Case study from SAi

After seventy years’ experience providing signage for California’s highways, municipalities and businesses, Safeway Sign Company (SSC) is now in its fourth generation as a family business, and SAi Flexi has been part of their story for more than a decade.

Occupying a 60,000 sq ft production plant in Adelanto, California, SSC provides a full range of signage and fabrication services for its customers. Using a combination of digital, screen, and cut vinyl solutions, the company outputs up to 40,000 sq. ft of signage each week in a three-shift operation. Producing highway and other traffic management signage to ensure the safe, timely flow of people and goods is a huge logistical challenge. Akin to printing money, the demands for quality, color, consistency, finish and durability are met by closely coordinated teams following detailed standards. There are also health and safety issues as well as the responsibility to provide value for taxpayers’ money. “We are a low bid, made to order, variable quantity job shop,” says SSC’s operations manager, Kolby Moore. Son of the current president, Michael Moore, Kolby Moore is proud of the business’s history and achievements: “My great-grandfather, Forrest Moore, worked with the state of California and 3M and like-minded engineers to develop standards for highway signage as well as the substrates and methods for producing durable signage with high levels of recognition and legibility,” he explains. “Forrest Moore had been involved in transportation logistics for fuel for the War Department in World War II and saw the need for improved highway signage. He established Safeway Sign Company in 1948, and we’ve been growing ever since,” Moore continues. In the 1950s, the company secured the contract for highway signs from the California Division of Highways, now the Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and also was able to benefit in the late 1950s and 1960s from the rapid development of the Federally-funded Interstate Highways program. “In the early days, the signs were enameled steel,” Moore says “And, the contract was on a single sheet of paper. Today, the Caltrans contract is the largest single contract in California, and SSC’s products supply all 12 districts of California, various contractors, city, county and municipal transportation organizations. In addition, SSC supplies signage to neighboring states such as Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Texas. SSC has had a close relationship to 3M since Forrest Moore’s time when they worked together to develop and promote the early engineer grade for retroreflective signage. Following expansions and moves from Culver City to Inglewood, Gardena and now – but possibly not finally – to Adelanto, SSC is a versatile, modern company that can respond quickly and undertake a wide variety of standard and custom jobs. “My father began working with the first Apple Macs in the 1980s,” Moore explains. “This began with production-ready plans, production tickets, inventory and customer information. We never looked back and were among the first to use digital drafting and CAD tables. We still operate a vintage Wild-Leitz TA41 cutter along with our much new Zund systems.” In 2006, SCC became an SAi Flexi customer, originally using it to cut tissues for screen printing, then for cut vinyl signage. Today, FlexiPrint Authorized 3M™ Traffic Edition is being used on a number of different printer types at SSC including solvent, latex and UV-curable inks while SAi Flexi is used for cut vinyl and screen print to cut signage. “These two methods still account for up to 85 percent of our work,” Moore says. “Digitally printed highway signs weren’t introduced until 2016, but we immediately knew it would become an important part of the business.” Following SAi’s launch of the FlexiPrint Authorized 3M™ Traffic Edition system in 2018, SCC is able to digitally print and cut highway signage using 3M™ Diamond Grade™ DG3 Reflective Sheeting Series 4000, and 3M™ High Intensity Prismatic Reflective Sheeting Series 3930. “While cut vinyl remains a big part of our business, digital production means that we can print and cut full-size signs and multiple smaller pieces in a single, smooth process,” Moore adds. “The automatic nesting feature dramatically reduces waste of expensive substrates, and manual intervention is minimal.” The specialist edition of Flexi software brings with it the familiar print and cut tools of other versions of Flexi: Interactive Tiling, Automated and Manual Nesting, the ability to import files in other formats, and the ability to output to a variety of devices using different ink types (solvent, latex, and UV). Text and graphics style tools make duplication of sizes and enhancements possible with a few mouse-clicks, ensuring the uniformity essential in highway signage. The same easy-to-use features for color profiles, management and job storage and retrieval can be found in FlexiPrint Authorized 3M™ Traffic Edition software to eliminate bottlenecks and accelerate production while ensuring traffic-compliant signage. “Printing signs digitally has many advantages that help keep us competitive,” Moore says. “Less waste, less manual work, significant reductions in time and increased throughput all deliver savings. Being able to work with a new version of the familiar Flexi software gave us confidence and simplified training. “Highway signage is printed in 48-inch widths, but we have the capability to print up to 60-inch,” he continues. “Signs are printed roll-to-roll, then cut, mounted and laminated on various aluminum alloys.” One of its strengths is that SSC has the capabilities to perform all necessary processes in-house. For example, the company operates 1,500 gallon tanks to apply chromate conversion coating to passivate aluminum to retard corrosion, a process that is frequently contracted out. This increases the company’s control over quality, material availability and costs. Everything in SSC’s highway sign printing process complies with the 3M™ MCS (match component system) Warranty. This assures consistency in of all aspects of production: software, printers, inks, substrates, over-laminates and treatments. “When all of these elements confirm to the standard, it locks in the 12-year warranty for outdoor usage,” Moore explains. Ink is a major part of the matched component system and the FlexiPrint Authorized 3M™ Traffic Edition has been designed to handle the ASTM1 traffic signage colors for wide-format printers from suppliers who are part of the warranty program. Currently those colors include Traffic Black, Traffic Blue, Traffic Green, Traffic Red, Traffic Yellow, Traffic Brown, and Traffic Purple. During the course of SSC’s long association with SAi, the company has moved from Flexi 6 to the current Flexi 19 standards with FlexiPrint Authorized 3M™ Traffic Edition. “We use the software subscription option so we know we’re using the latest version of Flexi; it improves our performance and is another factor in keeping us competitive,” Moore says. “We’ve undertaken both alpha and beta testing work for SAi, and we’ve certainly benefitted from that closeness and openness that work like that brings. It opens doors to other ideas and a level of advice and consultancy that companies don’t usually have with their suppliers,” Moore concludes. “Digital printing for highway and other signage is quickly becoming the norm. With partners like SAi and 3M, SSC will continue to flourish and grow.”