Running with the pack

A technology once discounted as the preserve of only the very biggest printers and graphics arts companies, wide-format flatbed printing has come a very long way in a short space of time. And what is more interesting is that this sector has really focused on price discrimination and become fully populated with systems that go from 15sq m/h 2.5 x 2.5m entry-level models that are really just modified roll printers, up to beasts that can run at north of 700sq m/h and could be easily mistaken for some advanced weaponry system.
 
The most interesting trend though is that of course in any form of price discrimination, it is the middle ground that makes the most profit for the manufacturer or supplier. Think premium economy seats on a long-haul flight, Sainsbury’s own-brand, or the best-selling Toyota Corolla. This is because it offers a balance of quality and cost that appeals to a solid chunk of consumers and delivers both sales volume and better profits to the manufacturer, supplier, or service provider. The entry-level options are either designed as loss leader or carry a small profit margin with them to capture those consumers on a tight budget, with the hope in time that they will like the brand and upgrade. But even though the biggest volumes of products are often sold at the bottom end of the market, the profits are so small they often make up less than 20 percent of a company’s profits.
 
“There is a real debate to be had for a company that is looking to invest in wide-format flatbed print technology for the first time. Do they start entry-level and upgrade later, or go for a piece of technology with decent productivity straight off—even if they can’t quite fill it to start with,” says Ben Woodruff, national sales manager of Inktec.


It is this debate that is the most important point to focus on in an exploration of this technology bracket, as while there is a huge swathe of choice that could be detailed in its intricacy, it is perhaps more valuable to understand the arguments for and against spending more of your hard earned profits.



He continues: “A good example though is a company we have dealt a lot with, Metro Imaging, the outlook of the managing director was, ‘it takes as much effort to slaughter a lamb as it does a sheep’. And while a bit graphic you get the picture.

“He ended up investing in our most expensive option as it gave him room to grow and fill its capacity with time. And while obviously the initial capital outlay is more expensive, if you judge this is an area your business is serious about, then it is worth planning to recoup that investment over a longer time period—with more to show for it and greater production and revenue generating capacity at the end of it.
 
Woodruff’s comments are very interesting, and pivot around the fact that when you upscale a machine, it is always going to cost more combining the initial investment and the upscale investment together, than doing it right first time to get the productivity you want.

Woodruff continues: “There is about £20,000 to £30,000 between the entry-level to the mid-range, but if you go with the entry-level and then want to upgrade later on it will cost you a lot more than that. It is important to realise that if customers look at the budget they have got, and then consider this as a five-year investment, then it is a false economy to get a starter system and then re-invest when the capacity or capabilities of this machine are no longer suitable within a couple of years.

“That is of course assuming that a business does not know from the outset it only wants to run this part of their business on smaller scale concern and are not worried about growing it.”

Intec’s starter system is the Jetrix KX5 which tops out at 30sq m/h, but its mid-productivity range encapsulates the KX6 and KX7, which go to 55 and 60sq m/h respectively. Both of these machines are double headed and that is how the increase in speed is achieved. Carrying a CMYK ink configuration and option to have varnish or primer on one of the head banks, this technology also has another very clever trick up its sleeve. This is because you can switch one bank of CMYK heads for white ink, meaning it can print white at the same speed, a very useful trick that will remove significant bottlenecks if you regularly print onto coloured boards.
 
Woodruff continues: “People don’t tend to go for the varnish and primer options if they are printers, they tend to go for ultimate.”

A clear strength of Inktec, whether it is ink, printers, or media is that they do all their manufacturing as well as research and development in-house. The technology is thus developed over a period of time and it is not something that is shipped in from another OEM under licence and re-badged.

“It is a completely tailored-made solution,” says Woodruff, who adds: “The build quality is also another thing that stands Jetrix apart in this class, as the average Jetrix is twice as heavy as other machines in its class, and we found the lighter weight machines became unstable over a period of time. This protects the customer’s investment and gives them the reassurance they have invested in a substantial piece of equipment.”

This is vitally important in today’s ultra-competitive market, especially when savvy printers no longer use photographs for their test prints, but instead supply solid colours such as sky blues and greys, as well as gradients to try and catch a printer out.
 
So with this in mind, I put to Woodruff the classic story of a printer that already has a decent roll-to-roll printer and now wants to transition into bringing rigid substrate printing in-house.
 
“I would advise any sign-maker to keep the roll printer, and rather than buy a UV flatbed printer with a roll option on, spend the extra money on getting the best performance from your pound that you can. Go as quick as you can in terms of productivity as early as you can,” says Woodruff.

He adds: “It is a very expensive way to go about it if you buy a less productive machine, then in two years try and sell it on and buy another one that will give you the capacity you need. Also doing roll printing on flatbed UV printers and leaving it printing while you sleep and getting ROI on it this way is a nice idea, but in practice it is not so easy. I would advise people invest the extra £10,000 or so into a better flatbed then going for an extra roll unit for it, and keep your existing roll printer dedicated to this function.
 
“The whole point of buying a flatbed printer is for it to print flat sheets, so making sure your investment takes this technology to its optimal point for you in doing this should be the focus.”

O Factoid: One of the world’s fastest dedicated flatbed printers is the Inca Onset X3, which can hit 900sq m/h. It has 14 ink channels that encompass three sets of CMYK heads plus the choice of white or orange. O

Indeed, a part demonstration of Woodruff’s argument was recently highlighted by Digital Plus, which has plumped for a six-colour plus-white equipped Agfa Jeti Mira MG2732 HS, which can hit speeds of 227sq m/h and reputedly has one of the lowest total cost of ownership levels on the market. The new capital spend builds on an investment just 18 months ago into an Agfa Anapurna M3200i roll-to-roll printer. While this particular model is right at the top end of mid-productivity segment, Agfa also offers the standard ‘S’ model at 113.5sq m/h, sitting squarely in the middle of this technology segment.



“The Jeti Mira was just what we were looking for and we selected the 3.2 x 2.7m larger format system. It is important that we stay ahead when it comes to technology and this printer provides the scope to meet our challenges for the foreseeable future,” explains Chris Stringwell, director of Digital Plus.
 
Owen Russell, director of Digital Plus, was also keen to emphasise why the firm had specifically invested in Agfa technology: “We find dealing with Agfa very refreshing. They go to a great deal of trouble to ensure that we are happy and their service and support is first class. We have recently employed a new production manager and plan to utilize Agfa’s Asanti workflow to drive our printers and cutter.”

This latter point made by Russell is crucial to the other key factor that must be considered when investing in this technology. Buying a more expensive piece of equipment is one thing, but it is the technical support afterwards that is also key. That is because there is always going to be a substrate that just does not work well with a specific printer set-up, and so it is the skill and dedication of your manufacturers engineers in tweaking and experimenting with troublesome media that will also help your ROI in the long-run.

“We can confuse buying capital investment equipment with personal desire, and I do not believe the two match,”



says Stephen Pridham, Swiss Q Print and Zund sales manager for Spandex. He adds: “You do not buy a printer in the same way you buy a car. If you have length in the business, some real growth prospects, and want to stay in the game, then you need a system that is flexible and will give you the best return on investment in the long-run.
To this end it has to satisfy as many market applications as possible, you need reliability, you need the lowest cost to print and you need something with a lot of development behind it so you are not a proving ground.”



Spandex is the UK distributor for Swiss Q Print’s technology. With the Oryx 2 kicking off the range with a 2.5 x 2m bed that hits 40sq m/h in Speed mode, then Impala 2 with the same bed size and 180sq m/h productivity, and finally the flagship Nyala 2 with a 3.2 x 2m flatbed and a top speed of 206sq m/h. The application flexibility and durability of this technology really is its best-selling point; they are not built with the automatic intention to upgrade you later on, but rather aimed at providing a holistic solution to your businesses specific needs.



Pridham continues: “We go through a very lengthy testing process so that we can honestly say what the printer can do in real world applications. There is so much variation in media type, it really is immense. Having personally sold systems that have sold all the major ink brands, I can honestly say this system is the most diverse and wide ranging in the media it can cope with.”

The most important thing, according to Pridham, is to give the customer as much testing and verification as they need, helping them realise that some media are more challenging than others.

Pridham continues: “If you want to hedge your bets, then Swiss Q Print’s approach really does give you more piece of mind. It is a privilege to sell it. From a build-quality and market potential it sits closest to Durst in terms of its place in the market. It is built to that European high-end philosophy; it comes from a certain obsessive desire for anything to be the best quality it can be. In Switzerland it is just very much part of the culture.”

Spoilt for choice

Among a range of technology providers in this area that include Durst, Screen, Inca, Fujifilm, and Canon as leading lights with their own impressive portfolio of systems, there is Mimaki and EFI that have healthy market share in the UK.

While very much echoing the views of his industry peers on issues like investing for the long-term and ensuring the technology at your disposal is versatile, Robin East, managing director of CMYUK does provide some caution to new market entrants. He is also in an enviable position in that his firm is a re-seller for both EFI and Mimaki, giving him a broad overview of both customers and technology choice.

“While it is important to get the best deal looking at the long-term, it is also important not to overspend in the hope that business will come in at a later date to fill the capacity of a higher productivity flatbed,” says East. He adds: “If you have a big contract pipe lined, or have a concrete plan that will need extra productivity down the line, then it makes complete sense to go for a system that can give you 60sq m/h plus. But if you are not sure, then the best strategy is to start with an entry-level and scale up as the work comes in.”

East continues: “On the other hand, if they are a big screen printer or commercial printer moving into this sector with an existing workload that is just going to be produced using a digital format, then buying an entry-level system would be not be the right decision, as they would fill it from the off and be left with real bottlenecks.”

The technology offering at CMYUK is very broad, and with Mimaki in the mid-productivity segment you would need to consider the JFX500 3121, which tops out at 60sq m/h but has a very canny price point and advanced LED UV curing that bring with a wealth of benefits related to application scope and lower operating costs.



On the EFI front, its portfolio does not really have an entry-level option in the big scheme of things, but starts out with its much heralded EFI 1625 hybrid system that also utilises LED UV curing and tops out at 43sq m/h. The next step up is the EFI H2000 mercury-based UV system that offers hybrid six colour plus white printing at 65sq m/h. The top of the ‘mid productivity’ segment is something like the EFI GS3200, which hits 223sq m/h.



East concludes, highlighting again that what is also vital to consider when spending that extra capital investment is the back-up services that go with that spend: “What we have been successful at doing is using our Shrewsbury facility to get free training for the life-time of being our customer. Twice a week we offer free operator training classes, and that could be £500 a day, and we run up to four-day training courses worth £3,000 at no charge.

Also, because we have so much equipment at Shrewsbury, if we have a customer that has a press that goes down, they can come in and use our machines to produce work in an emergency until their technical issues are dealt with. Commercially we also have some really good finance products to help make an investment easier to swallow.”

So there you have it dear reader, when considering an investment in this fashionable technology area you would do well to have a good hard think about where you want to be in five years and the other facets of your business that can take you there. If the room is there to grow and you have the inclination, then I would suggest you spend that extra cash on a system that will give you the capacity you need both for tomorrow, but also in 1,825 days’ time. In addition, it is vital that you think about the tangible service and engineering support that comes with your purchase should problems crop up down the road with tricky media, demanding customers, technological gremlins, or through staff turnover.


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