We believe that Fuji’s Jet Press 720 has gained strong traction with over a 100 installations around the world and with strong interest from Indian customers as well. This press has also helped to establish the Fujifilm Samba inkjet heads as the best in terms of quality, speed and versatility for offset quality printing. This is why the Samba drop-ondemand heads have been chosen by Heidelberg and Gallus for their Primefire sheetfed and label presses and also by Mouvent to build their own inkjet cluster. – Editor
One of the UK’s fastest growing trade printers, Route One Print, has become the fourth UK business in two years to invest in a Fujifilm Jet Press 720S. Forming part of the Bluetree Group, Route One Print is a Virgin Fast track 100 company that operates from a 9,000 square meter production facility near Rotherham and employs 260 people. Offering digital, lithographic and wide format print products, it is investing in Fujifilm’s Jet Press 720S to produce ultra-high quality business cards, produced with a personal flourish.
“Business cards are a high-value product,” says business co-founder, James Kinsella. “They’re often the first impression a potential customer might get, so they need to look right. We print a lot of them for customers and historically we have always lithoproduced them to achieve the level of quality our customers expect. The problem with producing them like this though is that we lack the flexibility to vary the finishes from one job to the next—offering spot UV finishes for instance, or rounded corners. We wanted a digital press that would give us the flexibility to add distinctive touches like this much more easily, but crucially, the quality had to be at least as good as litho.”
“We’ve put a number of digital presses to the test on this task,” adds Kinsella’s business partner and cofounder, Adam Carnell. “But we had struggled to find anything that didn’t require us to sacrifice the quality we were used to for digital flexibility. The Jet Press 720S had been on our radar for some time; we’ve watched its development closely and at drupa 2016 we got a good look at it up close. That visit convinced us that this machine could give us the added flexibility we needed—without any compromise on quality.”
Kinsella and Carnell are clear on what the future of print looks like: “It’s digital and it’s automated,” says Kinsella. “We’re always looking to the future and we see this investment in the Jet Press 720S as a very important stepping stone on that road. We have been a Fujifilm plates customer for around eighteen months and have a lot of respect for Fujifilm as a company. It is a great brand with an excellent support network, as well as offering some of the best technology out there, so the company is well placed to support us in getting the very best out of the Jet Press 720S.”
A Spanish first at start-up digital print business La Trama
Founded five months ago to provide fully customisable short to medium run length commercial print jobs of outstanding quality, La Trama Digital Print is a dynamic, modern digital print business. Based in Zamudio, Spain, the company was established by the founder of Estudios Durero, a print service provider specialising in point of purchase, sign and display and 3D print. La Trama offers an end-to-end service that starts with the initial design and ends with the final printed substrate.
“Fujifilm’s inkjet technology fits perfectly with what we are aiming to achieve here at La Trama,” says Josu López Txarterina, managing director, La Trama Digital Print. “The Jet Press 720S guarantees the quality and allows us to produce customised pieces at competitive prices. In the short time we’ve had it, the Jet Press 720S has printed magazines, catalogs, brochures, posters, art books and variable data elements. We’ve also been able to produce a variety of test runs and samples that we have used to attract new potential customers, and demonstrate the high quality output that can be achieved using the Jet Press 720S.”
Ander Soriano, managing director at Estudios Durero continues, “One common problem in the digital printing environment concerns the ability to produce high quality print on a variety of different grades of paper. This hurdle has been removed by the Jet Press 720S, thanks to the Rapid Coagulation Primer that is applied to the paper before printing commences.
“The primer allows us to use natural, untreated paper and delivers outstanding contrast and saturation results. The enhanced contrast and larger color space, together with the fact that there is no printing blanket and drying is immediate, have been real surprises since we started using the press. Another great advantage of the wide color gamut is its ability to reproduce many pantone colors, which has allowed us to print true-tolife flat colors.”
Txarterina believes the recent installation of the Jet Press 720S gives them the competitive edge they need to really succeed in the market and comments, “With an output of 2,700 sheets per hour, in a constant 50 x70 cm format, we’re delighted with what we’ve been able to achieve so far. The technology is incredibly robust—it’s like an offset press with digital heads—and allows us to switch between different jobs very easily, eliminating inefficient down-time. The quality is unlike anything we’ve seen before and allows us to get samples produced and sent to the customer in no time at all.
“Achieving uniform and consistent print quality all the time can be difficult, with the appearance of ink bursts, water and color stability often a problem. With the Jet Press 720S, this problem does not exist and all prints that we have produced have an impressive uniformity that perfectly simulates the impression of flat ink.”
Concludes Joan Casas, graphic systems manager, Fujifilm Spain, “La Trama Digital Print is a new business with a bold vision – to provide its customers with commercial print of the very highest quality with speed and flexibility. The Jet Press 720S, and the Fujifilm inkjet technology that drives it, is ideally placed to make this vision a reality. We look forward to continuing to partner with La Trama as the business develops and grows into the future.”
