Printers from north and south battle in QLD Wrap Masters

Printers from as far north as Townsville are preparing for the Queensland leg of the ASGA Wrap Masters National Challenge, vying for a place in September’s final.

Teams from Brisbane wide format printers SS Signs, Benga Designs and Fleetwrite, plus The Digimen from Townsville in far north QLD, will take the starting grid at Visual Impact Brisbane on Friday.

Competitors must wrap an entire car with printed film as quickly as possible within a 4.5 hour time limit, with time added for any mistakes.

[Related: Victorian Wrap Masters results]

SS Signs owner Steve Lambourne says the competition is just another day at work for his team.

“We base our business on being fast, so the difference between us and other teams is we will view it as a job but they will see it as a race,” he says.

“We will do what we do every day and we are fairly confident as our team works together a lot and have been wrapping cars for a long time.

“Some of our competition used to work for us, so we have a good idea of what they will do.”

SS Signs prints small stickers, full car wraps, custom prints for fleet vehicles, Light boxes, 3D extruding signs, and LED billboards with a HP Latex 280 and a HP Latex 260.

Former SS Signs employee Ben Schliebs, who has now started his own small printer, is joining forces with Fleetwrite for the competition and thinks with three of the best installers in QLD by his side the team is in with a good chance.

“These guys do wrapping all day every day and I’ve been doing it for seven years,” he says.

“We have a good game plan to not only do the job fast but minimise mistakes a produce a high quality result.

“Since we do it so much and some of us have owed our own businesses, I’m confident we will have a good result.”

Fleetwrite prints signage, vehicle wraps, fence mesh, curtains and decals with a HP Latex 260.

[Related: More wide format news]

In contrast to the well-oiled machines in Brisbane, Digimen director Paul Townsend says his mostly sign printing company that dabbles in vehicle wrapping is just happy to be involved and is looking forward to the experience.

“We don’t do that many wraps but we think we are pretty good at them so we want to have a go and see how we match up with printers down south,” he says.

“I like that it’s being held at Visual Impact as it means more digital printers will get to see what vehicle wrapping is all about and maybe we can all learn something.”

Townsend says business has picked up so much recently that the team has been too busy to sit down and work out a strategy yet.

“North Queensland is on the upswing so we’ve started getting more and more work from southern companies. This competition will be great exposure for us so we hope it will lead to even more new business,” he says.

The Digimen also uses a HP Latex 260 for its vehicle wrap printing.

Wrap Masters major sponsor 3M will provide Controltac Graphic Film IJ180Cv3 matched with Scotchcal Gloss Overlaminate 8518 for use by all competitors in the series.

Business manager Elon Goldbery says: "3M IJ180Cv3 is the ideal film for use in the competition, as it enables competing wrap technicians to create the best possible job in the shortest amount of time."

"It can also deliver the same benefits in their daily work – where customers demand superior results, and time savings translate to real profits."

The national champions will take home a Roland DG SolJet PRO4 XR-640, plus bragging rights, following the grand final at the Visual Impact Expo on September 12-14.

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