Page 24 - Print21 magazine Sep-Oct 2022

Wide Format
Wide format
on the move
The wide-format market is rapidly evolving. Industry analyst Gareth Ward assesses the major trends and opportunities.
Large format inkjet printing is a rapidly maturing sector, but despite commoditisation of some product types, lucrative
niches exist. There is little to be gained from development and installation of another roll-to-roll machine: there is simply more than enough capacity for pop-up banners to last from here to eternity.
The UV flatbed part of the market in contrast is livelier at all levels, from the value machine end, thanks to machines spewing out of China, in the mid-market with companies such as Fujifilm and Canon, and at the
top end where Agfa is now owner of Inca Digital Presses, the UK company known for high throughput presses.
In a piece of research ahead of Fespa this year, the organisation counted 220 inkjet presses, with 50 flatbeds among them. And more are arriving by the week.
Flatbed
Flatbed printers, printing direct to substrate, sidestep any need to laminate work from a roll of print to a board, and are therefore both faster and more cost effective. There is still the possibility of printing banner material, faster than on dedicated machines.
The need to print on more materials and the ability to open up new markets drives a demand for flatbed and innovation in the sector. The flatbed is the platform for diversification.
Fujifilm is claiming to have re- invented flatbed printing with a ground up design for its new Acuity Prime family. It no longer shares
the same frame and printheads as Canon’s Arizona, and has some neat operator friendly touches that relieve stress, from a recess to prevent frequently needed small items falling off the machine, to a slick new user interface and workflow. Four-colour printing is enhanced with channels for primer, white and clear ink.
Growing market demand: wide-format print
A higher performance model was announced at Fespa. More will follow in this regard. It has the products in ultra wide roll format that will surely be matched in flatbed.
Canon’s flatbed equivalent, the Arizona 135 GT, offers light magenta and light cyan inks as well as white and clear toner for varnish. Canon has more machines at higher volume and format points, but again it is not attacking the apex of the market.
That is where Agfa, Durst, EFI and Fujifilm duke it out with high throughput roll to roll, hybrid and flatbed machines.
These are the machines dedicated
to out of home billboards and banners, building wraps and fast turnaround
of point of sale campaigns. Automated handling systems are needed to load boards at a steady rate and to help lift rolls of material. Increasingly robots will take on loading and unloading of boards and rolls of polyesters. But not PVC.
Unwanted guest
The widely used substrate, PVC,
is rapidly becoming the unwanted guest at the wedding thanks to it being exceedingly difficult to recycle.
Today for many producing hoardings, building wraps let alone eyelet banners, the choice is “anything
but PVC”. Legislation, promised or implemented, is sure to outlaw what is among the least environmentally friendly materials known to printers. Even if legislation does not ban the material, then brands and retailers are already steering away from its use. Nobody wants to be on the wrong side of a comparison with a key rival.
A number of products are becoming available, if only in limited quantities. They include a Korean material known as Kavalan. While not perfect, it is far better environmentally than PVC, which has very limited options for reuse and cannot be recycled. Kavalan will separate its print surface layer from the backing. The backing can be recycled, but
the print surface currently has to be incinerated for energy.
Other alternatives are available, including materials that are biodegradable because they are based on natural fibres. Availability (and cost) will not match PVC, at least not for the immediate future. Feedback will be crucial to deciding how and when to ramp up production of
24 Print21 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022