Holding a winning hand

In a competitive market where high quality is crucial and turnaround time is everything, super-fast wide-format technology poses a very tempting offer. With promises of printing big widths at big speeds, anywhere between 1000 to 5000sq m an hour, it is a sector of the market that could make all the difference to high volume printers. However, how can sign-makers looking to diversify their offering use this technology to their advantage?

Before investigating this question, it is a good idea to look at what technology is currently on offer. Reprographic Technology International (RTI Digital) describes itself as ‘the home of Vortex printers’ and brings the Vortex 4200 to the market, which is powered by Memjet.

The Vortex 4200 is a 42 wide printer with two raw speeds: 1,000sq m/h at 1600 x 800 dpi and 500sq m/h at 1600 x 1600 dpi.

Peter Barton, EMEA business director at RTI Digital, says it is a productive machine, commenting: “The advantage we’ve got with our machine is that it has got steel rollers so it takes a very heavy media and it’s also possible to change the roll while it’s printing.



“The net speed comes down as it will do automatic printhead cleans through-out runs. Generally we default to every 50 in print, it will do a printhead cleaning action, which takes a few seconds, so it brings it down to around 840sq m net.”

The company also launched an XL stacker at FESPA 2015, which provides square-stacking of up to 15kg. The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office in Taunton has taken advantage of the XL stacker for its high volume printing.

Barton adds: “Their difficulty is handling all the output print. What they wanted was for it to be square-stacked so you could lift the whole stack and put it into the guillotine. So we developed an XL stacker for them, which is now in our product range.”

Plenty of options

As the Vortex 4200 is powered by Memjet, it is only right that we look at the high-speed colour printing specialist next. Kevin Shimamoto, general manager for wide-format at Memjet, says the company has been developing this sort of technology for a number of years and that it is well positioned to advise companies considering investing in such technology.



Shimamoto comments: “In 2007, we started our wide-format division working with a number of partners. Today, we have about six partners utilising our technology with our 42 wide print engine. What we have done is utilised our A4 printheads, put five of those together and can print with four colours at two different print speeds—150mm/sec on the 1600 x 800 model and 300mm/sec on the 1600 x 1600.

“We can print extremely fast, on a wide range of media, across multiple segments. We have partners such as Xerox and Fuji Xerox utilising our technology that enables them to go after different market segments within wide-format.

Keen not to miss out on the action in the sector of the market, HP has also developed a number of solutions. Thomas Valjak, vice-president and general manager large-format design printing for HP graphics solutions business in EMEA, highlights the company’s new PageWide XL as a technology for production print and large-format.



Valjak explains: “The idea is quite simple; normally what you would see in large-format print are scanning printheads, which scan the media from left to right and prints as you scan media. We took a printhead, turned it 90 degrees and put mountable printheads next to each other. We basically have one virtual printhead that covers the entire width of the printable zone—a total of 40. Instead of moving the printhead across the media, we move the media underneath the printhead. This allows for large-format printing in a single pass, in four-colour, while at the same time achieving great speeds.”

Another major market player that has solutions on offer in this sector is Canon. Dominic Fahy, business group manager, display graphics systems and imaging supplies at Canon, highlights three technologies in particular that may be of interest to the market.

Fahy expands: “We have three very different technologies, which high-lights the diversity of our range. Within our range of UV flatbed printers, the high-speed Arizona 6170 XTS can print at speeds of up to 155sq m/h and has a lot of features that can help with productivity. For example, it has an automatic printhead cleaning function.

“The Océ ColorWave 700 is a more versatile device as it can print onto a huge variety of roll type media, such as heavyweight paper and banner material. As well as being able to print at speeds of up to 225sq m/h, it can hold six different kinds of media at any time.



“Meanwhile, the Océ ColorWave 900 is a super-fast, single-pass system that can hit speeds of up to 1,000sq m/h. Although it is less versatile than the 700 model, it can print very fast on paper or glossy paper and is a popular choice for project such as poster or map printing.”

The need for speed

With the understanding of the technology available—and its impressive speed stats—what role is this technology playing in our industry? For Barton of RTI Digital, one of the technology’s biggest roles is to enable companies to replace old units with one device.

Barton says: “This provides a consequent saving in floor space and the number of operators required to run the print production. This saving in space and labour can allow staff to be reallocated to more bespoke finishing work—which is where the higher profit margins lie.”

Barton discusses how this also enables print service providers to carry out ‘while you wait’ jobs which were not possible with litho ‘because of the difficulty of making the plates’. He argues that the savings to be made by moving to digital are significant, even though many people are still using litho print on old presses.

Shimamoto of Memjet focuses more on the impressive speed attributes that this sort of technology can offer to the industry, commenting: “With the speed of the technology, printers can utilise this for a wide variety of applications and market usages. In addition to changing business modules, we can actually influence the way the market prints jobs.



“Traditionally, in retail, people would have to plan very far in advance what items they wanted to advertise, before sending them out to be printed—something that could take up to a week. With our speeds, they can decide what to advertise and print on the same day. It changes the dynamics of what was a common digital output feed, based on the fact they can print faster with our speeds.”

O Factoid: The Guinness World Records recognises the HP Officejet Pro X as the ‘world’s fastest desktop printer’, delivering high-quality prints at up to 70 pages per minute. O

Canon’s Fahy agrees with this point, adding: “The time to market is very important as customers want print to be ready as soon as possible, and the printer wants to be able to offer this to customers. And although the investment level tends to be higher, as cost of machines are usually more, running costs per square metre are lower.

Valjak of HP also issues a nod in the direction of speed benefits, stating: “We see a great opportunity for anyone using a monochrome or colour LED large-format device. One key trend we have picked up on is the increasing need for print service providers to print in colour, and LED is limited in doing that. This is exactly what we can address with PageWide XL, offering speeds that are the same as monochrome LED, but up 60 percent faster than any colour LED in the market.”

Fitting into the market

For sign-makers looking to add more to their business, super-fast wide-format technology does provide a number of benefits.

Barton of RTI Digital says: “Many sign-makers are doing jobs for short-term events (concerts, fairs, shows etc.) and this technology allows large jobs that would have taken days to now be done in hours! Modern media surface treatments make the printed output waterproof the instant it leaves the printer. So, jobs can now often be done on a while-you-wait basis, as the printer can produce an A0 poster in 4 seconds or less.

“Indoor signage is increasing greatly as our airports become giant shopping malls, our supermarkets are vying for top position via real-time marketing and weekly promotions—this type of ‘visual communication’ is an ideal application for the new single-pass digital technology.”

RTI Digital is currently working with a supermarket chain in Austria, which sends out promotions to stores from its headquarters. Initially producing the work using litho, the cycle time meant they could not send out promotions more frequently than three weekly.

“The challenge with food retail is that the weather effects what sells. If you were able to send promotions out more frequently, you can be more accurate with what you’re promoting,” explains Barton, therefore a move to digital has helped them target customers more effectively.

Memjet’s Shimamoto admits that while the company’s technology is primarily targeted at the indoor applications market, users have been maximising the technology to take on a range of projects. He adds: “We are seeing print jobs that offer two prices; prices for same day walk in, walk out, or they can expand their offering to introduce new products based on new materials and substrates that help add value, such as signage applications or digital gift wrap.”

HP’s Valjak also notes that while the manufacturer’s technology may be aimed more at the technical production market, it does have its uses in the sign-making sector. Valjak explains: “Our first target market is technical production such as maps for architects and engineers. However, what we saw was great response from graphics and sign-making customers at events like SDUK and FESPA. They gave us positive feedback on both the speeds of the machines as well as the print quality.



“They are interested in using PageWide XL for poster production, specifically shorter run jobs. This would not be very economical to produce on offset and would take too much time on other large-format devices, whereas with PageWide XL, quick turnaround of shorter run jobs are possible.”


Fahy also reports Canon has attracted significant interest from the sign-making market regarding its solutions in this sector. He expands: “We see a lot of different kinds of sign-makers and often what they are looking to do is add extra capacity to their business, so they can then produce more output and increase their revenue.

“What we find is most sign-makers we work with, a lot of them are entering the market for the first time. They tend to buy entry-level flatbed printers. However, some of our older customers have used these devices and been able to grow their business, so now they are looking to add more capacity and replace those systems. This will help them further expand their businesses.


“The feedback we get is that by providing very high quality, they can win new business very well. Lots of sign-makers seem to be evolving from just signage to a more diverse range of services to their customers. This means they may talk to us about some of the other products we offer.”

Future developments

When looking to the future of this high-speed sector, industry experts have their own ideas of what is in store. For Barton of RTI Digital, single-pass wide-format printing is set to progress. He says: “I would say that, for me, single-pass wide format colour printing is the single (no pun intended) most exciting development in wide-format digital printing over recent years.

“There will, inevitably, be developments in ink chemistry, giving wider and wider applications. We are bound to see eco solvent, UV curable, solid inks, and even 3D inks becoming available in single-pass printers as the market develops.”

Shimamoto of Memjet explains that the company will continue to work in order to satisfy market demand. He adds: “We’re striving to improve our image quality and reduce cost, but mainly get the technology into the mainstream market. This will allow end users to utilise this type of speed.”

Valjak notes that as demand continues to grow from sectors such as the sign-making market, HP will explore the potential of more graphics applications. He explains: “We are already working on expanding the media portfolio that is compatible with PageWide XL so we can go beyond the normal coated and uncoated media.

“We’re going to have some media that is interesting for graphics as well, such as glossy media for poster production. We’ve started conversations with some media vendors and, later in this calendar year, we look forward to certifying third-party media. We are also working with software vendors such as EFI, Caldera and Onyx to ensure that their products are compatible with PageWide XL.”

Canon’s Fahy says the manufacturer will continue to focus on what it believes are the three key factors for customers—speed, quality, and cost. He adds: “We are always looking at those three areas when developing our systems. We’re developing flatbed printers that are more productive and more reliable and we’re adding automation to the system to cut down on the opportunity of human error.

“The software and services around the system are becoming more interesting and important. The ability to print and create an image on a UV system and cut it separately can be done and lots of machines can do it. What our customers want is to offer a solution for the whole workflow all the way through to finishing.”

So, while the market seems well stocked with technology, major manufacturers will continue to develop new solutions to ensure their customers are meeting the demands of the end user. After all, while pleasing printing companies may be one matter, making sure the end user is satisfied with the product is the most important consideration for everyone in the industry.

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