Mix and match
How Screenprint Productions is benefitting from employing digital inkjet as part of its traditional screen print operation.
“The length and nature of runs for sign and display production are changing, though,” explains Chris White, managing director at Screenprint, which employs 60 personnel and produces work for various indoor and outdoor applications. “Bulk purchasing of printed output still exists, but short runs of creative displays are the order of the day. To meet that requirement a wide-format digital engine was needed that could nevertheless live up to the productivity we are used to from our screen lines.”
The purchase of a 2.5m flatbed Meital 304D UV-curable machine from MTL Print, supported by Digital Print Innovations, is the latest in a series of steps by Screenprint to introduce new production possibilities, building upon its previous moves into the wide-format space while complementing its existing screen lines.
Screenprint opted in as an early adopter of the four-colour Meital 304D for its high-productivity dual table option, which allows one sheet to be loaded while another is printing, and a level of quality which matches the company’s expectations. Conceived by digital inkjet sages Kobi Markovitch and Moshe Nur, other attractions include the printer’s economical ink usage and a top speed of 250m2/hr (productivity mode).
“Screenprint’s investment followed three months of comparing wide-format digital engines for resolution and productivity, with the company’s priority being to find a machine that would maintain its ability to be both creative and competitive,” says Stewart Bell, managing director of Digital Print Innovations (DPI). “The modular format of the Meital 304D also means that it has a reassuring level of future-proofing behind it, making the capital expenditure even more worthwhile.”
The magnitude of throughput offered by the Meital machine has freed up Screenprint’s screen line for the type of work it does best, such as long runs and block colours, and its UV-curable formulation requires no gassing off or drying before finishing. “This saves us time and money, which can then be reflected in the client’s price, thereby keeping us competitive,” says White. “In turn, this has a direct and positive effect on the return on investment.”
Amongst Screenprint’s customers, which include various well known retail, leisure and supermarket brands, is a banking customer which used to specify the solvent machine to print onto a thin PVC material to use in a window banner system. “This job would have to be matte laminated, adding another layer of expense and round of work, but we can now print direct to a more suitable substrate with richer quality and improved turnaround. Clients are now requesting that their work be produced on the Meital for its suitability to the run length or for the thickness of the media of their job. We can produce it cheaper, thereby producing a cost saving for our customer.”
Digital inkjet output is also creating new streams of revenue for Screenprint, especially where processes are combined to produce unusual new applications. A designer working on Adidas’s Adi5 range of five-a-side football branded footwear commissioned point-of-sale units which Screenprint produced by synthesising different print methods. “Reflecting the shiny, tactile finish of the shoe against a matte fibre was key to the brand and we wanted that to be reflected in the displays,” White says. “Printed on the Meital 304D, the background of the display featured the shoe in a moody, urban environment, onto which we screen-printed a high-build spot varnish. Both we and the client were delighted by the quality and the originality of the end result.”
While the originality was provided by Screenprint’s creative approach and three-dimensional engineering, the quality of the print was achievable only because of the company’s machine investment, which offers greyscale drop-on-demand inkjet technology. “There are types of ink, material and job that are better suited to screen-printing,” concludes White, “but adding a versatile digital engine to the mix has offered a host of cost and production options that have helped us stay on top of our game.”