Page 42 - Print 21 Sep-Oct 2019

Business
Ellipsis fires up Australia’s first
Fujifilm Jet Press 750S
USQ Ellipsis Media has commissioned the country’s first Fujifilm Jet Press 750S digital sheetfed inkjet print system, with director Rob Keanalley saying work has already exceeded expectations.
Anew digital B2 sheetfed press – the country’s first Fujifilm Jet Press 750S – represents the biggest investment
by far for Ellipsis Media. It joins a toner-based digital colour printer and an SRA3 offset press, and an extensive bindery fleet, at the production centre in Toowoomba.
Ellipsis Media serves the University of Southern Queensland, and the printing community of south-east Queensland. Keanalley tells Print21, “When we reviewed
our business we determined that we wanted to offer a service to printers in the area that they did not have, which would set us apart from the field and give printers something extra to go to the market with. Inkjet digital printing in B2 sheetfed was the
clear solution to that – then it was a question of which solution.
“As a government organisation, we have to go through a rigorous verifiable selection process. As we did that over a period of eighteen months, it became clear that
the Fujifilm Jet Press was the technology that would meet our needs. The print quality is out in front, with 1200dpi, a wide colour gamut, and solids that are better than offset. It will print on standard offset stocks, which includes packaging stocks, even onto canvas.
“And it will do all that at a price point that the market is more than happy to meet. Feedback we have had in the first week on that has been overwhelmingly positive, and we already have local printers taking advantage of this capability”, he says.
Keanalley says Ellipsis was initially looking at the Jet Press 720S amongst other solutions, but when the 750S came out “that was the clincher”. He says, “I also was happy to be a first mover in the
Above
First in Australia: With the new Fujifilm
Jet Press 750S at Ellipsis Media are (l-r) David Martin, Rob Keanalley, and David Fritz
market. There is a risk of course, but the analysis that we had, and the conversations with Jet Press owners in different parts of the world, made me comfortable in being the first in Australia, and proud to be so.”
Ellipsis is not yet at peak productivity as the operators hone their skills with the Jet Press. Keanalley says the Jet Press 750S will work with run lengths up to 5000, “depending on the type of work.” He says Ellipsis is already transitioning high-run work from the digital toner printer and low end from its offset onto the Jet Press.
He tells Print21, “When it comes
to solids for instance on our offset press it would take a significant number of sheets and time to get that right. With Jet Press it is good from the first sheet, so no waste and minimal makeready, which means we are saving time and money.
“On the second day we did a particular job which would have taken a day and a half on the offset press – on the Jet Press it was two and a half hours. The decision to invest in Jet Press is working out.”
Ellipsis is aiming to produce trade work for printers all over south- east Queensland, including those
in Toowoomba, Brisbane, Gold
and Sunshine Coasts, and – says Keanalley – as far north as Cairns and Townsville. He said, “We have the technology, it is now available for printers to access.” 21
Jet Press 750S
Fujifilm Jet Press 750S is a single-pass inkjet, printing wide-gamut CMYK onto standard offset papers and carton board. It is aimed at the short-run, high-value markets; it prints at 3,600sph, with a three minute auto clean every two hours.
The Jet Press 750S is based on an RMGT (Ryobi) offset chassis. This has a standard offset feeder, side lays, grippers, and delivery to avoid the common digital press problem of print drifting from sheet to sheet.
The print bars have new high- speed versions of the Fujifilm Dimatix Samba piezo heads. A built- in scanner monitors quality and detects blocked jets, with on-the- fly compensation. Cleaning takes three minutes every two hours.
Drying is IR. Paper weights
can get down to 80 or 90gsm depending on ink coverage. Fujifilm says the Vividia
aqueous inks can match 90 per cent of standard Pantone PMS colours. Complementing this is
a new Cloud service called XMF ColorPath Brand Color Optimiser, which can profile all 1,872 Pantone colours for any stock.
And there is an option to run a new food-safe ink for food and beverage packaging work.
42 Print21 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019