FuturePrint Podcast
FuturePrint is dedicated to and passionate about the power of print technology to enable new opportunities and create new value. This pod features deep-dive discussions with the people behind the tech as well as market analysis, trends, marketing and storytelling!
FuturePrint Podcast
#295 - 10 Microns: The Smart Printing Belt That Redefines Digital Precision
In this episode of the FuturePrint Podcast, Frazer Chesterman is joined by Luca Rovacchi, Innovation Business Development Manager at Habasit, part of the wider Moovimenta Group. Luca shares the story behind one of the most intriguing new technologies to enter the digital print ecosystem – the Habasit Smart Printing Belt, an innovation that could fundamentally shift what precision means in industrial inkjet.
Luca begins by explaining Moovimenta’s mission – smarter, safer, more sustainable – and how its corporate accelerator works across the group to identify, develop, and scale breakthrough technologies. That innovation pathway led directly to the Smart Printing Belt, an evolution built on Habasit’s decades of leadership in belting, from synthetic belts in the 80s to Kevlar-reinforced constructions in the 90s.
The real leap, as Luca explains, comes from integrating a magnetic scale and sensor array directly inside the belt, enabling direct, real-time positional measurement with an astonishing accuracy of ±10 microns. This level of sub-pixel precision dramatically reduces banding, colour shifts, and registration errors, while improving uptime, yield, and consistency across long or repeat production runs.
Luca also discusses how the system requires no machine redesign, can be retrofitted, and is compatible with existing heat-press joining methods – opening the door for integration across textiles, corrugated, décor, ceramics, packaging films, metal packaging and more.
This is a rare genuine step-change in transport technology for digital printing – and one you’ll want to understand.
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FuturePrint TECH: Industrial Print: 21-22 January '26, Munich, Germany
Welcome to the Future Print Podcast, celebrating print technology and the people behind it.
SPEAKER_01:Well, hi there, and welcome to this week's Future Print Podcast. My name's Fraser Chesterman. I am very pleased to have Luca Rovacchi. Have I pronounced that correctly? Yes, you did. We were just chatting about the uh the pronunciation in Italian. Uh Luca is Innovation Business Development Manager for Habisit uh Movie Mentor Group. Uh, he'll explain the Habisit Movie Mentor story in a moment. Uh, we're going to be talking about something very exciting. Luca is bringing some technology to the market uh that's going to be, I think, a bit of a game changer actually. Um, he's going to tell us a little bit more about it. Um, it redefines kind of precision uh belt technology for digital. Uh, but I don't want to give too much away. Luca, great to see you, great to have time to speak to you. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Yeah, brilliant. Thank you. And as we said, uh, this is talking a little bit about Habit's smart printing belt, and he's gonna explain a little more. So, Luca, really over to you. Just give us the story of Movie Mentor, a bit about yourself, uh, a little a bit about Habit. Just explain more.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, um, Movimento is an industrial group, and um I work for the corporate accelerator within Movimenta, and the goal of the corporate accelerator is of course to accelerate innovation.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:And uh the the the industrial group uh motto is smarter, safer, and more sustainable. And uh these are let's say it's our motto is what uh drives us, and uh market-wise, we um the group is is made up of four companies, and we work in the field of uh belting technology, uh inter-logistic automation, hygienic components, uh gearboxes, gear motors. So it's uh it's a quite varied uh group of companies, but still in this uh field of uh components, enhanced components, solutions, and so on. Um as a corporate accelerator, of course, we work for all the divisions of the group, and the innovation uh uh we're gonna be discussing uh today is uh for the division called Habazit, which is a very strong brand uh in the belting world. Um, and uh the innovation is called the Habazit Smart Printing Belt.
SPEAKER_01:Fantastic.
SPEAKER_00:Fantastic. Yeah. Um, as far as I'm concerned, I am a mechanical engineer, and um I joined Abazit in uh 2017 as an industry segment manager, and um I got fascinated with the application of belts to the uh digital printing world as uh for an engineer um live with not only witnessing but also leaving such a revolution, a technological revolution is is is super interesting. So then my my passion for innovation for new solutions, uh it kind of naturally uh led me to the corporate accelerator, which is where I now work uh on uh these uh advanced uh technology projects that we focus on for the group of companies.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's pretty clear. So um I love the fact that it's you know it's it's varied as a business, but this particular thing, your smart technology, you're focusing on something very specifically. I I kind of wonder why Habacit decided uh to develop this smart printing belt. Why why was that?
SPEAKER_00:Well, um since the the 80s, so it's a long story, Habacit is 75 years old, but since the 80s, um Habacit has introduced all the innovations uh uh regarding printing belts. Before the belts were made on in rubber, and they had this uh cotton uh spiral type of fabric inside, which means they had to make to be made to measure, you needed to disassemble the machines to to install them. So Hubbazit invented the synthetic printing belts that could be uh cut to measure out of a coil of material, standardized production, and um, even more importantly, could be um joined directly on the machine without uh the need of um disassembling the machine and so on. This was an incredible success, and uh and this was an innovation brought to the market by Habazit. So we were the number one first. Then the second key innovation in the field of uh printing belts was belts with uh Kevlar fabric inside. This was also introduced uh by Habazit in the 90s, and uh basically afterwards uh then uh digital printing came, and uh the company realized that uh uh it was not possible to achieve the precision required by um digital printing using, or let's say not possible, very difficult, very demanding, a big, big challenge for machine builders to uh uh achieve the precision required. So we decided to develop the smart printing blanket as a push for uh extreme precision in order to meet the the requirements of precision of digital printing, which is 10 times higher than what is needed in analog printing. So, I mean we have decided to do to take this step by a med basically we've integrated a measurement system directly inside the belt.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, that's very clever. So so just explain a bit more about how this actually works.
SPEAKER_00:Uh yeah, it's um it's quite simple actually in terms of concept. Yeah, difficult to make it. Sometimes it is difficult to let's say develop, but uh the concept uh is quite simple. Um traditional system they are affected by what uh we call indirect measurement of the belt position. Because on the machine uh there is a rotary encoder, typically on the drive roller, and uh this uh infers the belt position. And and I use uh the the word uh infer on purpose because you're not really measuring the belt position, you are guessing his position because uh there are mechanical tolerances like the gearbox play, um the roller shape, the joint of the belt. These are all uh they they introduce uh errors along the measurement chain. Uh and uh these inaccuracies of course affect the um the print uh the print result, the print quality, because uh uh you see maybe color to color registration issues and uh um blurry images a little bit and color shifts, and uh you waste basically time and material trying to deal with these uh these problems. The smart printing blank belt um completely changes this because instead of uh guessing the belt position from the roller position measurement, we measure directly the belt position. It's a direct measurement. And uh this of course eliminates a lot of the tolerances of the uncertainties along the measurement chain. So when we look at um the traditional system, um we see, let's say, a very good system, very, very, very good, and also new, just commissioned the perfect, can reach plus minus 50 microns of accuracy. Very difficult, but it can be done. But then a more regular system or a system that has a few months of age very easily drifts to plus minus 150 microns and even more. With our technology, we keep the measurement accuracy within plus minus 10 microns, and this is not just on day one immediately after um commissioning of the machine, just uh run after run, day after day, and this uh uh happens every day, continuously, and automatically. Yeah, that's good. Very good, very good indeed.
SPEAKER_01:Um tell me without yeah, I obviously this is new technology, so you don't want to reveal too much at this stage what's going on underneath the hood as such. Uh, but try just giving us a little bit of an explanation of what is happening with that technology.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the system is uh made up by um four main components. There is a magnetic scale, which is integrated directly into the belt, can cannot be seen from outside, and is completely uh hidden inside the belt. And then there is a series of sensors that are continuously reading the magnetic scale. Then there is a a processor, um, an electronic system that combines all these sensor um outputs and calculates the exact bell position in real time. Yeah. Uh but the the the real trick to keep the performance so accurate and repeatable time over time over time over time is that there is a self-learning digital twin algorithm inside the box, inside the processor, that continuously self-calibrates the measurement, the the measurement system. So it's um it's a smart system, works as a as a closed loop, so it doesn't drift, doesn't degrade, and uh most importantly, it does not rely on mechanical perfection of the machine. It corrects imperfect, it it uh measures and corrects the in mechanical imperfections on the fly automatically. Yes, brilliant. And that's why I mean that's the only reason why it was possible to reach the plus minus 10 micron accuracy using uh a belt, which is also you understand, uh a deformable material, which is quite challenging.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So what does this plus or minus 10 microns mean for the print quality?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, um, I mean, if we consider a pixel at uh 600 dpi, yeah, is 42 micron wide, more or less. This means that uh we have sub-pixel precision. We we we place the drops uh always inside the the pixel. I mean, of course, the printhead has to do his job, there are several factors, but as far as uh measurement precision, we have this ability, we enable this kind of uh uh precision. This means that we uh we have a very stable signal also with very low jitters, so we eliminate banding, uh, we allow to have very sharp design, color reproduction is optimal, and then we have basically stable, repeat repeatable quality uh even if there is a long run or even if there are repeated production run runs on different days in different conditions and so on. Uh and then if we look at the scan application, you can even introduce um basically increase uh the the productivity because you can reduce the number of passes needed for a certain design. And of course, this increases uh um productivity, but also increases quality at the same time because fewer passes means uh a sharper image.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you mentioned automatic um calibration, which is is quite incredible really. Um so are you saying no maintenance or recalibration is needed? That's correct.
SPEAKER_00:Because uh the system has no moving parts, yeah, and it's uh continuously self-calibrating, so it learns what is happening around him.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Um if the conditions change, uh temperature, uh load on the belt, speed of the belt, tension of the belt, it adapts automatically. So there's no need to stop the machine, there's no need for manual tuning, no periodic recalibration. So the operators are not any longer, let's say, uh, trying to fiddle with the machine settings and so on to keep the production running, but the the the machine stays accurate uh by design. Yeah, brilliant.
SPEAKER_01:And this is built on the Habacit premium line belts, is that right?
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Uh we um did the development basing it on uh um one of our best-selling uh printing belts, which is the ENU 50 AXBD. Yep, is uh is a belt that is uh basically an industry standard for high precision uh um belts because uh is extremely well built, it has very high lateral stiffness, uh, the dimensional uh stability, the durability is a product that is extremely well recognized by the market. Yeah, so we apply this technology to this material. Um and it's very important to have uh such a good base product because uh then we put together the mechanical performance of the base product with the electronic performance, and we we achieve uh uh the kind of results that um we we just discussed.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. Um, I guess I'm interested to know how simple this is to integrate into a machine. So, do machine builders need to redesign their machines to integrate this in?
SPEAKER_00:Uh, there is no need to redesign the machines, okay. And uh this was one of our goals from day one when we started the project. And the smart printing belt is uh fully uh we can say backwards compatible with any belt-driven printing system. Uh what I mean by this is uh you can uh let's say an OEM, a machine builder, can uh add the um smart printing blend belt to um his design, his current design to create an upgrade of the machine.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Uh it can be added as a high performance solution for new designs, and in this case, it allows also to make some special designs that are not possible with traditional belts, like uh significantly reducing the diameters of the rollers and so on, or uh and it can even be used as a retrofit to uh improve existing machines uh in the um in the field. Um in this case, what is what is interesting is that uh even this belt has the ability to be joined directly on the machine, so without having to disassemble the machine, and it can be joined using the standard uh heat presses that Habazit has in the field in uh our service center that are all over the world. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um, I'm interested to know what kind of parts of the industry, the industrial print manufacturing industry this technology can actually operate in, you know, where does it shine the most? So, you know, I I guess textile, maybe maybe corrugated. You you tell me a bit more about the kind of potential applications for this.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, any any application where a belt is used for printing can benefit from the solution. Uh, we see very nice results in uh textile printing, in uh folding carton, yeah, corrugated decorative surfaces, uh, uh ceramic tiles, of course, uh, wood panels, metal packaging, uh, uh packaging films, uh you name it. There is no it's um it's application agnostic uh the technology.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's good. Um, so I'm interested from the point of view of a potential buyer, uh, what the kind of cost efficiencies and the financial viability of this is. So explain a bit more there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the the solution is uh is very viable because as as I said before, on scan machines it increases productivity. So this is a huge benefit alone, but then also it reduces scrap, it reduces downtime. Uh, of course, you you you need less uh um ink and substrate when you start to test a new production because the machine is very is very stable, very reliable, becomes uh uh in the end, it allows a higher machine uptime. So what what we see is that uh um accuracy issues are one some of the biggest hidden cost drivers in digital printing. So uh for many customers the return on investment is very fast. That's good.
SPEAKER_01:That is good. Um, so we're getting to the end of the podcast now. Um, so stepping back, what does this breakthrough really mean for digital printing, in your view?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, I believe uh this is going to be a new industry standard. Yeah uh we Habazit experienced this before when we introduced uh uh we were the first to introduce uh the the synthetic printing belts. Uh we saw it a second time with Kevlar printing belts, and I think this is gonna be the the third time that Habazit has created uh an industry standard. Um the reason why I think this is that uh for years uh the the top part of the printer I call it so the the print ads, uh the the the ink system, uh the the the the the printing uh electronics uh board uh the software, everything is kept improving. While the the the what I call the bottom part of the printing machine, so the transport system was was stuck in the past, not uh improving, not evolving at the same at the same speed, still the same uh transport system basically as analog machines. And this not because it was ideal, but because the technology didn't exist. So um now I ask myself when also when we decided to create this new project, is what is the point of using pre-dads with a jetting error under 10 microns if the substrate then is positioned uh at the with 100 microns error? It's uh it's the the substrate uh becomes a moving target for the for the printhead. Now, with this direct measurement technology and this uh self-learning algorithm and and and all the the the tricks that we put in this innovation, um we reach the plus minus 10 microns, same precision as the printheads basically, yeah, sub-pixel accuracy, and it's a new era, it's a new it's a new phase of the the the technology.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, very interesting.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so we we we think that uh that the we are already seeing uh very, very good uh reactions, and uh yeah, I think that we will see, as I said, my expectation is for this to become um a new industry standard.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think I think you're certainly right. It's changing the rules of this of this in terms of precision uh and how important that is. So listen, um Luca, it's been great to speak to you. Obviously, you're gonna be part of the event at Motorworld in January, so you'll be there talking about this technology. Uh, I'm sure you'll get a lot of interest because certainly the inkjet world is coming together, and there is a lot of people there who will definitely be excited by what they're seeing. Um it's you know, it is rare, isn't it, to see an innovation that's not just a sort of evolution, but actually a complete rethinking uh about what is possible. And I think this is really exciting. So thank you, Luca. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Yeah, looking forward to seeing you in Munich, and we will catch up with you very soon. So thanks very much, Luca. Absolutely. See you soon. See you soon.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, you can subscribe now for more great audio content coming up. And visit futureprint.tech for the latest news, partner interviews, in depth industry research, and to catch up on content from FuturePrint events. We'll see you next time on the Futureprint Podcast.
