Inkjet Tip of the Week: Run inkjet less & you’ll have HIGHER service costs.
Less running time means proportionally more service time with inkjet. Service time with high speed inkjet increases @ proportionally when run less than 1 full shift/day instead of 1+ full shifts per day. Learn about maintenance requirements for shut down and head purges.
Look at Quality Sideways
Inkjet Tip of the Week: Look at Quality Sideways. After you lay those pages down and admire the depth of color you’ve achieved, or the super-crisp text, pick them up and look at them sideways. Is the paper flat or does it look like the surf’s up at Malibu? Great print quality is “dry flat” print quality without curl, waviness or mottle.
You Can’t Compete on Cost Alone
You can’t compete on cost alone.
Buying inkjet and lowering your prices won’t drive profit. Wrap inkjet with service improvement and new capabilities to drive more revenue and a higher margin.
Make Samples Demonstrate “Best Practices”
Make Samples Demonstrate “Best Practices.” Show your customers inkjet print samples that show the best practices for design, ink coverage, image complexity and quality and use of relevant personalization. Be your own object lesson and customers will learn how to use inkjet effectively.
The Price of Ink and the Cost of Ink are Different
The price of ink and the cost of ink are different. For some applications, paying for a high-end inkjet ink can reduce drying costs, allow production on lower cost papers and streamline workflows by allowing more work to be produced on the same device. Price per liter and true cost are not the same.
Heavy Ink Coverage and Twice the Drying Power
Printing from the first tower allows ink twice as long to dry helping reduce roller build up and print defects in finishing.
Two Sides of Coated Paper
If you are using inkjet coated or primed offset coated paper, different papers will have different porosity levels on each side of the sheet.
Get the Specs and Read Them
Before signing your inkjet deal, get the specs for power, ceiling height, load-bearing, square footage, humidity and more. You may find that changes need to be made to your environment that add cost and delay installation. Measure (at least) twice before you buy.
Total Cost of Paper – TCP
Inkjet Tip of the Week: Understand Total Cost of Paper to compare TCO
TCP=Cost per carton weight (delivered) + cost of priming or spot treatment + excess ink usage+ excess drying energy. Papers not formulated for inkjet often use more ink and require additional drying energy. Measure TCP to fully understand TCO – every machine/ink/paper combination is different.
Stop the (Ink) Bleeding
Stop the (Ink) Bleeding. Check primed or inkjet coated print for color-to-color bleed/coalescence. Run test images w/ varying solid, single process & combined colors which touch or overlap. Create color areas > 4”x4” to see how ink volume of one image will spread or react to the primed/coated stock when touching another. If only printing pretty bitmap images, bleed effects can be hidden leaving print clarity surprises with solids and touching colors with hard edges.