Fremont, California-based Spectrum Lithograph has invested in a Fujifilm J Press 720S as it targets expanded opportunities in digitally printed folding cartons.
Founded in 1981, Spectrum Lithograph is an ISO-certified supplier of custom package design, manufacturing and distribution services.
‘Our core business is folding cartons,’ said Shawn Pereira, vice president of sales and marketing at Spectrum Lithograph. ‘We service the medical and pharmaceutical industries, as well as the retail and confection markets. We wanted to be more competitive within the industry, and digital inkjet was the answer.’
Fujifilm’s production inkjet sheet-fed J Press has been engineered to rival the quality of traditional offset printing, coupling the quality and robustness of an offset press with the capability to handle short runs.
Now available in its third generation as the 750S, the Fujifilm J Press is designed to offer print service providers the flexibility of a digital platform with the ability to produce personalised variable data work, while eliminating the cost of plates, make-readies and associated labour costs. Using Samba printheads by Fujifilm Dimatix, along with Fujifilm’s Vividia inks and ColorPath Sync brand colour optimiser, the J Press not only is able to reproduce most brand colours with its max gamut printing, but is also claimed to repeat the same quality and colour throughout a run, and run-to-run.
Mr Pereira continued, ‘We are able to print on 24pt, with virtually no minimums. If a client wants one box, we can output one box quickly and cost-effectively. Recently I was on the phone with a potential client, he emailed the creative file to me and was en-route to our facility; by the time he walked into our building I had the actual output in-hand to share with him. Needless to say, he is now a client, and it was an easy sale. The J Press is positively impacting our bottom line.’
He added, ‘The registration accuracy on the J Press is perfect, which is very important. The tolerance is extremely tight, and the gripper and guide on that press absolutely make a huge difference.’
Dino Pereira, Spectrum Lithograph CEO, noted, ‘The colour consistency is flawless, and, we are able to use our existing aqueous and UV coatings successfully.
‘We output a lot of reprint jobs, and the repeatability on the J Press is really much easier compared to offset. We are running more jobs on the J Press, and fewer jobs on the offset press.’
With quick turnarounds and shorter runs the ‘new normal’ at Spectrum Lithograph, the Fujifilm J Press has created expanded business opportunities.
‘Instead of outputting large runs, our customers are requesting shorter runs because they want to keep inventory levels low with regard to items within their product line-up becoming obsolete,’ said Shawn Pereira. ‘Regulations and regional SKUs often change for our clients; so rather than having to discard hundreds of thousands of pre-printed product from inventory, we are able to provide them shorter runs at a lower unit cost, with quick turnarounds. It’s more economical to produce shorter runs on the J Press for our packaging customers.’
Read the November/December issue of Digital Labels & Packaging for an update from Simon Eccles on the digitally printed folding carton market; read the issue online here
