With the increased speed, quality and capabilities that some of the industry’s most-advanced superwide-format inkjet presses provide today, printing companies have more reasons than ever before to move into high-volume production. For starters, the capabilities of advanced inkjet technologies are taking print to an inflection point—run lengths for jobs that once required offset or screen-print production are coming down to a level where digital offers a more compelling total cost per print compared to analog.

The advantages of versioning compound this trend: a signage printer doing work for a national retail store might discover an opportunity to help his or her customer sell more product by producing targeted or regionalized signage, cutting what was once a single long run of signage into several smaller versioned jobs where digital is the only efficient production option.

Consolidating Work

But as important as the migration from analog to digital is in the market, the second big reason Sign & Digital Graphicsreaders probably have considered entering the high-volume inkjet market is the fact that they can save costs over their current digital printing platforms, especially labor, by consolidating the work done on several smaller or slower inkjet printers onto a single, higher-volume device.

The varying mixes of these scenarios in the market explain why high-volume, superwide-format inkjet is one most promising opportunities for signage and graphics providers. Many print businesses are seeking to print higher volumes of shorter runs, on fewer printers with as little labor as possible. The industry has reached a point where that can be done in ways that were never possible before.

One company that created a new advantage for itself with high-volume printing is The Garvey Group, a large printing firm based in suburban Chicago with facilities in Wisconsin and California. Company executives realized there were more printing opportunities they could capture if they entered the superwide-format inkjet arena. The Garvey Group had built an integrated team of experts—serving packaging, entertainment, outdoor and retail markets—and discovered that print demand in these markets for everything from vinyl banner and billboards to rigid media applications—required both higher volumes and greater versatility of output.

Quality and Speed Are Essential

In March, 2014, The Garvey Group made a move to enhance its superwide-format imaging capabilities, purchasing a 3.2m hybrid roll/flatbed UV inkjet press capable of handling up to 100 boards per hour.

It was a way to expand the capacity and quality Garvey offers through its national fleet of digital and litho production presses. For Garvey, and anyone else looking to move into high-volume production, the important thing is not just speed, but also the ability to meet or exceed customer expectations. Versatility was also key, as it often is in any acquisition of this magnitude. Users need to see how an investment of this level matches their customer needs.

In the case of The Garvey Group, this particular high-volume investment worked very well for the company’s Los Angles-based facility, which provides a mix of out-of-home, in-store P.O.P. and other graphics applications to the entertainment industry and to retailers.

“Quality and speed are essential to our retail and entertainment industry customers," says Ed Garvey, the firm's CEO. "They need suppliers who are proactive in their ability to consistently produce accurate, high-end work under tight deadlines.” Realizing that, the company sought high-volume inkjet production technologies to “establish an advanced graphic imaging platform that helps our customers build their brands,” says Garvey.

The strategy worked well enough that The Garvey Group replicated it at its suburban Milwaukee production facility, adding another high-volume production press to do premium-quality point-of-purchase, transit and outdoor graphics for leading retailers and other national brands. That speaks to one additional advantage of high-volume digital compared to analog: establishing or upgrading multiple sites can be easier than replicating an analog print facility in multiple places, even when the inkjet assets are sizable machines in and of themselves. 

Consider Total Cost of Ownership

For many businesses considering a major printer investment, the natural inclination is to look for the best deal. But just like a vehicle purchase, the least costly printer option is not always the best one.

Your total cost of ownership (and ongoing profitability) is based on more than just initial cost. Oftentimes, inkjet print businesses realize that the ability to print directly onto rigid substrates, as opposed to mounting roll media, or the ability to finish jobs immediately as opposed to waiting for solvent inks to dry, really changes the equation in terms of the return on investment.

Other Factors

Other factors to consider when looking at your total cost of ownership include power consumption, time between jobs/make-ready time and ink utilization. And, any true measure of productivity in a high-volume operation also must include an analysis of how fast and efficient it is to load and unload media on the press.

It’s also important to think beyond cost per square foot, and to consider the types of jobs you will produce, how many square feet per hour you will need to print, the quality of the output, how many colors are available and what types of inks are used. Other questions to consider include:

• How much of your work is ultimately on rigid substrates?
• Can you benefit from printing direct to rigid and eliminating the time, cost and potential for expensive errors involved with mounting and laminating processes?
• What type of support can you expect to receive from your equipment supplier? Here you should not only think about service, but also examine the company’s policies about and history of upgrades as new capabilities become available.

All of these considerations will factor into the decision about which printer(s) to purchase.

New Profit Opportunities

Businesses that have a great deal of fleet and vehicle wrap or billboard work understandably like to look at dedicated roll-to-roll printers when pursuing high-volume investments. Those who pursue a mix of rolled and rigid board work are often better served with a good hybrid press.

UV-curing inkjet presses are especially versatile in terms of capabilities and compatibility with a range of substrates. UV inkjet’s high-productivity capabilities with instant drying make it the preferred imaging technology for production printing in the superwide-format inkjet space.

And today's LED-based UV-curing inkjet printers cure with little heat, offering significant advantages in reduced energy costs and an even broader range of substrate choices. Right now, the fastest LED/UV inkjet presses are not as fast as the fastest conventional UV-cure devices, but over time LED technology should evolve to meet and/or exceed those speeds.

When weighing a high-volume purchase of any type it pays to be meticulous in analyzing exactly what type of work you do, and where it is coming from. There’s always the unfortunate scenario where a shop acquires a new printer to complete a single large job, but then can’t support the machine once the big job is fulfilled. Or the reverse situation, where the production platform consists of an aging fleet, and the firm limps along with capabilities that are below market standards.  Neither scenario is a good idea. So what is the best way to approach this decision?

Clearly, “build it and they will come” is not the way to go. But neither is the “we’ve always done it this way” approach. The current generation of high-volume UV-cure printers offers faster throughput, higher quality and more capabilities than ever before.

Meet KDM

KDM P.O.P. Solutions Group became more profitable by analyzing newer technologies and maximizing its high-volume capabilities. The company, which has locations in Cincinnati, Nashville, Atlanta and Cleveland, had an aging fleet of printer technologies, including offset and screen printing devices. The company opted to replace some of its digital printing assets with two high production printers and quickly added a third. “We expected at a minimum to need to add another shift, but in fact, we not only moved to three shifts but we added a third EFI VUTEk HS100 Pro superwide-format printer, and we are still busier than we have ever been,” according to KDM’s graphics director, Dan Kimmerly.

KDM transferred a significant volume of its printing from screen and offset to digital. And while much of that shift was determined by simple economics in terms of run lengths, the company also had customers that requested digital because of the time-to-market benefits it offers compared to analog. A client needed 30,000 sheets printed over a five-month period, with so many delivered each week, for example. Printing that job digitally on a high-volume inkjet press gave KDM the flexibility to meet those deadlines each month without impacting other jobs KDM was producing.

Like many users, KDM had a list of criteria to consider, and it is a great short-list to look at for anyone considering high volume. Take a look at:

• Quality
• True throughput
• Ink cost and consumption
• Color gamut and the need for white ink.

In terms of quality, the company knew it did not want to turn work away because of an inability to match customers’ PANTONE colors. White ink was another key consideration. Even the fastest of presses won’t improve throughput significantly if jobs that require white ink must still be pre printed with on an offset or screen device. KDM’s new inkjet presses, by contrast, run a single-pass, three-layer ink laydown for white ink jobs that completely eliminated that requirement.

In the end, KDM’s new digital production platform ended up reducing both the time and costs associated with the process, which is ultimately what anyone looking to add a high-volume inkjet press wants and needs to do with their investment.

Explore Opportunities

The latest generation of superwide-format inkjet presses offers many advantages. New capabilities open the door for new applications and increase the opportunity for more profitable margins. Can you take advantage of this?  Start by doing a thorough analysis of your current situation—a makeup of your production platform, number of touches in the manufacturing process, make-ready time and materials, finishing and ink costs, average turnaround time for work and the amount of overtime you are consuming, especially during peak periods.

Armed with that information, you are ready to explore new opportunities in high-volume production.  You may be excited to learn about how much has changed.