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One of the most significant product developments hit the wide-format marketplace has been the introduction of UV flatbed inkjet systems. Output providers around the globe have embraced flatbed technology and all the possibilities it brings with it. With these new output options, wide-format shops are helping change the landscape of the industry.
I.T. Strategies estimates that in 2006, there was a worldwide installed base of UV flatbed inkjet printers of about 4,100 and this is expected to grow to 16,500 by 2011, a CAGR of 32 percent. Total manufacturers revenues are expected to grow from $795 million in 2006 to about $2 billion by 2011, a CAGR of 21 percent. By 2011, manufacturers revenues from low-end (<$200,000) and high-end ($200,000+) UV flatbed inkjet printers will be about equal at just over $1 billion each.
According to Patti Williams, consulting partner at I.T. Strategies, "The wide-format graphics market is in part a sub sector of the larger display graphics market which includes applications such as POP signage, trade show graphics, billboards, and other types of large graphics and printing technologies such as screen, offset and digital. I.T. Strategies estimates that the Display Graphics market has a worldwide retail value of output around $100 billion. Screen printing makes up about half the market and digital around 30 percent.
"The wide-format inkjet graphics market continues to grow both incrementally (e.g. very short runs not done previously, new types of advertising such as bus wraps) as well as at the expense of screen printing. Solvent inkjet printers were introduced to the market to attack screen printing on vinyl. With the introduction of UV-curable flatbed inkjet printers, inkjet is focused on rigid substrates. For display graphics, UV-curable flatbed inkjet printers offer better quality, the ability to print images not possible with screen printing (e.g., photographic images), and increased productivity. I.T. Strategies expects that UV-curable inkjet printers (in both flatbed and roll-to-roll configurations) will pose a challenge to high-end aggressive solvent inkjet printers as well as screen printers," she concluded.
Closing the Gap
Rak Kumar, president & CEO of Raster Printers sees the gap in output quality between UV and solvent closing. "In the past, the image quality of graphics produced by solvent inks was dramatically superior to the graphics produced by UV-curable inks thus limiting the use of UV to primarily outdoor graphics. The release of several new printers based on grayscale print heads in the last year has closed that gap significantly. A new print head technology called MEMs is just becoming available. It is highly scalable and thus has the potential to dramatically improve the image quality and price/performance of inkjet printing.
"Many of today's UV systems are hybrid printing systems capable of printing on rigid and roll media. More recently the trend is to offer systems which are optimized for either roll printing or rigid media printing. A case in point is the new vacuum table, rigid media printers from Raster printers, Oce and Mimaki. These printers offer excellent media versatility and dot registration which translates in to very sharp text," Kumar added.
Kumar feels that UV-curing technology is a key to the product category going to the next level. "The next major change will be in UV curing technology. Current UV printing systems utilize mercury lamps to cure the image as it is being printed. Unfortunately, mercury lamps are extremely inefficient as most of the radiation is wasted IR energy, generate too much heat causing problems with heat sensitive substrates, have limited bulb life and the use of mercury is an environmental concern. Curing technology based on LEDs offers high curing efficiency, generates virtually no heat and has 10 times the bulb life of mercury bulbs. As the cost of these lamps continues to come down (as is the case with automobile head lights) and the ink chemistries are optimized to the wavelengths generated by these lamps, this curing technology will become the standard curing method for UV printers," he pointed out.
Turning the Corner
Craig T. Reid, director, New Business Development at DuPont Digital Printing-Cromaprint UV, also feels that flatbed technology is turning the corner. "Clearly, in just the past few years UV-curable inkjet technology has gone mainstream, with the majority of the heavy industrial wide-format systems sold going UV versus solvent. New economical solvent, and 'eco-solvents' still sell a high number of units at the smaller format and much lower price ranges. UV cure is just now hitting its stride with a likely long future of technology advancements in hardware, inks, and software that will drive even higher adoption rates."
Reid said the key factors for driving the growth in UV are the versatility to directly print on to such a wide variety of rigid and flexible substrates, instant dry with no lamination requirement, and more environmentally friendly production. "Most of the typical graphics and signage applications can already be done more efficiently with significantly less labor with UV digital printing vs. traditional methods. We expect this trend to continue as the ink performance improves to enable even more applications. With our Cromaprint UV inks we have already proven that we can achieve the expanded color gamut our customers expect and predict significant future development of inksets for more specialty applications."
He added that flatbed technology continues to provide more options for shops. "These specialty applications offer our customers unique new ways to grow profits by digitally printing onto specialty surfaces, custom graphics in small batch volumes not just for advertising, but for decoration and permanent graphics applications."
Opening New Market Segments
"We continue to see solid growth within the flatbed market," said Terry L. Amerine, market manager, Wide Format Graphics at Fujifilm Sericol. "The proliferation of our product range with the multiple variations of the Inca Spyder and the new Fujifilm Acuity has enabled us to sell to the smaller shop segment of the market. We expect to see solid growth in 2007 and beyond within the flatbed segment."
Amerine said the company is very excited about the new Inca Onset press that will print over 100 beds per hour. "This level of productivity will enable wide-format digital printing to penetrate the commercial offset segment in a significant way," he added.
Amerine looks for the further expansion of the product category. "The main trend is a continued expansion of choices within the flatbed segment. Printers are being brought to market that address specific needs for specific applications, such as industrial. We believe this is a sign that the flatbed market is maturing."
Richard Codos, executive director, North American Development at Leggett & Platt (L&P) agrees with Amerine, "As a provider of high end, high volume industrial UV digital flatbed printers to the industry, we see the continuing trend for higher speeds, enhanced quality, and automation. Digital technology clearly has further room to penetrate commercial and large screen printers where we have seen little impact to date, as well as within other substantial markets still untapped. Commercial and screen printers are still looking for digital to provide increased throughput, denser color areas, less banding, and the ability to print smaller text."
Addressing Text Issues
Condos reported that L&P is working on enhancing the issue of text. "L&P Digital's latest high speed Virtu technology addresses the issues of small text/detail printing and banding with TypeSense and BlendSense respectively. The TypeSense feature analyses the file's print patterns and identifies and isolates the areas with intricate detail and text within the image. The result is the ability to print in a high speed superwide format that rivals that of a desktop printer. BlendSense image optimization system reduces the banding generally associated with UV ink printing on prints with dark, solid color areas. Together they provide solutions that improve colorspace for the superior quality finished products required today."
"Our customers indicate that versatility is still a key issue. The ability to direct print to a wide variety of substrates, such as acrylics, glass, metal, wood, tile, stone, carpeting, etc. provides exciting opportunities for a wide range of applications in a variety of industries—including product manufacturers—that have not been fully explored to date. Digital offers printers the ability to design without limits," Condos added.
Cool Applications Abound
One shop where flatbed technology is helping them open up new doors is the Cincinnati, OH-based The Cincinnati Sign Company. As their founder and owner, Christian Beebe, put it, "There's no point having a Ferrari if you don't know how to use it, and that's exactly how we feels about these flatbed machines."
Those machines are the ColorSpan 9840uv and the Mimaki JV5 160S. "Flatbed technology is literally changing the face of what typical 'sign shops' are able to offer. With flatbed technology, we can print an anything up to almost three-inches thick, on almost any material and all at top resolutions. And that correlates to printing directly to from full color printing on full size doors (even with bevels) to printing on tile, slate, bricks, wood, boards, blinds, glass, cubicle partitions, and so much more. It is truly changing the world of interior design. This opens up a whole new world of possibilities for interior designers and architectural firms in a big way," said Beebe.
He continued, "What we are able to do with these machines have made interior designers, architects, and many others go wild with new ideas. We are starting to get a lot of calls from them asking, 'Can you do this?' And my answer to them is that we will never know until we try. I look at my business today and say 'I am now in the business of showing clients what they didn't know they couldn't do.' I'm giving them options they didn't even think existed before."
Prior to getting into the flatbed market, Beebe did his share of homework. He installed the ColorSpan unit in January of this year. He said it required about three to six months of hard research before getting both printers in house. "When I purchased the ColorSpan 9840uv, I was looking for a product that would provide me with something a little different. So far we've produced everything on this machine from T-shirts, to full sized doors, carpet to concrete…everything that you could possibly imagine we have output on. We are running jobs on this machine that are literally blowing people's minds."
Beebe reported they are printing a lot of home and custom interior jobs. "We are able to take real inexpensive material and make it look like $1,000 pieces of marble or an antique piece of wood. It's amazing what can be done."
Beebe has also been extremely happy with the results they've gotten off their Mimaki JV5 160S. "We are very impressed with the speed and color of the JV5 160S, we've used that unit on many wall paper and vehicle graphic applications."
Overall, he sees a bright future for flatbeds. "The flatbed market is only going to get better. The speed, quality and the output size will improve. Once suppliers get the inks more flexible, it could give solvent a run for its money," Beebe concluded.
A Flatbed Grows in Phoenix
In business for more than 45 years, Phoenix-AZ-based BP Graphics houses all kinds of output equipment from single-color conventional presses to multi-color UV curable in-line screen presses to wide-format printers that includes the HP Scitex FB6700 flatbed printer.
"We took our time getting into the flatbed market because we wanted to make sure that we found the right product to fit our client's needs," said Curt Carpenter, president. The output provider had purchased the HP Scitex 6300 last year to first enter this space and then added the FB6700 this spring when their work load required a faster, higher production unit.
Ian Scott, vice president, at BP Graphics likes the FB6700 for its versatility and ease of use. "Flatbeds provide many benefits to you but also to your competition as well. That can be a good and bad thing. You don't need years of screen expertise to get into the flatbed market, the learning curve is much lower with these machines. So the one drawback is your competitors that don't have the screen printing knowledge can now compete with you for jobs where they hadn't been able to in the past. The FB6700 is much like a screen press in the sheer volume of production work it can run on it," said Scott.
Carpenter added they print on a slew of substrates including Coreplast, Foamcore, and SBS cardboard. "Most of the jobs we run on it are for retail POP signage and some out of home work. Since its installation this spring, we have really been impressed with the unit's speed and versatility."
"Top-notch color continues to be a major selling point of the Gerber Solara UV2," stated the company's executive director of marketing Peter Marchi. "Our core value is unparalleled color. We have a proprietary inkset, with CMYK, and additional colors violet and green. That's completely unique in the market. Using the machine, customers have had noteworthy success reproducing hard-to-achieve commercially important colors. While the Solara UV2 is a hybrid model permitting both flatbed and roll-to-roll printing, users are mainly using it for flatbed direct-to-substrate printing on a broad array of materials, from corrugated plastics through all the different configurations of Foamcore, metals, aluminum, glass and polyethylene and polypropylene sheets, Marchi confirmed. "It's just a much wider variety of materials," he added.
Price is a Key
Bruce Butler, director of marketing at MacDermid ColorSpan sees more economical price points playing a role in allowing more shops to enter this market. "We are seeing a tremendous interest in and sales of UV-curable inkjet printers in the $50,000 to $150,000 price category. UV printers in this price range appeal to a broad group of small to medium-sized sign and print shops, allowing them to compete with the larger shops owning the 'big iron' machines. They provide performance advantages and cost savings over other, less expensive technologies such as solvent, mild-solvent, and aqueous printers. Anyone who is buying $1,000 of vinyl or more a month for mounting can justify the purchase of a UV printer. By imaging directly to inexpensive rigid materials, they eliminate the vinyl, as well as the time and labor to mount it to a board. Not only does throughput and response time improve, they can re-deploy their workers to other areas."
"And, UV printers can do so much more than print rigid signs. Limited only to one's imagination, direct imaging to an unlimited variety of materials from wood to glass can provide some high profit boutique jobs that are just not possible with other types of printers. In addition, you can run all of your banner and roll-fed jobs on these types of printers, too," Butler said.
Flatbed Trends in the Windy City
Jerry Manikowski, president of Digital Imaging Resource in Chicago, IL has been doing some unique things with the Durst Rho 600 they installed last summer. "With flatbed technology we are able to offer our clients the options of printing on so many different substrates," said Manikowski. Probably the most unique job we've run on it thus far was printing on glass. We did a project for one client that wanted to replicate etched glass on tabletops. They were really impressed with the results. The Rho 600 has gotten us into so many different markets that we weren't into in the past. Since we installed it last summer, we have expanded our color graphics department."
He also said having the Durst printer in house has really helped them land some big print accounts. "We've done produced jobs for Broadway in Chicago, this has allowed us to work on many projects in the theater district of Chicago. We've done some unique projects in that area; we've wrapped a whole side of theater as well as printed all the graphics for the musical Wicked."
Manikowski said they also they did a project for Millennium Park. Located in downtown Chicago on Michigan Avenue between Randolph and Monroe Streets, the 24.5-acre Millennium Park is a center for world-class art, music, and architecture and landscape design. Among the park's prominent features is the Frank Gehry-designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion, said to be the most sophisticated outdoor concert venue of its kind in the United States and the interactive Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa. "We produced all the graphics for Millennium Park on the Rho 600. It was a big job for us and the versatility of the Durst printer's roll-to-roll option helped us complete the project in a timely manner."
Flatbed Technology in Philly
With locations in Philadelphia and Las Vegas, Big Mountain Imaging has established itself as one of the top providers of wide-format graphics in the country. Company president Fred Ciolorito said flatbed technology has helped play a major role in their success. The company houses a VUTEk PressVU 320/400 flatbed in its Philadelphia location.
Ciolorito likes the fact that many jobs can be printed on the 320/400 direct to the substrate and that eliminates the time and money to mount and laminate some projects. "The direct to substrate printing capability of the VUTEk printer enables us to produce large format digital printing in-house, lowering costs and providing customers with clean, premium quality graphics on time."
He added that the roll-to-roll capability of the 320/400 was a key to his purchasing decision. "Due to the nature of POP work, we required a printer that could switch between rigid and flexible substrates very quickly, this can be done in just a few minutes on the VUTEk 320/400."
Ciolorito said that when the printer was installed from day one it was put to work producing graphics for many high profile accounts. Over the years they have run so many types of jobs on it. "Recently we have been successful doing a lot of indoor floor graphics with the 320/400 using the 3M material. The colors really pop with the material. In addition to floor graphics we have been doing some sidewalk work. "We recently completed at job for the for Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau and work for Good Seasons that was installed in Faneuil Hall and The Prudential Center in Boston."
Ciolorito added that the flatbed market is still in its infancy so there is still plenty of room for growth. "You can compete with silkscreen shops on short run jobs. Thanks to its flexibility, combined with its robust build quality and productivity benefits, we truly believe that the sky's the limit with flatbed technology."
author: BY BILL SCHIFFNER