Despite having been talked about as an expansion market for traditional print companies for a number of years now, wide-format print remains one of the industry’s key growth areas, and for good reason. Work is plentiful, customer demand is high, and technology is new and innovative.
Such has been the level of growth in wide-format that the market has become incredibly busy as more companies move into the sector in the hope of expanding their own business. This has in turn made competition for work extremely fierce.
One way of staying ahead of the competition is ensuring you have the best equipment in place to carry out wide-format work. Here, we look at some of the latest launches in wide-format print and analyse how this tech can help you gain an advantage in this busy sector.
Invest to succeed
First up, Epson is constantly launching new equipment for the photo, signage, label, decor, graphics, and textile markets, including its latest model in the form of the SureColor SC-F10000H. This industrial dye-sublimation machine is a high-speed printer with the option of fluorescent or light colours aimed at the textile or specialist rigid media print sector.
Epson’s new SureColor SC-F10000H can print at speeds of up to 246sq m/hr
Phil McMullin, head of sales at Epson UK, says investment in new technology such as the SureColor SC-F10000H will allow companies in the wide-format print market to capitalise on key growth areas and trends.
“The trend for personalisation and customisation that began before the pandemic has accelerated rapidly and nowhere is it more obvious than in wide-format print,” McMullin says, adding: “This means the market has expanded and enabled established commercial printers to move into this area and pick up profitable business in their customer base.
“Then there are the big growth areas like textile and decor, whether that is garments or wallpaper, the options are staggering.
“Established businesses should make sure they have invested in the latest equipment. Advances in technology over the last five years mean that the latest generation of wide-format printers are much more productive, more reliable, more flexible and cheaper to run than previous generations.
O Factoid: The new Epson SureColor SC-F10000H prints at a resolution quality of 1200dpi x 1200dpi O
“If you are not investing, you are probably leaving money on the table. Again, the obvious place to go is your existing customer base – are you offering them everything possible in terms of branded output?”
Circling back around to the new SureColor SC-F10000H, Epson’s latest launch can print at speeds of up to 246sq m/hr and features a PrecisionCore MicroTFP printhead, which the manufacturer says ensures quality remains high even when printing at high speeds.
If you are not investing, then you are probably leaving money on the table”
The printer can print in quality of 1200dpi x 1200dpi and features CMYK ink configuration, plus the addition of one or two ink sets in the form of fluorescent yellow and fluorescent pink, or light cyan and light magenta. This, Epson says, makes it suitable for printing work such as fashion, sportswear, home textiles and soft signage.
Differentiate your offering
Elsewhere and swissQprint has also seen demand for its wide-format equipment increase in recent months as more companies seek out ways of gaining an advantage in what is now a highly competitive market.
“All of our recent sales have been to new customers and of these, many are completely new to the wide-format printing market,” comments Erskine Stewart, managing director of swissQprint UK.
“The businesses we talk to are successfully growing focus on investing in equipment, like ours, that helps them take costs out, increase capacity, and differentiate their product offering.”
With this, Stewart draws attention to the latest launch from swissQprint in the form of its generation 4 flatbed. The centrepiece of the models are new print heads, which deliver a maximum resolution of 1350dpi, as well as ultra-high-precision droplet placement, which the manufacturer says “significantly boosts” the print quality of the Impala and Nyala models.
swissQprint launched its generation 4 flatbed last year
Both printers also benefit from an increase in output for certain production print modes; for example, the Oryx model is almost 40% faster than its predecessor.
“Generation 4 combines the latest printhead technology and technical sophistication,” Stewart comments, adding: “This enables the user to reposition themselves in terms of quality and productivity.”
Other enhancements include the Tip Switch Vacuum, whereby the table has been divided into as many as 256 segments that users can quickly switch on or off at the touch of a finger. This, swissQprint says, eliminates time-consuming masking, while as there is no air leakage, the vacuum develops its full force and holds down hard-to-handle media more reliably.
Another new launch comes courtesy of Xanté, which recently revealed the Xanté X-55 UV Inkjet. Offering a maximum media size of 55” x 50”, Xanté says the new machine has been designed to meet a specific gap in the market.
Specifically, it says the Xanté X-55 UV Inkjet will produce signage and graphics print at fast speeds like large flatbed printers, but on thicker substrates of up to 3”. The manufacturer also says the machine can print speciality, larger-format items at slower speeds – something it says was previously limited on small-format devices.
“The Xanté family of X-UV printer can do both; it is the best of both worlds for customers,” the manufacturer says, adding that the new device can print on “almost any kind of media”, this opening up its usage in a wide range of jobs within the wide-format print market.
The Xanté X-55 UV Inkjet runs on iQueue prepress software, the latest edition of which is iQueue14. The software includes fully independent CMYK controls, Pantone colour library, Right-On spot colour matching, full imposition and tiling, QR code generator and PDF-out.
“True server-client operation enhances your workflow to optimise the talents and time of everyone involved in production; take advantage of your entire team of IT specialists, designers, and printer operators,” Xanté says.
Plenty of opportunity
Meanwhile, Hybrid Services, Mimaki’s exclusive distributor for the UK and Ireland, recently announced the addition of the ‘100 Series’ range of 1.6m-wide solvent, LED UV and dye-sublimation models to its portfolio.
Martin Southworth, reseller account manager at Hybrid Services, explains that while these printers are affordably priced, they deliver high productivity and print quality, ease of use, and many technical features that have cascaded down from Mimaki’s high end production models.
Martin Southworth, reseller account manager at Hybrid Services
The first in the series is the JV100-160, Mimaki’s newest solvent printer, which Southworth says delivers a high quality, long-lasting, outdoor durable print in vibrant colour onto a wide range of materials.
“The ideal solution for producing everything from banners to point-of-sale, and vehicle graphics to pull up banners, the JV100-160 can also be paired with a Mimaki cutting plotter to deliver a highly productive print and cut solution,” Southworth says.
The second machine comes in the form of the UJV100-160, which shares a similar chassis to the JV100-160 and features LED UV curable ink.
“Capable of printing onto a wide range of material with instantly dry inks, the UVJ100-160 incorporates many of Mimaki’s Core Technologies that focus on delivering high quality output, reducing waste and improving ease of use,” Southworth says, adding: “Well suited to producing display graphics, signage, décor, and posters, the UJV100-160 can also print to clear and coloured materials such as window film, with its dense white ink.”
Finally, the third machine is the TS100-1600, which uses dye-sublimation ink to print to transfer paper before pressing onto polyester fabric or polyester-coated materials.
“Suitable for applications that range from sportswear to display graphics and soft signage, the TS100 is a powerful and easy to use printer that furthers Mimaki’s strong textile printing reputation,” Southworth says.
Looking at the wider market, Southworth says wide-format printing still provides plenty of opportunity for newcomers to offer new and different products to their customers, as well as attract new business.
Mimaki’s new TS100-1600 uses dye-sublimation ink to print to transfer paper before pressing onto polyester fabric or polyester-coated materials
“With the huge variety of products that can be created on a wide-format printer, there should be something that appeals to a large customer base; from posters and banners to high end décor and retail graphics,” he says.
“By adding a wide-format printer to an existing commercial printing setup, it’s possible to broaden the appeal to existing customers, who, in all likelihood, are purchasing their pull up banner stands, window graphics and safety signage elsewhere – it’s a golden opportunity to retain and work closer with those clients by offering them a full suite of print.
“Companies with an established wide-format printing capability endeavouring to grow that side of the business should relook at the capabilities of their printer. It’s not uncommon for companies to invest in wide-format print hardware to achieve a set task, for example, printing banners, and then not delve deeper into its skillset to realise the multitude of other revenue streams it should be capable of producing.”
There is no doubt development and innovation in the wide-format print market is as strong as ever, with all sorts of new printers and technologies coming to market on a regular basis. While the sector may indeed be crowded, investment in this new kit could prove to be an invaluable catalyst to your business and its growth ambitions.
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