Utah PaperBox has invested in a Fujifilm J Press 720S sheet-fed production inkjet press.
Established in 1914 as Union Label, Utah PaperBox is a 105-year-old, fifth generation family-owned Salt Lake City-based packaging manufacturer.
The US-based company has reported an immediate boost in sales following the investment, in addition to furthering its commitment to long-term strategy and its customer base.
Mike Salazar, vice president of operations at Utah PaperBox, said, ‘We were in need of a press that was higher quality and could run more sheets per hour compared to what we were previously using, and the J Press was the right choice.
‘Speed to market is imperative. We quickly print exact sample prototypes from the J Press, and are absolutely confident of the quality when we show it to the client for approvals. Not one prototype has been rejected, because the client knows exactly how their product will look. That is our competitive advantage.’
Utah PaperBox has clients that have previously asked for ‘test market’ boxes upwards of 5,000 pieces. Mr Salazar explained, ‘To run that job on an offset press, the upfront cost for our clients didn’t justify the risky investment to see if it will sell on their end. With the J Press we are able to fulfil these types of jobs for our clients with a fair price and quick turnarounds.’
He continued, ‘The J Press allows us to offer flexibility, and as an independently-owned company, it also reinforces our reputation of innovation. With this powerful inkjet solution we are helping our clients grow their business as well. It’s a billboard message our clients are printing on their packages; not just a plain brown box.’
The J Press 720S, as well as the recently introduced third generation J Press 750S feature Fujifilm Dimatix Samba single-pass piezo drop-on-demand inkjet technology to achieve a 1200 x 1200dpi resolution with four-level grayscale.
‘We wanted to do better, and we know we are doing better, especially with the Fujifilm Dimatix printheads in the J Press,’ said Mr Salazar. ‘These printheads are second to none.’
Steve Burch, digital press manager at Utah PaperBox, added, ‘The colour consistency of the J Press is huge with regard to Delta E. One of our client’s brand colours is brown, and with the J Press we output the same brown, every time, first sheet to the last sheet. And we are able to produce this time and again with absolutely no set-up or special calibrations. We simply pull up the job and the J Press does the rest without hesitation.’
The ability to switch between a variety of substrates of different sizes and thicknesses on a daily basis, and maintain uptime is another benefit cited by Mr Burch.
Mr Salazar goes on to note that, ‘in packaging, registration is critical.
‘With our previous equipment, there were certain jobs we could not manage because of the movement. With the J Press we are in a win-win situation with amazing colour consistency and perfect registration.’
