Australian Visual Solutions
On display at sign writing supplier Australian Visual Solutions’ (AVS) stand was the Flora range of flatbed printers, Colex cutting tables and Roland DG’s TrueVIS SG series of printer/cutters.
AVS managing director Cameron Sutherland says the Flora flatbed eight by four metre roll to roll printer can print to corflute, PVC sheet, colourbond – and with a 2.5 metre roll to roll banner it can also produce signage and flat sheet prints.
With a price tag under $100,000, Sutherland describes the Flora flatbed linked with the Colex cutting table as, ‘the most economical print and cut option in the marketplace.’
He says industry buzz surrounding the showing of the Flora range at the AVS stand led to a sale of the printer before the show even started.
“Flora is the largest flatbed manufacturer in the world and it comes with a three year warranty, so it is a very good entry level sign flatbed printer,” Sutherland explains.
Canon
The theme of Canon’s stand at this year’s show was designed around its slogan: As Committed As You. Manager of wide format for Canon, Haydn Wills says the phrase aims to communicate to Canon’s customers the company’s commitment to the wide format industry through a national approach to sales and support, and cutting edge technology.
Canon was showing off its latest development, the new Océ Arizona 2200 Series of UV flatbed printers. The 2200 Series prints on rigid substrates such as cardboard, corflute, timber and glass, with roll media capability as an additional extra.
Wills says, “Just about anything that is rigid can be used through this machine.” To prove this, during its promotional campaign Canon demonstrated the 2200 Series by printing straight onto pasta sheets.
Wills adds, “The 2200 Series has print quality, ease of use, other features like the pneumatic pins that hold the media into place.”
Currie Group
Currie Group aimed to stand out from the crowd, not only through its famous mobile showroom but by showcasing its end to end solutions aimed towards high end print.
Phillip Rennell, sales and marketing director, says Currie Group’s aim at this year’s show was to present solutions for the signage industry to make value propositions with print.
“People in the signage industry are looking for more ways to satisfy their customers, so they are viewing print as a value proposition to their customers,” Rennell says. “They might be only producing retail point of sale, but they can also print brochures or business cards for that client to capture more work from them.”
During the show Currie’s mobile showroom was decked out with a range of solutions from laminating, crease/fold and booklet making to binding and automation in the finishing end of business.
DES/Starleaton
In its first tradeshow since merging with DES last month, Starleaton and its new business partner emphasised its partnership at Visual Impact with its theme ‘better together’. Speaking with Australian Printer, industrial sales manager Ian Clearly says show was a key opportunity to demonstrate the natural meshing of Starleaton and DES. “Starleaton has a long history in the sign and display market, and DES is an expert on colour management so there was little crossover in customers and expertise,” says Cleary. Sitting at the stand were two OKI ColorPainter printers and a variety of its Epson machines – which Cleary says are doing well this year. OKI has just bought the wide format manufacturing business from Seiko, which was the previous ColorPainter developer.
Epson
Touting unmatched colour print quality was the Epson stand with its SureColor Solvent range of signage printers. Just prior to the opening of Visual Impact, it was revealed the range had achieved Pantone certification.
Product marketing manager for Epson, Gordon Kerr says Pantone certification guarantees colour consistency and quality, making the SureColor Solvent range ideal for signage businesses which need to perfectly match colours for their corporate clients.
Kerr says, “Really the story about the SureColor Solvent range is the colour, their colour is truly outstanding, their colour range is exceptional and the print just pops off the sign.”
The SureColor Solvent range can also be used to print car wraps, decals and labels.
Jetmark
Surprising everyone at Visual Impact was signage supplier Jetmark which boasted a stand double the size of its competitors, complete with its own coffee cart. At the show it introduced two new machines to the market, a Colorjet Verve UV flatbed printer and a Colorjet Polo Turbo eco solvent printer.
Sales manager at Jetmark, Derek Andrew says the Polo Turbo is primarily a banner printer and due to its speed, is the ideal solution for signage businesses printing large volumes.
“Polo Turbo is a new machine to the market, we have sold a few of them already and have worked to bring it to a level that we are happy to support in Australia,” Andrew says.
“Equivalent machines cost well over $200,000, so bringing the Polo Turbo to market at less than $80,000 is going to be attractive to the industry. And also the cost of its ink being only $120 per litre will make the running cost of this machine the lowest in the industry.”
Kiwo
Showing for the first time in Australia was Kiwo’s UV roller coating machine from Bürkle GmbH which the company claims is the first of its kind in the country. Used for colour coating on flexible and rigid substrates, the UV roller applies a liquid UV coating to surfaces as an alternative to the standard lamination process. Managing director of Kiwo Australia Martin Stacher says besides replacing the ‘tedious and quite expensive’ process of lamination, the machine also offers the benefits of UV curing technology. He says, “There are also water-based coating machines on the market, but the UV roller has the advantage of UV curing so the substrate is instantly dried when it reaches the end of the machine. You can run the machine faster and it is more efficient compared to water-based machines.”
Multicam
National supplier of flatbed routers and routing machines, Multicam was demonstrating on its stand the Trident machine’s ability to cut designs such as company logos through rigid substrates.
Manager of Multicam’s service and support unit Stephen Heusz says the Trident is specifically designed for companies involved in point of sale and pop up displays. He says, “The beauty of this machine is it has features that a lot of dedicated
machines do not have. It has an isolating knife, it also has a routing head for people who are cutting thicker materials like composite panel, aluminium or timber.”
Heusz says the point of difference between Multicam’s routing solutions and its competitors is the removal of the middle man, “You are dealing directly with us, and there are no distributors that work for us.”
Mutoh
UV technology was one of the major trends at Visual Impact, led by stands such as Mutoh which was touting its ValueJet 426UF desktop UV printer and its 64 inch ValueJet 1626UH roll to roll printer.
Mutoh national product manager Scott Donkin says the 426UF is the ideal solution for printers looking to enter the booming merchandise market, and is an attractive machine to printers due to its ability to add white or varnish inks to highlight elements or coat an entire substrate.
“It will print to pens, giftware and merchandise. A lot of people use it to print on the back of acrylic trophies and back it up with white ink which shows up nicely,” Donkin explains. “It prints on golf balls, iPhone cases, you name it. it will print to any hard surface up to 70 millimetres.”
Neopost
Neopost focused on education, bringing a host of market analysis to the show enabling printers to see where new opportunities lay. Neopost also showed its wide format hardware from manufacturers including HP and Epson, as well as a host of media. Marketing manager Phyaebe Leong says, “Our booth was all about education. We can all sell a printer, but they key to success for any business in this sector is knowledge. Neopost is presenting market data in an accessible format on our infographic displays, for instance printers can see where the fastest gorwing sectors of wide format are, which is currently headed by decorative wall coverings.” In hardware Neopost was showing the latest HP Latex roll to roll printer and the HP PageWide sheetfed wide format printer. In addition it had an HP Scitex FB750, and an Epson SureColor 406000 on the stand. Leong says, “Neopost provides the total solution with hardware, software, media and business intelligence.
Pozitive
Distributor Pozitive was showing off on its stand a swissQprint Nyala UV flatbed printer, but its solutions were the name of the game at this year’s show, according to managing director Phillip Trumble. “What we are showcasing is solutions, the thing Pozitive does a little different to everyone else is our core strength in our technology and understanding how different equipment, software and consumables work together,” he explains.
“What we are really trying to showcase is we have a wide variety of applications across a range of different machines that we can tailor to put into different solutions for our customers.”
Trumble says Pozitive’s strength is in the hardware it supplies. The hardware packages the Pozitive team put together for clients can range from a $5000 system to upwards of $700,000 and anywhere inbetween.
Roland DG
After launching its TrueVIS VG series earlier this year, making its first public debut at Visual Impact was the new TrueVIS SG series of inkjet printer/cutters. The SG series was designed to cater to a gap in the market for businesses which want Roland DG print/cut technology at a lower price point than the VG series. The entry level technology of the SG series means a reduced outlay with the 30 inch model coming in at $15,000 and the 54 inch at $20,000.
Roland DG is well known in the industry for its integrated print/cut technology, but according to product manager Greg Stone, the SG series are also highly versatile, capable of printing to vinyl, poster banners, heat transfers and eco solvent receptive fabrics.
Stone explains, “The difference between the SG series and competitors offerings is the breadth of applications you can run through it, along with the technology and ease of use.”
SAS
Illuminating the SAS stand was a vibrant Pop Up Wall with Lightbox displaying colourful pictures of landmarks across Australia’s capital cities. Designed for the display and promotional market, SAS marketing coordinator Diego Cordero says it is the ideal transportable signage solution for exhibitions and shopping centres. Although a Pop Up Wall is not a new concept, Cordero says the Pop Up Wall with Lightbox from SAS is a fuss-free solution.
“The idea of Pop Up Wall with Lightbox has been around for ages, however the different frameworks and media you print on it gives you a different result,” Cordero says. “There are similar products to this but the actual framework from SAS is inexpensive, lightweight and easy set up.”
SAS offers the Pop Up Wall with Lightbox as a complete unit including framework and printing, or with the framework sold separately.
Spicers
Spicers has its new Elitron Kombo TH dual gantry cutting table as the centrepiece of its stand, which sales manager Jason Hay says makes it super productive. Spicers is now one of the biggest wide format hardware and media suppliers in the country. Hay says, “Due to its leather making heritage Elitron has designed machines that minimise errors and waste and maximise output and productivity. The results are remarkable.’ Spicers’ offering to includes the Kombo SD range, the Kombo TH, and the Kombo TAV. The systems can be equipped with the Elitron-patented Seeker System, the intelligent digital eye for the automatic recognition of images and reference points, and the Video Projection feature, to ensure what Spicers says is the best possible material yield. Hay says, “It is accurate enough to kiss-cut vinyl decals, yet robust enough to cut through 20mm acrylic. It can work with a host of media including Vinyls, Corflute, dtec Acrylic, Ace Screenboard, Komaprint PVC.
Trotec
Laser and engraving specialist Trotec was spruiking its GS series of high speed paper cutting laser, which it claims is the fastest of its kind in the world. The GS1000 model can be fitted to a paper feeder and will run at speeds of 30 pages per minute to cut brochures, catalogues and cardboard packaging.
Trotec managing director Simon Moore says the GS1000 offers printers the capabilities that a regular mechanical paper cutter cannot. “It has a super pulse laser cutting in circles which makes the firing process much faster and will not scorch the paper,” Moore says.
“It is a contact free process which is a huge advantage in any type of cutting. Mechanical machines require you to physically hold the object still, however the GS1000 uses camera recognition software to locate the object.”
Comment below to have your say on this story.
If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@sprinter.com.au.
Sign up to the Sprinter newsletter