Genesis Graphics flies ahead with aircraft wrap work for Jetstar

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Owner David Liebich told ProPrint that the company had recently bought a Gerber Ion flatbed printer, which will take over from its Seiko ColorPainter and help to cement Genesis Graphics’ position as the region’s foremost aircraft wrap printer.

Genesis, which also does commercial printing, has recently produced two high-profile wraps for Virgin Blue, one featuring promoting the Australian tour of R’n’B act the Black Eyed Peas (pictured) and a 100sqm wrap for the movie Avatar.

The company is set to expand in Australia after finalising a tie-up with airline agency JetMax, which handles all of Jetstar’s in-flight advertising.

Liebich said Genesis been changing the way it produces aircraft wraps to make them more accessible to airlines, including getting approval from 3M to use its pre-approved aircraft wrap films.

Both the Black Eyed Peas and Avatar wraps were done using a regular 3M commercial film (180 CV3) that then had to gain approval for use on an airplane, but Genesis now has access to pre-approved films from 3M that will speed up applying the wraps.

“It’s not like a tram or a bus where you can just stick an ad on and it’s all good. With airplanes there’s a whole process, because the print becomes a part of the aircraft, so it’s got to pass the same standards as a wing or an engine,” Liebich said.

Liebich said using pre-approved films would make aircraft wraps more “agreeable” to airlines as the shortened approval process would help cut costs.

“In the past, airlines have been reluctant to do it, as the fact that few people are able to do [aircraft wrap printing] has made it more expensive. But we’ve been very proactive in trying to develop the use of different films and different print technologies to make it more cost-effective.”

These pre-approved films are traditionally polyester-based vinyls that have a 1mm perforation every 10mm. These perforations account for any air leakages that might occur along the fuselage of the plane in-flight, allowing the air bubble to be released with tearing through the wrap.

The films are also designed to expand and contract with the rapid fluctuations in temperature that occur in the atmosphere during a flight.

Genesis prints all of its wraps on-site and also applies them directly onto the plane in an aircraft hangar. As well as requiring approval for the films it uses, Genesis is one of the few companies that has approval to apply the wraps.

There may be more kit acquisitions down the track too, as Liebich said that the company was “keeping an eye” on the development of UV curable inks.

Liebich’s work with aircraft stretches back to his days working as an aircraft engineer and manager at Ansett Australia.

He formed Genesis following Ansett’s collapse by purchasing the graphics department of the airline, which he worked in at the time. Now his company manufactures wraps and decals for airlines in New Zealand, the US and Russia, as well as Australia.

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