Digital Print News in Ireland
| Saturday, 29 November 2008 22:00 |
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Latest Irish News: Print & display group. digital v screen! -763w
For many years now Print & Display Group (P&D) has been regarded as one of Irelands leading sign and display companies. Over the years it has grown market share both here and abroad by steady investment in technology and skilful acquisition. As a testament to the companies leading position in the POP market it recently won a Gold medal at the POPAI Awards 08 held in London during October with a “Rowentrees 25% Fruit FSDU” temporary display unit, the second time in two years the company has achieved this prestigious award.
Ronan Conway, managing director of P&D talked about the award and how the company’s mix of digital screen and large format production platforms all fit in to-days difficult marketplace. “The Rowentree job was produced initially on the companies Nur Tempo Flatbed Printer (HP Scitex FB6100) and then for the longer run we ran it screenprint due to the volume involved. It’s our ability to produce high quality work like this utilizing both digital large format and screenprinting which sets P&D apart from its competitors. We are traditionally a screenprinter but over the past five years we have steadily built up our digital capability. In terms of our screen equipment we have a computer to screen (CTS) Stencil Master System, with two Thieme screen presses, a four and five colour. The CTS effectively digitises our whole screen process by eliminating a huge amount of pre-press work. It has made the screen side of our production very competitive against digital large format. Having said all that our digital large format capacity is now a very important part of our production mix and comprises of an Nur Tempo Flatbed Printer (HP Scitex FB6100), a Scitex Turbojet 8500, a HP Scitex Pressjet II, a Vutec 5600 and recently we installed a Roland sol-jet Pro III Xc-540 Print & Cut printer to cater for vehicle graphics and high quality posters.” Conway is proud of the companies continued stature in the display world but is still cautious about the economies of scale involved in going fully digital at this stage. “With regards to digital versus screen printing in to-days market I strongly believe that we would not be able to service out client’s requirements if we only had digital printing presses,” he said. “I do believe the future of large format printing will be Digital. However at present, even with machines like the HP DisplayJet and Inca Onset which print at fifty to ninety sheets per hour, the speed of these machines is nowhere near what screen can produce. Even assuming ninety sheets per hour on a large format digital press, a screen machine will be set up in 30 minutes and will print at an average speed of 350 sheets; this makes the screen machine faster after 60 sheets.The running costs of digital also make it difficult to challenge screen at the moment.Ink cost per square metre on a modern UV digital press is in the region of €1.00, while screen is around €0.30c. Even with Stencil making costs included, this makes screen more competitive after around 90 units. The capital expenditure required on the current machines is also prohibitive if you reference the capital cost against the volume of board you can process through one of these machines, your return on investment analysis always comes up in the red. With the continuing advancement of digital technology, I would see a time where Digital technology eventually squeezes screen out of the market. However I think that is still a few years away. We keep a close eye on the developing technology and will be ready to invest when the technology is there.” Conway’s analysis of screen V digital large format print is certainly at odds with his competitors who feel that the run lengths in Ireland are now more suitable to digital production. In many companies opinion whilst an overall job may be 350 sheets, the variable data requirements of international retail multiples means that many print jobs are now broken down into smaller individual run lengths, something which P&D’s competitors feel screenprinting is not capable of handling competitively. Another key point in the argument and one that Conway concedes is that when you are the number one player, everybody else is out to get you! Contact: P: 353 (0) 1 413400
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