The pace of innovation in production inkjet has accelerated over the past few years with new technology conquering more substrates, entering new markets, and driving quality to new heights. For each of these releases there is a first customer. Often that customer is on board long before the product makes it to market, and not all products make it. It’s easy to understand why OEMs want to be first to the market with new technology and that they need beta customers to succeed, but why would a printing business want to take a risk on unproven technology?

To answer this question, we spoke with five technology leaders using inkjet in quality-sensitive operations about their experience as pre-release adopters of production inkjet presses. Some of these companies dipped their toes in the inkjet pool as far back as the late 1990s while others purchased their first inkjet press within the past two years. In each case, the company was looking for some combination of quality, flexibility, media compatibility, productivity or price that was not commercially available at the time.

Japs-Olson Company, a commercial print and direct mail provider based in St. Louis Park, Minn., made their initial foray into inkjet in the late 90s after several years of working with inkjet arrays added to their traditional presses. Their beta test of that initial press didn’t work out, and it wasn’t until 2014 that they were ready to look at presses again. When they did, they again pursued a device that was not yet commercially available, the Kodak Prosper 6000.