In with the new

Coming out of Sign and Digital UK, there was a general feeling that the main manufacturers of wide-format printers were generally doing pretty well. As covered in part one of this feature, most of them had a headline product launch and these attracted plenty of attention at the show. However, it was not all about the big boys and it did not take long to find some interesting products outside the mainstream. But what do the new manufacturers and suppliers bring to the table and what should you be wary of?

Josero launched its new Ecojet 180E printer at the show and the company says the printer generated a huge amount of interest from potential customers, coming away with several very strong leads to follow up. The Ecojet 180E is designed for  sign-maker’s wanting to print on any solvent media including pop ups, roll ups, banners and self adhesive vinyls at a competitive price. The 1.8 metre Eco solvent printer has the ability to print up to 27.2sq m/hr and has photo quality output up to 1440 dpi.

Loic Delor, managing director of Josero comments: “The EcoJet 180E combines some of the best technologies on the market, using Epson DX5 print head technology, ErgoSoft PosterPrint V14 RIP and Triangle Eco solvent inks. If you consider the fact that the printer uses the same printheads and technology as Roland, Mimaki and Mutoh,  it is not surprising that people found the printer of such interest. Priced at £11,995 the printer has the performance of other systems on the market. This includes a one year warranty as well as installation and training. It also offers superb value for money to customers as it uses Triangle Eco Solvent inks in bulk ink feed systems ensuring a very low cost per square metre.”

Delor continues: “We are very aware that anyone investing in large printing equipment needs to carefully consider their options and research the best products on the market. We know customers won’t be disappointed with the EcoJet 180E printer.”

The new Ecojet 180E is available to view at Josero’s head office in Cambridge, along with a range of other printing products.

Another company that was very prominent at Sign and Digital UK was Galaxy Printek Europe, the sole agent for China-based Universal Digital Technology Equipment. The company has its European headquarters in Stourbridge, the West Midlands and has plans to expand the business across Europe.

The company certainly has some manufacturing credentials, with a 38,000sq m production facility in Guangdong Province and a broad range of products and consumables for solvent and UV-based inkjet printing. The printers appear to be good value and there was certainly at least one sale made at the Sign and Digital UK show. Marketing manager, Genie Liew, told me that the company has made a few sales already in the UK and that these customers appreciated the value of the systems.

“The interest we had at Sign and Digital UK and the leads, which turned to sales, that it generated more than covered the cost of exhibiting,” says Liew, adding: “It has set us up with a good foundation for expansion through a growing customer base and brand exposure. The most important factor for us is that on systems such as our hybrid printer the UD-181LA, you can produce prints at £0.70p sq/m. This gives our customers the chance to improve their revenues in an economy which is still not very strong.”

Walking the walk?

A quick web search reveals many more new manufacturers, mostly from China and the Far East. Indeed, February saw Sign China 2012 Expo, which attracted more than 60,000 visitors over four days, with over 8,000 people from outside of China. The exhibition hosted 1,325 exhibitors from across the world and wide-format printing was very high profile. But while their printers are certainly cheaper than the more established manufacturers, you have to think there is a reason for that.

“The chinese printer manufacturers are improving all the time and the products are getting slowly better as they invest in better technology,” says Ben Randall of wide-format solutions reseller rgbUK, adding:  “However when things go wrong, and in my experience they do go wrong, these companies know that they are on the other side of the world and there is very little you or anyone else can do about it.”

Is this the crux of the matter? Is it simply a case of ‘you get what you pay for’, particularly when it comes to support?

Randall asks the question: “At what point do you stop throwing good money after bad in the hope that next time everything will be ok and the supplier will do what they say they will do? When your business is built around a product that makes you the money you need to not just survive but to be truly successful, why would you trust an unknown quantity just to save what may only be a few pence per square metre or indeed a reduced hardware cost?”

Helping hands

Business is of course about taking risks. But the bigger the risk, the bigger the potential rewards need to be otherwise it  is not worth it. Taking on board a printer on the basis of cost alone is surely a big risk and it will depend very much on how important that printer is to your business. Your trust in the supplier should be backed up by cold hard facts in the form of a network of engineers and fast access to spare parts and other required consumables.

The established manufacturers have all of these in place and you know they are tried and trusted otherwise they would not be one of the established. But you are still relying on the individual capabilities and commitment of your supplier and I am sure there are many sign-makers out there that would consider the cost saved on the hardware to off-set a perceived lack of support.

While many of the ‘new’ printers are built with some of the same components as the big names, you cannot be entirely sure of the quality of those components or the company’s ability to source replacement parts if they are required. There is also likely to be much less available to you in terms of high level knowledge of those printers, which will have a significant and probably detrimental effect on the support you can expect.

Randall adds: “I think that money spent on good tools is rarely badly spent. I for one have never regretted buying a good tool that I can justifiably expect to outlast any of its cheaper and supposedly more economical rivals. I want to know that it will work when I need it to and do the job that I want it to when I want it to and I believe the same is true of printers. I have never regretted investing in a manufacturer who is here to support me when things go wrong and I strongly believe that a measure of how good anything is, is not when it’s working but when it goes wrong. It is when you need it working to meet that critical deadline and, if it isn’t, how well the situation is dealt with and how effectively it is put right.”

And this really is the core message. Modern wide-format printers are technically much more complex than they used to be. They need to be able to deal with a broad array of inks and an even broader selection of media substrates. They also have to match the production speed your business demands. It also needs to deliver the quality your customers demand and it needs to be working when you need it to.

If your business relies on the printer for its income, it needs to be a very well researched decision to leave the relative security that an established brand name offers. If you do your homework and believe that your machine can be supported if there are any issues with it, then you could possibly steal a competitive advantage in terms of the initial outlay in the printer and some running costs. However, without these assurances then it really is a risk and not one that people are making in droves just yet.

The cost of a printer to your business is much more than the price you purchase it for. It needs constantly filling with ink, it will need parts to be replaced and if it does not print to your customers’ satisfaction, you will have to reprint at additional cost to you. Finally, you have to calculate the cost of the printer not doing its job and not being brought back online quickly. This can also have an effect on the value of that machine.

In an industry that already has plenty of choice, the new brands of wide-format printers are asking some very serious questions. But before you take the plunge, you should have plenty of questions of your own.