The Eagle:  2006 was the year in which we finally felt the explosive growth of wide format imaging virtually everywhere.  As had happened in the CtP world, as that technology matured, most wide format printers today work well and their price/performance has dramatically improved.  One might say that we are at the point where wide format printing has become available as a mass market product for many printing, corporate and advertising market segments. We guess you could say that this product category has “crossed the chasm.”

Traditional printers, not just the early adopters, now realize that wide format inkjet printing has many great advantages over offset, screen and flexographic printing in that printed objects can be manufactured for all kinds of application; there are far fewer media and printing limitations with some inkjet printing.  This is especially true with UV flatbed printers, since they are designed to print on a very broad range of untreated rigid and roll media.

Depending upon the ultimate use of the print, UV flatbeds often preclude the need to adhere the print to board stock and then laminate after printing.  In essence, the labor savings can be extremely high, especially for screen printers with single-color presses.  Two of the other tremendous advantages of flatbed printers are on-demand and variable printing.  Imagine printing five 4/color real estate signs on galvanized steel, each personalized for individual realtors, and then delivering them to the customer the same day.  The value-added that UV printers offer users, along with the dramatic reduction in overhead costs, have resulted in ROI achievement in months instead of years for most users.