Hardware

Braintree Printing, a full-service commercial and quick printing company, is building an environmentally-safe workplace and creating eco-friendly products with the recent purchase of a Hewlett Packard Designjet L25500 Printer.  This latest acquisition is part of an overall company mission to reduce the impact of printing on the environment.
 
The Massachusetts-based printer is one of the first in New England to install the HP Designjet L2550 Printer, known for its green printing qualities.  As Braintree Printing replaces and expands its fleet of printing equipment, the company selects only energy-efficient equipment, resulting in a safer work environment and cost-savings for the company and its customers.
 
The Designjet produces large-format indoor and outdoor signs with water-based HP  latex inks.  Odourless and pollutant-free, these non-toxic and non-flammable inks are safer for operators.  Finished printed materials are better for the environments where they are displayed, a significant feature in settings such as hospitals and schools.  With an ENERGY STAR rating, the HP Designjet meets strict energy efficiency guidelines and, since printed materials dry immediately, there is no special ventilation equipment or external dryer required, reducing electrical use.  Printed materials are 100% recyclable.
 
"With the Designjet, it's about sustainability every step of the way," Braintree Printing owner Jim Corliss said.  "We're operating a machine that uses eco-friendly inks and emits no fumes and we're producing high-quality printed pieces that can be recycled."
 
According to Corliss, Braintree Printing has been working hard to promote environmental sustainability in the printing industry.  The company is a Certified Printer in the Forest Stewardship Council's Chain-of-Custody program and uses FSC certified paper.
 
"We use only recycled cardboard boxes to package our printed materials and routinely offer clients recycled paper for their marketing materials," Corliss said.
 
Recently, Braintree Printing took the initiative to reduce energy consumption with an energy analysis by Energy New England in conjunction with the local electric company, Braintree Electric Light Department.  "We rewired offices with motion sensors, replaced incandescent bulbs with LED lights and gained better energy control over our entire press and bindery area," said Corliss, noting that Braintree Printing shaved 3% off its annual electric bill.

LightVisions, one of Western Canada's largest digital imaging providers, has increased throughput and captured new business: the result of the installation of Canada's first automated Inca Onset S20, sold and supported by Fujifilm Canada Graphic Systems.

Located next to Winnipeg International Airport, LightVisions specialises in large-format digital printing for the retail, display and outdoor markets, producing printed products for out of home, store décor, retail POP, museums and tradeshow. Now in its 28th year, the company currently employs more than 40 people and encompasses over 38,000 sqft of production space. It offers a single source environment to its clients including prepress, design, printing, finishing, installations, kitting and logistics. The Inca Onset S20 joins two older UV flatbed printers and 8 roll-to-roll inkjet printers up to 126 inches wide, giving LightVisions the ability to create images on virtually any roll fed or rigid material.

LightVisions began its quest for a large-format flatbed in the spring of 2010, a necessity as the company was turning away a significant amount of large-format work. Narrowing the search down to the Inca Onset S20 and a competitor, LightVisions ran extensive tests prior to making the investment.

"We have some very specific tests, such as ink usage, where we weigh material, make comparisons and receive accurate feedback on consumables," said Allan Brooks, president of LightVisions. "While the two printers we tested were very close in terms of run cost/sq. ft., the big difference was that the Inca Onset S20 delivered higher quality at stated speed. We tested the speed with what we considered a quality mode for close viewing POP, and the Inca Onset S20 provided higher resolution and better detail with virtually no banding in the solids."

The Inca Onset S20 at LightVisions, installed with the latest speed upgrade in August 2010, features a materials handling automation system capable of operation in manual, semi- or three-quarter mode.

Available to all Inca Onset S20 customers, the upgrade boosted the rated speed more than 35 percent from its original speed of 45 beds/hour. "Inca told us that with the upgrade and in automation mode the Onset S20 would print at 62 beds per hour. We anticipated that the speed increase would mean a loss in quality," said Brooks. "Instead, we were blown away by the quality. When we print jobs like fashion posters on 100-pound coated stock at 62 beds/hour, the quality difference between that and running at 45 beds/hour is hardly noticeable."

The Inca Onset S20's ability to deliver both speed and quality was a 'game changer' for LightVisions, requiring it to revamp its business plan. "We had not anticipated being able to run 62 beds/hour with fashion work for close viewing," said Brooks. "Our thought was that the higher speed was only going to be good for outdoor signs and displays. Now we can pursue both--higher volume outdoor and larger retail accounts. This capability opened doors for us."

According to Brooks, the Onset S20 printer is more than twice as fast as its other two flatbeds combined. "We have been able to move into markets that we knew existed, such as larger volume Retail POP, and had bid on, but didn't get. We knew where we had to be on those bids—we knew what we needed in a printer to be able to bid against screen printers."

A key factor in the Onset's speed is its substrate handling automation, which can increase productivity up to 36 percent compared to manual handling. "We don't have to wait for the machine to stop and the operator to take the sheet off and put on another one and line it up to register," said Brooks. "The sheets can be pre--positioned, stacked and squared during the printing process, so when the printed sheet is removed, the next one is in position to be loaded. When running manually, you have to take it off the printer and then square it up on the pallet."

Added Brooks, "To be competitive with screen printers, you need the same capabilities to reduce costs. The automation is letting us compete with screen printers at much higher volumes than before. It has dramatically increased our productivity as there is now much less operator intervention. We have seen a large increase in number of beds per hour per operator over our existing UV flatbed printers. The output per hour is now also very consistent as there is less operator fatigue. We have noticed with our existing manual load machines that output per hour can vary greatly depending on operator ability and time of day. The impact of having this type of automation is huge."

One recent project for a large national company illustrates the types of jobs LightVisions can now go after. "We just finished thousands of images for this large outdoor project," said Brooks. "The entire job was 3,000 beds. We ran small and large pieces, hitting 62 beds an hour with automation. We ran multiple designs and multiple substrates, from translucent styrene, to card stock to MXM (synthetic paper), and there was complete consistency of print quality between products. We were awarded this project over bids from screen and litho shops and our margin was higher than our business plan predicted."

The ability to quickly switch back and forth between manual and automated mode is also helping throughput. "Our operators really like the ability to switch over quickly," said Brooks. "It is very fast, so if you have one 20-30 piece job and then another that's running 500 pieces, you can switch from manual to automated easily. You don't need the automation for the 20-30 piece jobs—manual works just fine."

The biggest problem with the automation feature is keeping the operator from getting bored, said Brooks. "We have a lead operator responsible for the machine operation and maintenance," he explained. "When she arrives in the morning she calibrates the Onset and then the machine is running all day. The only thing we do is swap the operators, allowing them to do something else."

Added Brooks, "The Onset S20 delivered as promised and even more so. The installation was superb, the tech support very responsive and we are most impressed with the speed increase with no quality change."

 

Bluejet Print, based in Gdansk, recently became the first Polish printer to install an Inca Onset S20 wide format flatbed UV device in December 2010, with production started early January. This installation enables the digital print service provider to jump to the top of the list of key wide format print providers in Poland, with four times the capacity they had before and the ability to offer digital print that will match in quality with both screen and offset printing.

Having seen rapid growth since starting the family business eight years ago, Piotr Kaczorowski, executive chairman, explains how the company came to place an order for the Onset device: "POS is a fast growing market in Poland, and we wanted to invest in a device that will allow us to provide high quality print at a competitive price and turnaround time. Our previous hybrid printer just couldn't keep up with the work anymore and we wanted something that would allow us much greater capacity."

Piotr and his team spent a great deal of time investigating suitable devices on the market, which included visiting Fujifilm's Broadstairs facility to carry out tests on the Onset S20.

"We thoroughly evaluated device throughput, quality, costs and track record of every printer we tested, and in doing so the Onset S20 won hands-down," continues Piotr. "That, together with the comprehensive service contract they offered, clinched the deal with Fujifilm."

Before the Onset S20 was installed in December 2010, Bluejet relocated to new premises in order to house the flatbed device - another step by the owners to prove their ambition to grow the business and take it to the next level.

The Onset S20, a UV curing inkjet flatbed printer, is the most recent high performance addition to the Onset family which has changed the face of the wide format industry. Developed to meet the demands of customers for rigid print between 1500 to 4000m2 per day onto substrates of 3.14m x 1.6m and up to 50mm thick, the six-colour device has enabled UV digital flatbed to become an economical method of producing high-impact visual images, and produces far more print than any other digital flatbed printer currently available. The Onset S20 has an ever growing customer base, using the device for its superb quality, flexibility and finish.

It uses Fujifilm's own Uvijet inks to produce prints to match the sheet fed offset colour standard ISO 12647-2, enabling the production of consistent results, regardless of the print process used. In addition, the Onset S20, in combination with Uvijet inks, also features gloss level control to produce finishes from matt, through satin to high gloss depending on application, bringing massive versatility in the range of products that can be printed, e.g. display POP, exhibition graphics, backlit/frontlit displays and outdoor signage printing.

"We are extremely excited about the new possibilities we can offer to both new and existing customers," concludes Piotr. "The Onset S20 allows us to compete with other key wide format print providers on the market, which isn't something we could do until now. Fujifilm has already proved a very reliable business partner and we look forward to building this relationship with them in the years to come."

EFI and Heidelberg USA, Inc. today announced a new agreement under which Heidelberg will distribute the VUTEk GS series of superwide format digital printers to the commercial print market across the U.S.
 
Under the agreement, Heidelberg USA will distribute EFI’s VUTEk GS2000, GS3200, and GS5000r as well as the inks, parts, consumables, accessories and upgrades related to these printers. Heidelberg will also provide customer and technical support for the VUTEk GS series of printers including installation and training.
 
EFI is a world leader in digital imaging and print management solutions for commercial, packaging, in-plant and specialty printers worldwide. Heidelberg is the world's leading solutions provider for the print media industry. The company manufactures sheetfed press systems as well as prepress and postpress components, software and consumables for all printing applications.
 
"We're excited to enter into this distribution agreement with Heidelberg USA. It allows us to bring Heidelberg customers our award-winning superwide format digital printers," said Frank Mallozzi, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, EFI. "Commercial printers are looking for ways to distinguish themselves and offer their clients more diversified products and services. Now we can reach those companies through a broader network."
 
Heidelberg USA will have a GS3200 in its North American Print & Packaging Technology Center (NAPPTC) for demonstrations. The machine will be integrated into a complete Prinect workflow and will be colour managed by Heidelberg’s Prinect Color Toolbox which has recently been awarded the IDEAlliance G7 System Certification. Customers will benefit from a single workflow that drives a digital device and an offset press with the result being a colour matched output from both.
 
“Wide and superwide format printing are high-growth opportunities and Heidelberg has the right workflow, colour management, service and Saphira consumables expertise needed to integrate these technologies into a print production environment,” said James Martin, senior vice president, marketing, Heidelberg USA. “EFI is a leader in the superwide space and together with Heidelberg we can bring a best-in-class portfolio to our customers.”

Vertis Communications, a results-driven marketing communications company that delivers inventive advertising, direct marketing and interactive solutions to prominent brands across North America, today announced the addition of three large format digital printing systems in its Irvine, Calif., integrated media solutions facility: two HP Scitex printers and an MGE digital finishing system.

Already an industry leader in helping clients leverage large format promotional marketing-such as POP / POS displays, in-store signage, fleet graphics and out-of-home-the installation of the HP Scitex printers and MGE finishing equipment advances Vertis' suite of end-to-end capabilities. The technology will increase print quality and format options, streamline production time, and reduce waste.

"Our clients turn to Vertis for the development of exciting and engaging large format communication programs that raise consumer awareness of products and services, or draw attention to promotional offers," said Michael Kucharski, senior vice president and general manager of integrated media solutions for Vertis Communications. "The addition of the HP equipment allows Vertis to quickly turn around the highest quality large format campaigns, including those requiring a wide range of output materials or significant volume and customisation. The result is an unprecedented ability to deliver the creative and high-impact campaigns demanded by our customers."

The equipment advancements provide marketers added time to complete creative designs and plans by significantly shortening turnaround for large-scale projects. With enhanced production capacity, national brand marketers with large volume requirements can now economically shift to more regionalised or personalised marketing initiatives. The broader range of materials that can be printed on allows boundless creative options for clients' marketing messages.

The HP Scitex FB7500 Printer offers the benefits of digital printing in production environments, helping to reduce project turnaround time and deliver high quality output for large volumes of complex POP/POS applications on a wide variety of substrates. Reducing idle time between sheets by up to 75 percent, and requiring only one operator, the HP Scitex FB7500 Printer has the capacity to handle industrial-scale projects in a fraction of the time and with reduced costs.

The HP Scitex LX800 Printer sets a new image-quality standard for industrial large-format production. It is the largest, most productive HP Latex Ink device to date, allowing for direct printing on vinyl, wallpaper and polyester fabrics, including unlined flags. The HP Scitex LX800 Printer and HP Latex inks offer consistent image quality while delivering stellar performance in terms of productivity, size, durability and media choices. Supporting a broader range of applications than traditional printing technologies, this device provides more versatility and helps reduce the impact of printing on the environment.

The MGE i-XL Kongsberg digital finishing system for short-run production offers unmatched digital finishing performance, versatility and durability for the large format materials printed by the new HP Scitex printers. The all-in-one integrated cutting head allows for processing of sheets or boards up to 87" by 120" and features automatic surface mapping for improved quality and throughput, including cutting, routing and creasing for complex large format shapes.

As part of the Integrated Media Solutions division, Vertis' Irvine location offers a full service, state-of-the-art facility featuring comprehensive turnkey services including premedia and creative development, digital and large format printing, and project fulfillment and distribution. The facility specialises in POP/POS display graphics for the retail industry, including 3-dimensional structural graphics, roller shades, standees, banners, posters, pop-ups, signs and fleet graphics. The location is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, offering many eco-friendly alternatives, such as the new HP Scitex LX800 Printer.

The question of how to take the benefit from the speed of screen printing with the convenience and versatility of digital production was answered for Rotherham-based display specialist Bluetree Design & Print when it invested in a UV-curable HP Scitex FB7500 Printer.

Already well-versed in inkjet technology, the addition of this highly productive industrial flat-bed solution now means that the company can produce all run lengths effortlessly at speeds of up to 500m/hr. Additionally, Bluetree is benefiting from the ability to include versioning and variable data into its applications so that customised jobs from short runs up to volumes of several thousand can be output from a single data file.

A former screen printing specialist, Bluetree evolved from producing very high-quality four-colour work to wide format digital in order to cater for shorter runs and greater versatility. The company's initial investment in inkjet technology was the result of an investment plan started in 2004. Since then, it has grown steadily and now incorporates UV-curable printing onto both rigid and flexible materials.

In order to continue this development, the company recognised that further investment into wide format technology was essential to increase its capacity, improve output quality and gain higher throughput speeds regardless of run length. Bluetree moved the majority of its digital production to a new site, continuing its screen printing work at its existing Rotherham base and these original premises now also house its HP Scitex FB7500.

In 2007, with at least 30 percent of its production being output digitally, Bluetree again assessed its future and acknowledged that further expansion of its digital printing capability was essential.

"The company was in a strong position as a leading supplier of high-quality point-of-sale, signs and general displays but we realised that we'd reached the point where we needed to evolve in order to continue on our growth path," said Bryan Shirley, director, Bluetree Design & Print. "This evolution meant that we needed to invest in greater wide format inkjet capacity."

During Bluetree's next investment phase in 2009, thorough investigations were made into the faster, more productive, versatile wide format machines coming to market and this coincided with the introduction of the HP Scitex FB7500 Printer. Shirley and his team visited a beta site to see the system in operation as well as viewing demonstrations at its launch at FESPA Digital 2009, and decided this solution was best suited to the company's demanding requirements.

"We looked at the options available which were designed for fast throughput that could match the high-quality of our screen printing, but one of the deciding factors that contributed to our decision to choose the HP Scitex FB7500 was the quality of finish," explained Shirley. "In particular, we preferred the UV-curable ink on this machine and its appearance across a range of different materials."

The automation incorporated into the printer was another important aspect for Bluetree, as the loading and stacking elements are included in this machine. Designed for heavy-duty production cycles and fast change-over, the company's FB7500 often runs 24 hours a day, with minimal supervision, providing consistent high quality across a range of different jobs.

One of the disadvantages of screen printing is that, as an analogue process, it isn't possible to output customised jobs where variable elements need to be incorporated as part of the overall print. Using HP's SmartStream Designer plug-in with Adobe CS5 InDesign gives Bluetree the versatility it needs to merge personalised data as part of an overall graphic application.

A typical example was the production of more than 5,300 self-adhesive signs, each of which contained individual information yet was output as a single application on the HP Scitex FB7500. The job, produced for a leading regional public transport company, enables bus passengers to text a unique code to a central number. This notifies the drivers that there are people waiting to be collected at the stop, identified numerically in the text message.

The high performance HP Scitex FB7500 was developed to promote the transition from analogue to digital production in a three-quarters automatic solution which accommodates material loading and unloading. With output speeds of up to 500m/hr this six-colour wide format printer benefits from HP's proprietary X2 MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) printhead technology and specially developed UVcurable inks.

With an optimum native resolution of 500dpi, the FB7500's drop-on-demand piezoelectric inkjet technology ensures consistent, high-quality results across a broad range of rigid and flexible sheets up to a maximum sheet size of 1.65 x 3.2m and thicknesses of 25mm. Typical materials include card stocks, corrugated and fluted boards, polystyrene, self-adhesive vinyls, coated and uncoated papers and PVCs.

"The addition of the HP Scitex FB7500 Printer has enabled us to move our original screen printing and wide format digital business into a new dimension where we can increase versatility and output opportunities across all run lengths," concluded Shirley. "This investment has lived up to its promise, giving us speed and quality in a robust, dependable printer. We've been so impressed with its performance, we're considering purchasing a second machine."

Challenge

• Add versatility to existing screen printing and digital capabilities
• Increase throughput with faster job change-over
• Incorporate variable data and customisation
• Maintain colour fidelity and accuracy

Solution

• HP Scitex FB7500 Printer with UVcurable inks

Results

• Greater flexibility on all run lengths
• Fast personalisation with HP SmartStream Designer
• Production speeds of up to 500m/hr
• Maintain 24/7 operation