The blending of promotional offers into transactional documents is still relatively new in Brazil, but practitioners like Fast Solutions have embraced the transpromotional phenomenon whole-heartedly. In March, the $55 million company installed Screen’s ultrafast Truepress Jet520ZZ inkjet web press to differentiate itself in the market.

“The Truepress Jet520ZZ allows Fast Solutions to personalize color, text and photographs, and assure our customers that the variable data is absolutely accurate,” said Arlindo Santos, director. “The printing technology, low cost of production and flexibility of the press create unique opportunities for our customers in business areas where they previously had not enjoyed a presence while generating more print volume for Fast Solutions.”

Fast Solutions specializes in transactional printing and personalized direct mail. With 600 people working for the company, Fast Solutions produces 190 million pages per month for clients that include large utilities and magazines. Documents are printed, finished, sorted and delivered to an on-site postal unit.

“At our headquarters in São Paulo, we have the largest outpost of the post office located within a print center,” Santos noted. “Correspondences are mailed throughout Brazil, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

A manufacturing facility in Rio de Janeiro complements the São Paulo site. The company also plans to add five smaller print centers at various locations in Brazil to the fold.

Fast Solutions ranks as the second-largest transpromo printer in Brazil. Before installing the Truepress Jet520ZZ, its long-run variable data workflow was complicated.

“Either the customer would supply preprinted rolls produced on conventional offset presses or we would buy preprinted rolls from another printer for variable data printing on toner-based machines at Fast Solutions,” Santos explained. “Inkjet printing with the Truepress Jet520ZZ enables us to deliver products and personalized full color at the same time, which means huge time savings. We can do everything with the Truepress so we no longer need to use preprinted rolls.”

The Truepress Jet520ZZ offers four-color output at the rate of 722 feet (220 meters) per minute, the equivalent of 175,000 A4 pages per hour. The Truepress Jet520ZZ prints on rolls of inkjet paper, standard paper, uncoated paper and coated stock up to 22.4 inches (570 mm) wide. Fast Solutions configured the press as a dual-engine system capable of printing duplex at full speed.

“With the wider web width, we can give our customers new formats and new products,” Santos said.

Capable of the latest variable processing required for high-speed printing, the Truepress Jet520ZZ features the EQUIOS workflow RIP as a controller. The maximum resolution of 720 dpi x 360 dpi ensures superior quality that goes beyond the traditional boundaries of variable printing.

“Because of Screen’s extensive knowledge and understanding of color, we were confident that its inkjet technology would be the industry’s best,” Santos said. “The main proof that we made the right equipment decision is the fact that our customers have been 100 percent satisfied with all the jobs we have moved to Screen inkjet.”

As a result of the outstanding success of its first piece of Screen equipment, Fast Solutions is in the process of purchasing two more Truepress Jet520ZZ models.

“Our strategy is to replace 11 toner-based machines with Truepress Jet520ZZ inkjet systems to reduce production costs, improve quality and increase productivity,” Santos said. “We will never buy another toner machine again.”