Digital Printing-Wide Format - Roll to Roll

Hot wide-format products for in-plant printers from companies including Agfa Graphics, Canon Océ, EFI, FUJIFILM North America, Epson, HP, Mimaki, Mutoh and Screen USA

In September, the 70-employee state printing and mailing operation installed a 42˝ Océ ColorWave 650 and greatly expanded its wide-format business, focusing on larger-sized posters and banners than the shop’s previous 24˝ Canon imagePrograf W6400 could produce.

Fujifilm customers were wowed by all the inkjet technology advances shown off at a recent wide-format summit, which drew nearly 50 attendees.

Canon and HP's wide-format devices have won Pick and Outstanding Achievement Awards from Buyers Laboratory (BLI). Among the winning devices selected in Canon U.S.A.'s wide-format lineup are imagePROGRAF iPF680/685, imagePROGRAF iPF780/785 and imagePROGRAF iPF785 MFP M40 printers. HP's winning devices include the HP Designjet Z5400 PostScript ePrinter and HP Rear Stacker Design.

Three Océ Arizona series printer models from Canon Solutions America received Product of the Year Awards from the Specialty Graphic & Imaging Association (SGIA): the Océ Arizona 318 GL, UV Flatbed; the Océ Arizona 318 GL, UV Flatbed Plus White; and the Océ Arizona 6170 XTS, UV Flatbed Plus White. The award is based on a comparison of outputs from competing devices using a common test file designed by SGIA.

This year's SGIA Product of the Year competition was held at the 2014 Expo in Las Vegas, October 22-24. The contest showcased the best printers, technologies and consumables from the specialty imaging community. "Whether they were a seasoned company or an industry newcomer, each and every entry came to win," said Ray Weiss, SGIA’s digital imaging specialist.

Attendees from around the world packed the Fujifilm booth at SGIA Expo 2014 to see all-new technology. Fujifilm was showing off the all-new Inca Onset R40i and the Acuity F printers, each making their North American debut on the show floor, along with the Uvistar Pro-8W, the Acuity Advance Select and the Acuity LED 1600.

The high-speed Truepress Jet W3200UV HS, from Screen USA, delivers wide-format printing at a speed of 1,614 square-feet/hr., and incorporates a robust industrial build, pop-up register pins, auto-cleaning heads, and a head-crash detection system.

When pricing their wide-format digital printing services, more than half of in-plants surveyed say their number one challenge is "determining real costs and overhead." This detail was discovered in a recent research study conducted by InfoTrends and In-plant Graphics. The study was designed to produce benchmarks and gather insights on how in-plants are operating along with the challenges they face in pricing wide-format services.

Often when wide-format printing is discussed, the immediate connotation is of posters and banners. But a little creativity can go a long way, and with advancements in printer, ink and substrate technology, in-plants around the country are finding innovative ways to serve their parent companies with wide format, beyond posters and banners.