Business - Applications

Brazil-based Artwork Digital conceived and produced a 3D board model of a 2008 Harley Davidson V-Rod which showcases the versatility of digital printing when combined with cutting tables and Re-board® substrates. Printed on a six-colour Inca Spyder 320 and assembled from sheets of 16 mm board, the model was produced as part of a campaign. It demonstrates all the possibilities of curvature and folding using structural board, creating something innovative with the material.

Interested in a promotion that would illustrate both the printing and cutting technology of the equipment it sells, Fujifilm Brazil approached Artwork Digital to come up with a unique display. “Fujifilm had seen a model of a Hummer made completely of Re-board, and we were able to acquire the design plans for it,” remembers Rômulo de Abreu Guimarães of Artwork Digital. “Unfortunately, they did not have the space and needed a smaller display, so they asked for something different.”

Presented with this scenario, Artwork Digital had to radically adjust to the size constraints of the job. “My designer likes motorcycles. He started to think about how to make it, taking some ideas from the Hummer. We chose a model that was recognised around the world to add value to the final product,” remembers de Abreu.

Soon enough, Artwork Digital had temporarily transformed its office into a motorcycle shop, as its design department began to assemble the bike with the help of CAD software and a high-end cutting table. “The structure, the design, the assembly… it was all challenging,” remarks de Abreu. “It had many curves, so it was difficult to handle.” Compounding the difficulties, “It was our first experience working with Re-board, so we began with a 1:10 scale prototype to experiment with the building process.”

The Inca Spyder printer, however, handled the complex demands of the job with much aplomb. “With the Inca Spyder 320, printing wasn’t a big problem. Once the structure was created and the design was complete, we just sent the PDF file to the printer. That was the easy part!” adds de Abreu.

The end result was a realistic and road-ready full-sized cardboard motorcycle that literally rolled off Artwork Digital’s assembly line with spinning tyres and twisting handle bars, earning them an Inca IDEAS Award for Display Graphics.

Technology-led Belgian company stays with EFI for latest wide-format investment

Based in Edegem, Belgium, digital printing specialist Triakon recently became the first company in the country to install an EFI VUTEk GS3250LX 3.2m wide-format solution. This enterprising business, which was founded in 1998, specialises in a vast range of applications using toner-based and ink-jet technologies, and its choice of a new flat-bed and roll-fed UV-curable system with EFI’s ‘cool cure’ LED lamps has been founded on many very successful years working with a VUTEk QS3200.

Triakon evolved when Lucien De Schamphelaere - the father of current managing director, Lieven De Schamphelaere - retired from Xeikon, which he also founded. He wanted to remain in the industry and use his many years of experience working with developing digital technologies and running his own print shop. As a result, the company has a strong technical bias, working both commercially and on a research basis, with the latter courtesy of funding from the Flemish government in co-operation with the University of Leuven.

Working originally with Xeikon equipment, the size and durability limitations with dry-toner electrophotography began to manifest themselves as Triakon diversified into additional production areas. Lieven De Schamphelaere acknowledges that there were three primary areas which the company’s existing technologies couldn’t handle. The first was a width limitation, the second was the inability to print to rigid materials, and the third requirement was to be able to produce long-term applications for outdoor use.

UV-curable potential

Ink-jet was viewed as a valuable potential process, and the company invested in roll-fed solutions to produce wider applications. Triakon saw the potential of UV-curable machines early in their development, and believed they should be able to provide greater levels of durability as well the option for printing direct to rigid substrates, and this led to an investment into a Zünd 215C.

Although the system was very slow and limited on quality, the combination of Zünd and its Sericol inks was sufficiently effective to convince Triakon that UV-curable production was a very useful addition to its portfolio. As the technology continued to develop and improve, so the company began to investigate the different options that were coming to market. In 2008, it purchased a VUTEk QS3200 3.2m wide-format flat-bed and roll-fed printer which, as Lieven De Schamphelaere states, matched the speed and production qualities that were available at the time.

“We looked at a range of UV-curable systems from different manufacturers, but chose the QS3200 for a combination of reasons, based firstly on the stability of the machine, the speed and its quality,” states De Schamphelaere. “But also of considerable importance was the fact that we trusted EFI as an organisation, so we were confident in having the company behind us because we knew would get the support and service we required.”

Upgrading to LED curing

Thus, when Triakon decided it needed to increase its UV-curable throughput, the company decided to stay with EFI and invest in the VUTEK GS3250LX. A combination of reasons led to the decision to upgrade earlier this year, with many criteria based on the desire to remain on the leading edge of the latest digital technology and deliver its benefits to customers. In addition, environmental aspects are becoming increasingly important, and the versatility provided with EFI’s ‘cool cure’ LED lamps was compelling.

“The jobs we were running on the QS3200 were getting larger and more numerous, and we needed higher productivity,” explains De Schamphelaere. “Although it was sooner than anticipated, we made the decision to upgrade as we were convinced that the VUTEk GS3250LX printer would be able to run our jobs 2.5 times faster. Now that we have this speed advantage, Triakon benefits from the extra productivity, and we’re also able to pass on better quality to our customers.”

There have been significant advantages for Triakon with EFI’s ‘cool cure’ LED technology incorporated into the VUTEk GS3250LX. De Schamphelaere says that the lower curing temperatures enable the company to print to heat sensitive and thin materials without buckling or head strikes, adding significantly to its portfolio of applications. Additionally, the environmental benefits mean that less energy is required, with the extra benefit the lamps have a longer life span.

Continuous board production

In practical terms, operator Jan Vangenechten finds the VUTEk GS3250LX is extremely versatile and easy to work with, driven by the latest Fiery wide-format digital print server which delivers consistently precise colour and very fast processing speeds. “There is the benefit that the LED curing lamps don’t need to warm up before we use the printer, speeding up set-up times,” he says. “As well as being able to handle very sensitive substrates, another huge advantage with this machine is its continuous board production capability which adds to the range of jobs that can be produced.”

The installation of the VUTEk GS3250LX has lived up to expectations at Triakon, complementing the company’s existing toner-based systems by adding outdoor durability and additional widths to a variety of print jobs. The printer has more than realised the technical demands required by De Schamphelaere and his production team, in terms of high-speed throughput, versatility and quality, and the benefits gained with EFI’s ‘cool cure’ LED curing technology address the growing demand for greener practices.

Print service provider, OPG, based in Lanarkshire, Scotland, has used its HP Latex Printer line-up to produce a range of eye-catching décor for new restaurant business, Cafe Eataliano.  The Cafe Eataliano pizzeria, based in Hamilton, called upon OPG’s services to furnish its premises with a full interior décor design package comprising not only vibrant digitally-printed wallpaper, but also textile prints, roller blinds and illuminated glass panel graphics.

“As a brand new restaurant business, we were looking to create an instant hit with customers, and realised that a vibrant and visually-impactful eating environment was equally important as the quality of the menu itself,” said Cafe Eataliano’s owner, Manio Loia.

Themed on Loia’s family vineyard estate in Tuscany, Italy, OPG used its HP Designjet L26500 Printer to produce an array of stunning graphics to show the history of the 30-year old wine-making business.

The print project undertaken for Cafe Eataliano saw the 30-strong OPG, which runs a trio of HP Latex Printers, produce a total of over 40m2 of wall coverings using HP PVC-free Wall Paper. This was complemented by eight double-sided roller blinds printed with a block-out membrane, which adorn the restaurant’s windows.

In addition, four 900 x 2440mm glass panel backlit graphics were printed directly onto 3M Frosted Crystal and 3M self-adhesive clear film and applied to glass partitioning and backlit Perspex panels. 3M self-adhesive front-lit film was applied to an aluminium composite panel and affixed to the wall. Five 800 x 550mm textile-printed graphics produced on DigiEco 100 per cent PE 210g knitted fabric completed the varied ensemble.

According to Alan Watson, general manager, OPG, a key benefit of the HP Designjet L26500 Printer was its ability to run water-based HP Latex Inks that contain no hazardous air pollutants. As well as restaurants, this makes the inks ideal for any location where odour is a concern – such as schools and hospitals.

“We finished installing the entire graphics package for Cafe Eataliano on a Friday and by the Sunday, the restaurant was full of customers,” he explains. “This could not have been achieved with our solvent printers, because the smell would have still been unbearable, as would the ensuing conversation with my customer. Insofar as interior graphics are concerned, it’s a case of being seen and not smelt.”

For Cafe Eataliano’s owner, Manio Loia, an interior décor project that only a few weeks ago remained a vision is now fully realised.  “The results are stunning and look totally different to any other restaurant; not my words but those of our customers!” he explains. “The graphics not only decorate the 110-seat dining area itself, but cover the whole interior, including the entrance and hallway.”

“We’ve been fully-booked since opening our doors, and our customers always remark on the graphics, scoring them highly in the feedback forms we provide them,” he continues.

Reflecting the company’s energy-conscious ethos and its stance to deliver print via sustainable means, OPG was recently awarded the highly-coveted ISO14001 environmental management system certification. This independently audited accreditation is used by organisations seeking to improve resource efficiency, reduce waste and drive down costs.

“It goes without saying that our utilisation of HP Latex Printing Technologies proved pivotal in our achievement of being awarded ISO14001, which is a nice badge of honour, and demonstrates our environmental commitment to customers,” concluded Watson.

For more information on HP's graphics solutions, please visit www.hp.com/go/signanddisplay

Brazil-based Art Center printed 400 pizzas for its own promotional campaign on an Inca Spyder 320 and Inca Onset S20, featured both an appetising topping printed directly on real pizza crust, the box, and even wraps for the delivery cars. Despite previous successful forays for clients with such unconventional print media, the company found an entirely new set of challenges intrinsic to everyone’s favourite Italian staple food.

The Art Center team began by ordering hundreds of naked pizza crusts. The doughy substrate, however, was not without its difficulties. “When they began baking, the heat of the ovens, of course, created bubbles in the crust,” remarks Jacques Pedrosa, Art Center’s Commercial Director. They overcame the challenge by pre-treating the crust. “We had to bake each pizza under a heavy disk of MDF stabilising it, and making them as flat as possible. Then, we were able to print on them.”

First, they printed pizza topping on paper to create a template so that each crust could be correctly positioned on the sheet. They created and used specialised frames to maintain each pizza’s position during printing. Afterwards, the pizzas were slipped into custom-designed and printed boxes (imaged on their Inca Onset S20) from “La Pizza,” an imaginary pizzeria of Art Center’s own creation. “We also print on paper,” claims the inside of each box.

“The competitive scenario in São Paulo for print companies is quite difficult,” adds Pedrosa, “so Art Center decided to produce a targeted campaign directed towards decision-makers in advertising and design agencies. The challenge was to communicate that we have the best in technology and equipment – like Inca printers, for example – and a great staff to print and produce creative materials for ads, displays, signs, and special projects.”

Their targets’ stomachs, it turns out, were just as big as their eyes: “Based on the fact that our clients and prospects eat pizzas at the office very often – especially when they work late at night – we decided to create a campaign to deliver some real pizzas, baked in an oven, but with their toppings printed by Inca UV inkjet printers. To complete the illusion, we created a virtual pizzeria, complete with pizza boxes and delivery cars.”

The clients receiving the promotion were then invited to visit Art Center’s website, and those who commented on it were rewarded with a free pizza from the best pizzeria in São Paulo. “We had the pleasure of paying for about 170 pizzas, but the best was yet to come,” said Pedrosa. The ‘joke’, it turns out, had quite an impact. “A very well-recognised professional in the São Paulo advertising industry went to his creative group and said: ‘Guys, we have to work with these people more often – they understand our business.’ To our surprise, he even came to our studio for a visit. It was amazing. This was a very big agency. They came with business and quotes.” Within three months of the promotion, Art Center had received seven quotes for special projects, netting $195,000 in profit. The initial campaign cost a comparatively meager $16,000. “Best of all, we are still remembered in the marketplace as a creative company able to develop unique and new solutions for print advertising.”

The pizza campaign earned Art Center a Special Award for Creativity and a runner-up in the Self-Promotional Targeted Campaign category in the Inca Digital Excellence Awards.

Art Center has also produced a number of other different creative jobs for Brazilian agencies. Peugeot created an advertisement for Revista Fluir a magazine covering surf and water sports, launching a car aimed at surfers. “The agency asked us to partner with them in developing an ad,” explains Pedrosa. “We created a sheet of wax suitable for surfboards and printed the ad directly on this wax sheet, using our Inca Spyder printer. The ads were inserted as pages in the magazine. After surfers had read the ad, they were able to tear the sheet out of the magazine, roll the wax into a ball, and use it on their surfboards.”

Another advertisement was created for a company that was awarded the title ‘Best Road Management Company of the Year’ in Brazil. The company wanted to feature an ad in the reputable bi-weekly Brazilian business magazine, Revista Exame, explaining their pride in receiving such an honour. “While the roads they manage are in Sao Paulo, many of the magazine’s readers live outside of the city,” notes Pedrosa. “The company wanted to send these readers a piece of tarmac from one of their roads. We therefore created a sheet of pavement, which involved developing paper that emulated the surface of the road. We printed on the asphalt sheets using our Inca printers. They looked and felt like real pavement.”

“Because we have Inca printers,” Pedrosa appropriately noted, “we can fly with creativity and convert imaginative ideas into unique products.”

Digital Print Innovations (DPI) has installed a Seiko ColorPainter H2-74S at Innovate Signs to increase the company's core throughput of in-store graphics. The 1.9m, low-solvent machine is now the mainstay of the Hampshire, UK-based company's full service production facility – and DPI's installation and support service were instrumental to make sure it was up and running as quickly as possible.

Working on European roll-outs for major high street brands requires Innovate Signs to be able to replicate key brand colours perfectly, while remaining price-sensitive with a fast turnaround. Director Lee Devitt was already convinced by the brand, having owned Seiko previously, and by the production speeds of the machine, which can achieve up to 50sq m/hour in eight-colour mode or 100sq m/hour in four-colour mode. The clincher, however, was the value for money provided by buying with DPI.

"It's the first time we've bought a machine with DPI but the experience has been exemplary," comments Lee Devitt, director. "It's been totally different to previous purchases. DPI understands that it's about the bigger picture and not just the bottom line. For example, their team was instrumental in producing colour profiles to make sure our customers didn't notice the difference between our new machine and its predecessor – and they didn't."

DPI's engineers ensured that all colour profiles were in tune with the Seiko H2-74S's ink set, which includes two grey channels (G, LG) for exceptional graduation and achievement of complex monochromatic hues. "We struggled particularly with greys on previous machines; because of the perfect profiling we're now hitting them spot on, but we also have a wider colour gamut to pick from for our other display work," Devitt adds.

The Seiko H2-74S gives the company the flexibility to replicate their success on new substrates, including mesh, textiles, paper, PE, polyester, PVC, transparent PVC/PA, banner, tarpaulin and vinyl. It joins a full kit list that includes a Summa cutter, Seal laminators and a Rollsroller flat-bed applicator; the company not only originates, services and finishes all work in house, but also has a dedicated installation team for its Europe-wide display services.

Devitt, who established the company in 2001 after fifteen years' experience in sign and display graphics, is also seeing the value of proper set-up in the ability to print unattended. "We invested in the H2-74S because we needed to increase our capacity," he explains. "Having everything set up properly from the word go has enabled us to be much more productive, including leaving the machine printing unattended overnight, which was a bit of a gamble before. It's a different animal altogether and we feel like we've maximised what we're getting out of our investment thanks to DPI."

"Equipping a company with a printer shouldn't be a one-off," responds Stewart Bell, managing director of DPI. "The vendor should understand their client's business and help them overcome their main challenges. It was a joy to be able to help Lee and Innovate Signs do just that by giving them exactly what they needed to optimise production and keep their customers happy."

 

White Space Creative, based in Royston, Hertfordshire, was founded in 2006 and offers printed graphics solutions to the exhibition, retail, interior, event, display and graphics sectors. Clients range from large multi-nationals to SMEs including Puma, FCUK, Blackberry, Oracle and Iveco to name a few.

For the past year, White Space Creative has been working closely with Josero on some of its wide format equipment. During this period, Josero has supplied White Space Creative with a refurbished Roland SP540i, a Kala Laminator and a cutter. This equipment has been used to produce point of sale material for a wide range of clients, from Jacobs Creek to Foot Locker, and exhibition graphics for high-end clients such as Java to Cartoon Network Enterprise.

Nick White, Studio Manager at White Space Creative comments, “We were drawn to Josero’s product offering initially because of our strong relationship with the company’s Managing Director Loic Delor.  We know Loic and his team at Josero are renowned for their commitment to customer service as well as their knowledge of the wide format market. He offered us some great solutions which we have been delighted with. The equipment we have purchased has been working perfectly and the Josero team can only be described as efficient, responsive and reliable. Our clients expect a very high level of customer service from us as we offer a full package including project management, logistics and print. This means we depend very heavily on our equipment to work reliably and efficiently. We really can’t afford to have any problems as it has a huge impact on the service we provide. We operate in a very aggressive market and the products and service we receive from Josero is really helping us keep ahead of the competition.”

Josero’s product range has expanded significantly over the past few years, with the company adding everything from refurbished printers to cutters, applicators and eyelet machines to its core offering of Triangle inks. The company relocated to new premises in 2010 which houses a team of engineers and a full demonstration suite, enabling customers to try the equipment before making any purchases.

Loic Delor, managing director of Josero, comments, “Customers have really welcomed our wider product range. People like the idea of dealing with a company they know they can trust and rely on for good quality products at competitive prices. It also helps that we hold a large range of stock, including spare parts at our head office in Cambridge and have experienced engineers of hand if required. White Space Creative is a great example of how well we can service our clients and supply them with a wide range of reliable equipment at great prices.”

For more informatin on Josero, please visit www.josero.com

[image shows exhibition graphics created by White Space Creative]