Six months after its first investment in a digital flatbed — an Inca Onset S20 printer supplied by Fujifilm — Odessa Offset reports that the inkjet machine is already handling 15% of production at the outdoor media and retail POS specialist. The Inca Onset S20 forms part of a ￡1 million investment by Odessa in digital wide-format capacity, designed to complete the company’s full-service, design-to-print solution and help drive turnover above the ￡10 million mark by the end of 2012.
Founded in 1983, Odessa specialises in providing leading UK agencies and their clients with complex national campaigns to tight deadlines. The company designs, produces and distributes billboards, posters, building wraps, retail POS displays, and floor and window graphics.
Managing director Laurence Matthews says the Inca Onset S20 complements Odessa’s KBA 205 offset press, matching it for quality and providing digital short-run capabilities. It has also enabled the company to bring in work that was previously outsourced, and offer its agency clients totally new products.
He comments, “A good recent example is a range of showroom banners for a car manufacturer’s pan-European campaign, printed on 220-micron PVC. We printed three designs using litho, and eight on the Onset S20, with no difference in quality. The Onset S20 also gives us greater flexibility on substrates and run-lengths — from one sheet up to 200. The mix of work going through the printer includes flat-sheet POS materials, short-run posters, semi-rigid PVC banners, Correx propylene and Foamboard.”
Odessa researched a number of digital flatbed printers before deciding on the Inca Onset S20, by talking to users and running a variety of test jobs. Says Laurence Matthews: “Whatever machine we chose had to be able to match the quality output we get from our KBA. The Onset S20 not only did this, it also scored highest on speed and versatility.”
The Inca Onset S20 prints edge-to-edge over a 3.14m x 1.6m area on a moving bed on substrates as thick as 50mm. The vacuum table’s accurate pin positioning allows users to print single or double-sided on a variety of sheet sizes. Where extra performance is required, a semi-automated material handling system is available as an option.
The full-print-width colour bar features printheads with a 28-picolitre drop size, which deliver precise ink drop placement and excellent print quality. The capability to control pulse width and voltage on each individual printhead enables ultra-precise control. A unique feature of the Inca Onset S20 is the operator’s ability to replace individual printheads quickly and easily, further reducing maintenance costs.
In addition to the standard Fujifilm Uvijet four-colour process CMYK colour set, users can also specify Fujifilm Ultratone inks —in lights or white. These, as well as a choice of satin, semi-gloss and gloss finishes, give the Inca Onset S20 enormous versatility in the range of products it can print — display POS, exhibition graphics, backlit/frontlit displays and outdoor signage.