French print service provider Pixcolor has purchased two swissQprint roll to roll printers in rapid succession and said farewell to sublimation printing. The main reasons: efficiency, variety of materials and profitability.
Pixcolor located in Nancy, France, commissioned its second swissQprint roll to roll printer in late November 2019. The first had already started work just a few weeks before in early October. "Karibu's potential quickly became apparent," explains Frédéric Toupenay, managing director of Pixcolor. He adds: "We've always printed a lot of flexible materials with our Nyala and a sublimation printer, but Karibu brought an instant leap in quality, efficiency and reliability." Hence, the immediate order of a second UV roll to roll printer from swissQprint. "Karibu saves us a lot of time and gives no trouble whatsoever." Pixcolor's customers include trade fair booth builders and shop fitters who are supplied with campaign and decoration elements as well as lettering and displays. Their biggest customer immediately noticed the difference; Karibu sets the new standard for quality.
Extended variety of materials
Pixcolor prints miles and miles of banners, various textiles and self-adhesive films. In addition, there is paper, magnetic sheet on rolls and other films. "Of the many printers we've had, none has processed everything as smoothly as Karibu," says Frédéric Toupenay. "Even older rolls of material that choked other machines worked with Karibu." Karibu doesn't distort substrates, while line sharpness and print quality in general are striking. All these were reasons for purchasing the second system.
Process stability and efficiency
The UV ink that swissQprint developed especially for Karibu is very flexible: stretch frames don't cause stress whitening. Frédéric Toupenay points out problem-free folding in particular: "We fold textiles for shipment and then assemble at the customer's location." No abrasion or creases can be seen. Toupenay also praises the colour fastness: "It stays absolutely constant from the first to the last metre. Many other technologies have great difficulty with this." Toupenay very much welcomes the ink's GreenGuard Gold certification, especially as this opens doors to new customer segments.
The printer's built-in light box runs right alongside the printing area, so the operator can immediately and continuously check backlit prints. Frédéric Toupenay explains: "Should optimisation be necessary, we can act quickly and lose little time or material." Pixcolor uses the Mesh Kit for full bleed printing of permeable media. Thanks to this, the machine stays clean, which in turn saves time. "My staff are happy that they no longer have cleaning to do," smiles Toupenay.
Major savings
Karibu is highly energy efficient, as Frédéric Toupenay confirms: "Power consumption is massively lower compared to that of a sublimation printer." In addition, Karibu produces hardly any rejects. And then there is cool LED curing, which prevents material shrinkage and ensures registration accuracy with multi-part products. "We save a lot of material and have no more complaints," says Toupenay.
swissQprint machinery pool
Pixcolor now operates a total of three swissQprint large format printers: the two Karibus, plus a Nyala flatbed printer. Their maintenance costs are very modest. "These machines never fail, that's so typically swissQprint," Frédéric Toupenay sums up.
