Russ Brock, owner of Specialized Output Printing, Inc. in Waukesha, Wis., takes a piece of printed banner material, roughly a square foot in size, and wads it up into a tight ball. After unfurling the sheet, Brock gives it a good stretching. The UV inkjet printing retains the same permanence and vibrancy as when it was created a year ago on the Screen Truepress Jet2500UV.

“This simple test shows customers that the Truepress Jet2500UV produces crisp images and bright colors with outstanding durability under conditions well beyond everyday use,” Brock explained. “Screen’s UV inks adhere extremely well without fading, cracking or chipping. Manufacturers of different products have approached Specialized Output Printing looking for help with substrates that have proved too difficult for other printers to handle because of their mechanical properties.”

Brock’s history with graphic arts technology goes back more than three decades. After nine years managing sales and marketing strategies at RB Graphic Supply Co., Brock spent 13 years as manager of electronic imaging systems and services at London Litho Aluminum Co. He later served as technical sales representative at Ricoh Business Systems and account executive at Agfa Graphics Corp.

Brock launched Specialized Output Printing in 2011, seeing an untapped market for work from commercial shops that don’t offer wide-format printing and digital print providers that haven’t fully developed their capabilities. High-quality wide-format printing for the trade is the strongest segment of the firm’s business, followed by retail and direct print sales to customers.

“The machine we chose to start building our business had to have user-friendly and powerful software and do things other devices can’t do,” Brock said. “The Truepress Jet2500UV has surpassed our performance expectations in its ability to vary the ratio of ink, how the ink is applied and the temperature with which it is cured, as well as the flexibility of any number of adjustments that are available on the Truepress and accompanying software.”

Brock cited flawless printing on glass sheets as a example of the Truepress Jet2500UV’s incomparability with other manufacturers’ wide-format machines. Screen employs smooth pinch rollers to feed media through the printer. The belt material doesn’t scratch the undersurface of the media being printed. In addition, the vacuum system accurately positions and secures the media for printing, preventing problems with skewing.

“We have had great success working with several industrial companies on high-end projects involving glass substrates,” Brock said. “The ink adhesion and registration are superior. Color management when printing on glass can be challenging, but that is not the case with the Truepress Jet2500UV.”

A recent unique project called for printing on colored acrylic sheets that would become counter displays.

“We partnered with another company on the finishing of the sheets to make them look like a ‘z’ that was missing the top part of the letter,” Brock said. ”The inks are highly resistant to the effects of thermoforming. The temperature and bending do not alter the inks’ integrity at all.”

The Truepress Jet2500UV at Specialized Output Printing features four process colors plus opaque white ink. The white ink creates a very opaque image, enabling Specialized Output Printing to completely cover the media with a bright, white base when printing on colored flexible material or rigid objects. The white ink prints at full speed with the same resolution and droplet size as other colors for fine detail printing of spot color areas. It can print an image layer between two colored layers for day/night backlit applications on transparent media. Multiple layers allow images to be viewed from both sides of transparent material with no show-through.

“The multi-layer capability is the sweet spot of the Truepress Jet2500UV,” Brock said. “Being able to print up to seven image layers, including white, in one pass has attracted many new customers. Double-sided window graphics and backlit displays come out beautifully.”