Digital Printing-Wide Format - Roll to Roll

Potential for wide-format growth and profitability increases with advances in digital wide format technology and new customer demands.

Alvin B. Griffin, director of the Graphic Production Center at Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, can hardly contain his excitement about the Fujifilm Acuity Advance Select flatbed printer that his in-plant installed in June. And rightfully so, since the printer has already cut production time of 8x4-foot panels from four hours to seven minutes.

An impressive 76.8% of in-plants now offer wide-format printing services, and 67% of them say wide-format work has increased over the past 12 months. What's more, 23% plan to purchase or lease a new wide-format printer in the next year.

Attendees of the SGIA 2013 conference will be the first in the world to experience the new Ardeco fabric printing system from Agfa. Attendees visiting the Agfa Pitman booth will also be able to tour "The House of Asanti," named after the new automated wide format workflow solution.

With the continuing evolution in wide-format technologies and applications for sign and display shops—and increasing interest in entering the wide-format market by commercial printers—the expanded and enhanced PRINT 13 wide-format offerings provided the ideal venue for attendees to explore these advances and opportunities, and make show floor purchases from exhibitors that demonstrated their latest and greatest.

With traditional offset exhibitors like Heidelberg giving the Chicago trade show a pass, the digital print vendors were the new kings. Xerox, Canon, Konica Minolta and Fujifilm led the pack in booth size, and each of them had new inkjet production presses to proclaim.

Wide-format digital printing is a growth market within the in-plant printing segment of the printing industry. Recently, InfoTrends and North American Publishing Co. (IPG’s parent) surveyed 167 print service providers—95 of which were in-plants—on their expectations of growth for the wide-format printing market.

Fujifilm North America's Graphic Systems Division will debut and demonstrate the latest addition to its Inca Onset family of flatbed inkjet presses. The new Inca Onset Q40i UV inkjet press can print with offset like quality on materials as large as 63x123˝ and up to 2˝ thick.

Wide-format signage has been one of the most visible areas of interest for printers looking to expand their offerings and revenue. With the advent of more productive wide-format inkjet digital printing equipment—including eco-solvent, latex and UV-curable ink technologies—in-plants and commercial printers have been able to extend their product offerings to their existing client base with relatively small investments that provide far greater margins than one is able to obtain in document printing.

Acording to the International Data Corp. (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Large Format Printer Tracker, the technical segment of the large-format market is a driver of growth opportunity. This segment grew 2.4 percent year over year to more than 43,700 units shipped in 2Q13.