreenPro™ with advanced inkjet-specific screens and custom screen design service
- Powered by the award-winning PrintFlat™ technology taking inkjet quality to the next level
- Enhanced with industry-leading color tools from ColorLogic
SmartQI
- Stream data directly to industry-standard inline quality inspection systems
- Areas of interest highlighted (eg labels, variable data)
- Generates color-managed RGB raster data for every page
Ankur Mour, Vice President and General Manager of FUJIFILM Integrated Inkjet SolutionsSmartDFE helps us deliver stronger, more user-friendly solutions, while also preparing our customers for the next wave of automation and digital transformation.
Smart Connectivity
Connecting SPC to existing UI or craft new ones
SmartDFE enables secure communication within printing presses, factories, and the cloud. It enables original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to quickly market products using standard press controllers or custom front ends that integrate with existing systems. At its core, the Smart Connectivity layer, powered by OPC UA, ensures robust and secure interactions with devices and applications in the press, cloud and on mobile, supporting features like remote monitoring and predictive maintenance. SmartDFE incorporates print communication standards (JDF and JMF) for enhanced interoperability and efficiency in print production workflows.
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Smart Control
Your own brandable inline RIP controller
Experience the power of a fully customizable digital front end (DFE) that adapts to your brand requirements. This solution provides a seamless entry into the market, enabling swift integration. Operating in server (headless) mode, it also effortlessly complements your existing front end setup. Seamlessly integrate with Smart Print Controller (SPC) through the OPC UA API, enhancing connectivity.
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Smart Quality
Achieve the top-quality output without the need for a print specialist
In today's printing landscape, achieving top-quality prints and precise colors often relies on skilled print operators. However, there's a shortage of these experts. This is especially noticeable in industries integrating print into broader processes, where non-specialists take on printing tasks. To address this, Smart Quality combines advanced technologies like PrintFlat, ScreenPro, and ColorLogic into a user-friendly system, making it easier for any operator to achieve excellent print quality.
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SmartQI™
Incorporating an additional RIP Server PC into your setup introduces a remarkable advancement: the capability for direct connection to a cutting-edge vision system dedicated to quality inspection, aptly named SmartQI. This revolutionary addition enables the RIP Server to seamlessly transmit RGB composite rasters to your inspection system in real time.
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Universal support for printhead drive electronics
SmartDFE works with any printhead drive electronics and supports various file types like prt and tiff. Quick support for new electronics or formats is often available within weeks through a BreakThrough project. It’s already compatible with printhead drive electronics from Meteor Inkjet, known for its wide support in industrial inkjet printing. This allows easy integration of different printheads, even from various manufacturers, in one press. Additionally, Meteor Inkjet offers comprehensive tools and services to ensure high product performance and efficient workflows.
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Accelerate to market with our free BreakThrough service
Our business model, centered on partnering with you, offers SmartDFE licenses linked to your printer sales, starting when your product is ready for the market. Our objective is to help you launch quickly. Our BreakThrough service adds our expert engineers and scientists to your team, accelerating your product's market launch. You can buy this service in blocks of days, and the cost will be balanced against SmartDFE licenses once your press ships, effectively making it free. This service is part of our commitment to your success, aiming to reduce challenges and speed up your market entry, benefiting both of us.
Find out moreStreamline your SmartDFE solution with a single supplier
Our approach combines the convenience of sourcing SmartDFE components from a single supplier with the flexibility to select the options that best meet your requirements. Backed by 40 years of expertise in print technology, we build on open standards such as OPC UA to ensure interoperability and long-term compatibility. We also offer key components as SDKs, giving you the freedom to customize and extend your solutions for your specific markets.
SmartDFE editions
SmartDFE for Industrial is available in one edition, featuring a combination of Hybrid Software Group components.
| Industrial edition | |
|---|---|
| Smart Control (including Harlequin Direct™) | |
| Smart Quality™ | |
| ColorLogic Inside | |
| PrintFlat™ | |
| Smart Connectivity™ | |
| Smart Performance™ | |
| SmartQI™ | |
| Meteor Ready™ | |
Variants
There are four variants of SmartDFE with different hardware requirements and price points. The lowest variant is "Static"; this is recommended where the press is only going to print many copies of a static design ie a single piece of content printing many times. The top variant is Ultra High Data Rate (UHDR), which is designed to produce the huge amounts of data generated by fully variable data on the fastest, highest resolution, widest and best quality inkjet printing presses. Calculate which variant you need using the Data Rate Calculator.
| Variants | Abbreviation | Example Data Rate | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Static | Static | NA | A single PC running all the software and generating a static raster which will be printed many times. |
| Standard Data Rate | SDR | Up to 3GB/s | Typically, two PCs, one running Harlequin Direct and the other the workflow and controller software. Designed for less demanding variable data, lower-resolution, narrower and lower-speed presses. |
| High Data Rate | HDR | Between 3GB/s and 18 GB/s | Typically, more than one PC running Harlequin Direct and another running the workflow and controller software. Designed for most common variable data and main stream press capabilities. |
| Ultra High Data Rate | UHDR | Above 18 GB/s | Typically multiple state-of-the-art PCs driving Harlequin Direct. Designed to produce the huge amounts of data generated by fully variable data on the fastest, highest resolution, widest and best quality inkjet printing presses. |
If you're integrating SmartDFE into your own workflows or solutions, you can expand your experience and expertise by calling on one of our partners. The SmartDFE Partner Network includes experts in enhancing connectivity, performance, quality and workflow.
