Perry Garofani from Worldwide Printing in Botany is not your typical printing franchise owner. As an industry stalwart who started his career working the giant printing presses at Sydney’s Daily Sun newspaper, Garofani has a thorough understanding of how printing machines work. From the historical sheetfed Heidelberg devices to heatset magazine presses, Garofani is passionate about the printing industry and knows a good machine when he sees one.
Digital printers have completely transformed the industry, and are increasingly challenging the offset market. Garofani has kept a close eye on digital advancements and the inroads they are making against traditional offset capabilities. He first noticed the shift from offset to digital a couple of years ago and, recognising that digital would be the future, decided to jump the fence.
Garofani started the Worldwide Printing Botany franchise in 2010. By capitalising on the opportunities of digital printing, Garofani has built his business from the ground up. He started with just a single client and today, runs a compact yet thriving operation with more than 1,500 customers. More than eighty per cent of business is now digital.
Digital presses, with their fast and on-demand printing capabilities, are continuously evolving and adopting features and benefits that have traditionally been in the domain of the offset market.
When Garofani was looking to upgrade, he wanted to overcome some of the limitations of his old digital press, which wasn’t a Ricoh.
“I was looking for a machine that could help to address some of the issues I was facing, such as registration, and the ability to handle oversized sheets and heavier stocks. I knew that there would be a bigger market for my business if I could deliver these services,” says Garofani.
“I had heard Ricoh was doing good things, and was attracted to its Pro C7100X for its technology and price. The machine’s offset-like features, such as including a fifth white or clear colour, and its superior registration, wide format and heavier stock capabilities were a perfect fit for my business,” he says.
The Pro C7100X is Ricoh’s newest digital colour cut sheet press. It features a fifth white or clear ink station that allows print houses to deliver a wide range of creative applications and functional capabilities that have in the past been constrained to offset printers. This includes the ability to print oversized signage, plastic window clings, and heavily textured natural and synthetic stocks. These often bespoke, short-run and on-demand jobs can open up new and lucrative business opportunities.
Garofani says, “Investing in the Ricoh Pro C7100X has been a sound business decision. We love the machine. Since the new press was delivered last year, we have seen a number of new opportunities open up.
“Our business has a real point of difference now, from both a creative and productivity perspective, and we are definitely getting more work in. The fifth colour is a real feature, because most traditional digital presses are still working with only four colours,” said Garofani.
Worldwide Printing Botany’s designer, Christine Moerke, has embraced the new creative opportunities. “We love how the machine makes us think about things differently, in many cases in reverse. We think about the print outcomes first and what can be achieved through the design. It is inspiring to be able to offer our customers something new and different. From a design and creative perspective, that is exciting, and it makes the sales process more enjoyable.”
“The interchangeable white or clear ink also means that we can apply a spot varnish or high gloss coating over jobs which, in some instances, can be a faster alternative to celloglaze. It is also handy for printing window graphics onto clear stock, which requires a clear self-adhesive. We are enjoying experimenting with the possibilities that the whites provide. For instance, we are getting great results on buffalo board, and having a lot of fun with the metallic and textured stocks. The Ricoh Pro C7100X has opened up so many new opportunities for us – there is so much more we can offer now.”
Design capabilities aside, the Ricoh Pro C7100X is delivering vast improvements in mechanical registration, and ability to handle wide format sheets and heavier stock weights. Mechanical registration is a particular strength of the device, delivering a front-to-back registration of just 0.5 millimeters.
According to Garofani, “While the fifth colour capability is unique for its class, my personal favourite feature of the Ricoh Pro C7100X is the way it registers. It is substantially better than the machine I had before, delivering an offset result that is comparable to more expensive machines.”
“Digital presses are notorious for poor registration, so this feature has been particularly beneficial for us, particularly for printing business cards which are becoming increasingly premium with more customers turning to heavier stocks. We are printing a lot more business cards now, and we are really enjoying pushing the boundaries by experimenting with heavier textured stocks and boards.”
“Static electricity build up is also far less problematic now as well, which is a major productivity benefit. The Pro C7100X’s fuser technology uses a low fusing temperature, which means there is less static electricity built up on the paper”, he continues.
The low fusing temperature also allows the Ricoh Pro C7100X to print directly onto a wide range of synthetics, textured stock, static cling plastic and fridge magnets. It can even print on wood with a thin veneer mounted board.
“The use of white ink is unusual on the wood grain, and is ideal for producing an authentic industrial or environmental look – it is popular for menu cards and wedding invites. We are also using plastics in new and clever ways, such as for micro sucker technology for jobs that require a peelable backing with no glue involved. This is perfect where a waterproof, tear-proof or delicate solution that will not damage the substrate or leave a residue is required, such as window stickers, car stickers or kitchen showroom labels.
The benefits continue with the Pro C7100X’s 700mm long sheet feed. “This is not something our old machine offered and it has come in handy. I can now do block folding and tri-folds with six A4 pages and much more. This was another big selling point because it allows us to do something we could not do before.”
“Formats like six page A4 and A4 landscape two are real selling points. Most designers will need to use offset printers at this size because a digital press usually cannot handle the larger sheets. In particular, the A4 6 pages are a genuine time and money saver for our business. Recently, we printed 580mm x 165mm tent cards for a client on high bulk board, which we could not do before. We have been able to offer more competitive pricing for a client by printing large 330mm x 650mm posters in an A4 6 format, rather than A2.”
“The double punch is also a marvellous add-on. I had never had one before but knew I would get a lot of use from it. It is particularly handy for training manuals as I no longer need to send the punching out to a binder but can do it internally ourselves which saves us a fortune on clicks,” continues Garofani.
Image quality is also excellent at 1200 x 4800 dpi, which is high for its class. Most presses will often miss-register, but Ricoh Pro C7100X’s tight colour-to-colour registration produces a fine text, crisp resolution and sharp edges, particularly when reversed out of a four-part solid, such as black with white text.
While Garofani has been impressed by the machine’s features, its great value for money ultimately sealed the deal. “The Pro C7100X has definitely saved our business money. The offset-like features are a stand out and the printer is fast, robust and reliable – even when it is working hard. We are all happy with it, and are certainly seeing a lot more work come through the door.”
There are four models in the Ricoh Pro C7100X range – the Pro C7100X five station press, the Pro C7110X with higher speed, and the Pro C7100SX and Pro C7110SX with multi-function printer (MFP) capability. With plans to expand the fifth colour capabilities with the imminent release of neon yellow toner, Ricoh’s offset-like image quality and features makes this small footprint digital press a force to be reckoned with.
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