IWCO saves over $110K by avoiding retrofit to existing finishing equipment across two plants IWCO automates their quality control (QC) process saving time and improving customer satisfaction

Solimar Systems, Inc., provider of leading workflow software solutions for print production and digital communications, announces that leading marketing services provider, IWCO has saved over $110,000 by using their existing investment in finishing equipment and streamlined its traditional workflows with key software components from the Solimar Chemistry™ platform.

IWCO recently invested $50 million in new printing equipment, including multiple HP PageWide Web Presses, to run alongside its existing fleet of Canon and SCREEN high-speed inkjet printing systems.

Solimar’s post-composition workflow solution, Rubika®, enabled a quick and smooth integration when installing these new printing presses and avoided costly equipment upgrades. For example, when IWCO installed the new presses, margins required for barcodes and other marks for the HP presses were different from the existing printers. Specifically, the chipout area is printed and then removed with in-line cutters. The difference in margins would have required IWCO to upgrade its fixed blade cutters to variable blades at the cost of more than $110,000. Relying on Rubika instead, IWCO adjusted the files in a post-composition workflow and dynamically updated the correct positioning for the HP systems. This way all presses can utilize their existing finishing equipment in both plants seamlessly.

“IWCO has made amazing progress since installing its first HP PageWide Web Press in September 2021, rapidly ramping up to seven presses, they are one of the largest producers of delivered marketing materials. HP and Solimar have partnered together to provide a path to continuous improvement for our mutual customers, including some of the largest print service providers,” Annette Friskopp, Vice President and General Manager, HP PageWide Industrial Printing

A mixed vendor print shop gives IWCO total flexibility, but it traditionally meant machine-specific workflow solutions feeding dedicated digital front ends (DFEs). IWCO’s Chemistry-based workflow has expanded their production flexibility. “Solimar Systems has provided us with a solution that manages all of our complex workflows regardless of the vendor equipment and provides a unified and centralized solution for the management and output of files,” commented Carroll Schiley, Director of

Production Technology Applications at IWCO. “We have also dramatically reduced processing time for quality control (QC), saving us 7.5 hours per day.”

Solutions from the Solimar Chemistry platform have enabled a transition from many workflows to one central solution. Solimar’s SOLfusion™ receives input from IWCO’s long-standing composition tool, and powers automated workflow tasks including file conversions (AFP, PostScript, PDF). Then, as needed, it passes files to Rubika for page and layout level adjustments before sending the files to Solimar® Print Director™ Enterprise for management and output to the required printers. Solimar’s solution has eliminated machine-specific workflow solutions and provided a streamlined, centralized job management system.

Solimar’s Rubika platform has also proved the ultimate upgrade for IWCO’s QC process. Records can now be batched from multiple jobs, using the same paper, watermarks applied, and samples printed for QC before starting the production run for all batch jobs – reducing the total number of processing steps and increasing capacity per shift.

Mary Ann Rowan, Chief Experience Officer at Solimar Systems said, “Solimar’s workflow products have not only provided a digital solution to a physical equipment challenge at IWCO, but they have also transformed the print shop, streamlining a variety of multi-output workflows to one central solution. They are already reaping time and cost savings and we look forward to working with them for continual improvement.”

Tony Picciano, Application Engineer at IWCO, attributes the success of their new QC program and the solution for the chipout challenge to Solimar’s expert support team. “With Solimar it feels more like a partnership than the typical vendor relationship,” states Picciano. “IWCO is looking forward to leveraging the partnership to support its growing business.”

If you are interested in hearing more about how IWCO has streamlined their workflow with Solimar solutions, please see the full case study with video, via our customer testimonials page here.

To find out more about how Solimar Chemistry can integrate with your PageWide system, visit the HP booth (P4, Hall 2) at Hunkeler Innovation Days 2023.