How advances in digital wide-format inkjet printing are attracting the attention of other industries, bringing new custom well beyond the traditional sign and display markets.
Inkjet technology is moving way beyond its traditional sign and display applications and seeping into new areas. Fabulous, experimental adaptations of it have been happening for some time now and are becoming closer to viable reality. Take for example, 3D concrete printing, which has the potential to totally transform architectural and building processes and practices.
And what about bio-printing – jetting live cells through a printhead – which could soon become a common fixture in rebuilding human tissue, treating burns for example, by laying down layers of a patient’s own skin or even rebuilding whole organs?
While these are extreme examples of the power of inkjet, in everyday wide-format digital printing, boundaries are being extended into industrial realms too. Manufacturers are offering industrial strength machines – workhorses that deliver on quality and productivity. This power and versatility coupled with new non-traditional specialist substrates and inks, is ensuring that forward-thinking PSPs are able to offer non-traditional applications alongside their usual services.
Ballast Signs in Country Sligo, Ireland, is a case in point. The 25 year-old printing company, under the stewardship of Blair Scales, has ramped up its service capacity recently with the installation of two HP machines – a Designjet L25500 (HP’s first latex machine) and the industrial grade HP Scitex FB500 – in the space of just three months.
“Basically, the FB500 has propelled our applications offering to new heights and opens up endless opportunities for us,” says Scales. “We can now proactively go to customers and suggest new and alternative print projects which they hadn’t dreamed possible, by using virtually any rigid or flexible media.” So far Ballast has produced a porcelain-tiled floor for a hairdressing salon plus direct to glass and direct to door projects for an events company.
“During a recent visit by a customer, we took a tile from our ceiling, ran it through the FB500 and printed their logo and branding, before re-stalling it in the ceiling – all in the space of a few minutes,” enthuses Scales. “Using such impromptu and quirky methods works wonders at captivating customers and hammering home the many number of objects we can print to.”
Roland DG UK is ensuring that its existing wide-format customers can maximise new revenue streams afforded by industrial applications. It is working closely with 3M through its reseller Revolution Transfers to develop a number of serious labels solutions for its customers.
Many industrial processes already specify the use of 3M adhesives and with the new substrates developed for Roland’s UV printers providing even greater durability, scratch-resistance and the like, Roland customers will be in a favourable position to offer new applications and service new market sectors.
At the Sign and Digital show, Revolution and 3M unveiled UV and eco-solvent label solutions in package form – an eco-solvent or UV printer, 3M media profiles using ColorGate Production Server 7 Rip and a range of printable 3M eco-solvent and UV label stock – offering customers and would-be customers the tools to approach new market areas.
Last year Durst Phototechnik rebranded itself as an industrial inkjet specialist, a title that has followed on from a genuine philosophy change that took place about two years back. The company offers various dedicated digital printing machines for corrugated packaging, traffic signs, wood décor, textiles and ceramics.
With its Gamma range of dedicated ceramic printers, Durst has a prominent presence in Italy and Spain. The Gamma is the world’s first industrial-scale inkjet printer using specially formulated, pigmented ceramic inks to digitally decorate ceramic floor and wall tiles.
In February this year, however, the company announced that it would be expanding its presence in Spain. Now in addition to the LFP and textile segments, the Durst Iberica subsidiary, established in 2007, will be taking over the sales, marketing and service structures for the ceramics market.
In this country, a prominent installation for Durst has been at the Stoke-on-Trent-based Johnson’s Tiles, the UK’s largest manufacturer of ceramic tiles. Now part of the Norcros Group, Johnson’s produces around 5 million square meters of ceramic tiles for commercial and domestic use per year.
Mark Thompson, health, safety and environmental officer of Johnson Tiles, says: “The demand for decorated tiles has steadily increased over recent years and, of course, the world recession has reduced overall volumes of building materials. Therefore the company has continued to make a considered investment towards the luxury end of the market. We produce over 3,500 different lines for our own range and exclusive ranges for clients. Naturally, we are always developing different designs whilst exploring more efficient production methods and improving the quality of decoration. We still use screen printing, rotocolor and digital transfer methods as part of our decoration processes but direct digital decoration has proven to be extremely successful.”
Tony Cotton, operations director at Johnson’s Tiles, who was responsible for researching digital production and incorporating it into the manufacturing process said, “It is interesting to note that the two digital production lines are next to conventional lines and the manufacturing speed is almost imperceptible between the two processes. Also the quality of the digitally printed tiles is superb.
“Marbles and stones are currently the most popular design for decorated floor and wall tiles and those produced digitally are extremely fine representations of the natural material. It’s not just the cost savings of ceramic tiles over natural marble that make them so popular with the end user but also the ease and convenience of installation. There is the added benefit that tiles are more environmentally-friendly than marble, you are not depleting a natural resource and far less material is wasted in production.”
Johnson’s first installed a Durst Gamma 60 in 2008 and today it has several digital ceramic printers. Digital decorated tiles account for over 35% of the business with volumes expected to increase.
EFI too is keen on helping its customers push into industrial market niches. In January this year, the company acquired the privately held, Spanish-based Cretaprint, a developer of inkjet printers for ceramic tile printing. Guy Gecht, CEO of EF, says: "We have been tracking the swift transformation from analogue to digital technology in tile imaging for quite some time, and have been deeply impressed with the fast growth and global leadership position of Cretaprint."
At the time Ken Hanulec, EFI’s VP marketing, inkjet solutions said that the company would be marketing Cretaprint tile inkjet printing machines to its existing large-format customer base to allow them to diversify into ceramic printing as well as targeting industrial scale operations.
“A huge value lever we intend to unlock is to bring Cretaprint immediately into the EFI ecosystem. This will allow us to leverage supply chain, R&D, technology, ink, and of course our go to market expertise,” he said.
Applications galore
Inca Digital has announced entries for its 2012 Digital Excellence Awards (IDEAs). These acknowledge the best digital print produced on Inca machines globally. The awards are divided into six different categories chosen to highlight the potential of digital print through a wealth of applications and in a host of industries. Categories are as follows: display graphics, POS, retail interiors, interactive display, décor and furniture, and product decoration.
A panel of leading industry commentators/players will judge the best entry in each category and these winners will each receive an expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas to visit SGIA Expo 2012 (18th - 20th October) including a return flight and two nights' accommodation.
All jobs must have been produced between 1st May 2011 and 30th April 2012, and the closing date for entries is 31st July 2012. For more information on how to enter visit www.incadigital.com