Miamisburg, OH – POP Diseño & Producción S.A.S., a major producer of display and exhibit materials in Colombia, has recently installed an Esko Kongsberg XP finishing table to meet the 50% sales increase they have recently experienced, while delivering work in hours, rather than days.

POP Diseño & Producción S.A.S. designs, produces and markets POP trade show and stand material to satisfy the needs of their customers, delivering new designs and innovative materials with quality and effectiveness. Based in Medellin, Colombia, they offer industrial design, prototype production, production of furniture and accessories made from wood, wire, steel, aluminum, acrylic, and other materials, and the design and installation of exhibit stands. They serve major brand owners and advertising and industrial design firms throughout Latin America.

POP Diseño & Producción S.A.S. and its 100 employees produce their materials on three digital printers. The corrugated carton materials they create are usually for displays, gondolas, mailboxes, tasting stations, promotional games, display stands for trade shows and special product display cases.

POP Diseño & Producción S.A.S. originally cut their corrugated POP materials by hand, but realized they needed to install new technology to improve productivity, speed and quality. The company was looking for a finishing table that was ‘industrial’; something that was more reliable and backed by local support, but also very versatile with a variety of tools.

The company decided to seek the advice of Digital Grafix S.A., an organization with headquarters in Bogotá, founded by people with extensive experience in the printing industry throughout the Andes and Central American regions. They are a full service distributor (including sales of equipment, software, supplies and service technology solutions for digital printing) in printing, packaging, advertising and textiles markets representing leading global graphic communication technology companies. Digital Grafix’ mission is to be the graphics market leader across the region, working as a technology partner to its clients by offering the consultancy, supply, integration, installation, training, maintenance and updating of digital solutions that enable them to generate sustainable economic value over time.

“We decided to purchase a Kongsberg XP table after looking at the various options available in the marketplace. In our opinion, it was the best table available,” states Luis Fernando Hernandez, General Manager, POP Diseño & Producción S.A.S. “We had first discovered the Kongsberg table on the Internet, and from there we contacted a number of companies that already owned a Kongsberg table. I spoke with two companies specifically, and they gave me excellent references. Other tables just did not seem to meet the requirements we required for POP design and production.”

POP Diseño & Producción S.A.S. purchased the Kongsberg table and Grafix Digital S.A. installed it at the end of July 2011. The installation of the system went well. “The service engineer who installed the system did a good job and was very helpful. We also had very good training,” says Hernandez.

The Kongsberg XP digital cutting table is made especially for finishing and handling a combination of corrugated board and other rigid materials used in packaging, POP products and product displays. Its durable construction enables the XP table to provide full time production, 24/7. With the Kongsberg XP companies can run jobs from a single unit to a full-scale production with up to a 1000 units in a day. An extensive array of available tools matches the wide range of materials that can be used, such as corrugated, folding carton, solid board, foam, coating blankets, wood and a long list of plastics — as large as 2310mm x 3600mm (91” x 135”). The XP's production power and quick change of tools ensures on time delivery, every time, even for the complex jobs.

As a complete solution, to help drive the Kongsberg table POP Diseño operates both Esko ArtiosCAD structural design software and an Esko i-cut Suite wide format prepress workflow. ArtiosCAD is the world’s most popular structural design software for packaging design, ideal for all corrugated, folding carton and POP display designers. i-cut Automate lets POP Diseño automate its entire prepress production process, preflighting PDF files, preparing graphics, and creating layouts. The i-cut software has a set of modules that fit any large format printing workflow, no matter what brand of large format press it’s working with. Both of these tools connect seamlessly to the Kongsberg table.

For one of the company’s clients, Productora Distrihogar, POP Diseño & Producción S.A.S. created 50 exhibits within 24 hours. In the past, it took them five days. “Al Grupo Nutresa has told us that they have seen production times cut by 50%, along with a 100% increase in quality. Other customers of ours, Grupo Familia, Leonisa and Grupo Éxito, have seen similar results,” adds Hernandez.

Hernandez likes everything about the Kongsberg XP table. While sales have increased 50% — an average increase of US $100,000 — the company’s workflow productivity and capacity has increased by 80%. “We were very pleasantly surprised that the very fast machine speed of the Kongsberg XP cuts vinyl very quickly,” explains Hernandez. “We also like the table’s flexibility. Along with cutting, it can rout materials in low relief. Our client, Leonisa, combines our cut materials with their neon lights.”

“The Kongsberg table is the best system money can buy. In fact, we expect to purchase another Kongsberg XP within the year,” concludes Hernandez.