The Essential Image, based in Kitchener, ON, is one of North America’s largest marketing services providers with roots in the photo imaging business.
The company retailed as a digital photo printing and framing business that also serviced photo labs. Low margins, steep competition, and short-lived technology drove Essential to target the business- to-business category and transition to wide format printing. Print offerings began with indoor water-based, then outdoor solvent-based, and grew into lamination and mounting capabilities. To increase efficiencies, management made the leap to UV printing, purchasing their first Jeti wide-format printer in 2008.
Pioneering UV inkjet printing
“We were there at the very beginning of UV-based printing,” said Tony Tuka, president of The Essential Image. “We saw endless opportunities with inkjet and liked the idea of offering a large range of SKUs from one machine.”
The company has become a leading wide-format provider and counts a Jeti Tauro H3300 LED as the latest inkjet engine among its five Agfa printers. The business has grown exponentially by gaining cutting-edge technology that produces indoor and outdoor applications and short- and long-run print jobs.
The Jeti Tauro H3300 LED is a tremendously productive UV wide-format inkjet engine featuring award-winning print quality with extreme speeds, powerful automation, and low ink consumption. Built for multiple-shift operations and 24/7 printing, these heavy-duty hybrid printers offer additional print heads for faster production. Suited for a wide variety of rigid and flexible substrates, the Jeti Tauro H3300 LED prints up to 3.3 m wide with speeds up to 680 m2/h (7,319 ft2/h).
The throughput, efficiency, and increased quality of the Jeti Tauro LED offered the advantages that we wanted. That made an excellent business case to get into the Tauro line.
Efficiency and multifunction drive buying decision
Tuka and his team considered everything during the Tauro purchasing process.
“We looked at what we are trying to accomplish and how we could be more competitive in the market,” explained Tuka. “It came down to efficiency and running more continuous jobs compared to the Titan, which is a true flatbed. The Tauro H3300 LED allowed us to run continuous sheets and much higher throughput. Also, moving to LED vs. mercury cure positively impacted different kinds of plastics we produce.”
The Jeti Tauro LED lamps offer minimal heat output and a broader scope of print applications, especially heat- sensitive substrates like self-adhesives or stretched PVC materials. With less heat, media keeps flat under the shuttle. LED lamps can be switched on and off instantly, are highly durable, last 10,000 hours, and provide significant energy savings.
“There is less maintenance with LED as well,” adds Tuka. “The throughput, efficiency, and increased quality of the Jeti Tauro LED offered the advantages that we wanted. That made an excellent business case to get into the Tauro line. We are delighted with the uptime.”
Inks with color strength, long life, and excellent adhesion
Specially formulated to print on rigid or flexible media, Agfa’s GREENGUARD Gold-certified Anuvia UV LED inks broaden the application scope. Agfa’s inks deliver a wide color gamut and high color vibrancy. Combined with Asanti’s color management on the Jeti Tauro H3300 LED, the system allows for accurate mapping of spot colors and neutral gray printing. The printers’ robust build and precise media transport, specific jetting algorithms, and masking technology result in excellent solid color reproduction on various media. The 6-color models include light black (CMYKLcLk), guaranteeing a perfectly neutral gray balance.
“Agfa has developed such a good system of ink chemistry and machinery,” says Tuka. “These things don’t typically work together in UV inkjet printing, but with the Tauro, you get both ink performance and long head life. The inks are matched to the printer’s performance across print jobs offering the lowest ink consumption on the market per square meter. Agfa ink performs well on flexible substrates for outdoor applications such as polyethylene and polypropylene. We have good adhesion on rolls and sheets and use our Jeti Tauro LED from Agfa for vehicle wrap applications that demand great stretch. Other manufacturers’ inks require adhesion promoters to adhere to pliable media, affecting head life. We have a really long print head life.”
Operators can accomplish more
Essential Image configured the Jeti Tauro H3300 LED with the Master roll system designed for high-volume print runs of roll-to-roll or roll-to-sheet printing. It handles heavier rolls weighing up to 700 kg for longer runs. Changing from single to dual-roll printing on the Jeti Tauro LED is fast, as is undocking the RTR system to switch to board or sheet printing.
“Our operators can multitask when running the Tauro LED,” says Tuka. “It can easily run 4 or 5 hours unattended while the operator is free to do something else, like ripping over the next job, checking color, or laminating. The Master RTR adds more time for the operator and makes us more efficient.”
Having the capability of roll and rigid means Essential Image is the source for unique, creative solutions that bring their customers notoriety. Fortune 500 companies and large retail and food & beverage brands demand a wide range of print from a trusted source.
“We’ve printed on tempered glass for restaurant customers, and all the standard materials like Foamcore, coroplast, styrene, corrugate, synthetics like perforated window films, and vehicle bus wraps. We can produce an extensive range of applications and have even printed on marble rocks, tiles, and tent materials.”
Essential Image is setting its sights on meeting customer demand with a broader range of applications and significant efficiencies. Expanding its Jeti Tauro line has them poised for future success.
Versatility for what is on-trend
“The Jeti Tauro H3300 LED Master Roll to Roll system increases our width production from 8 to 10 feet. Whether we are doing a 10-foot sheet or master rolls, or running sheets on the Tauro H2500 and rolls on the H3300, we increased our production efficiency. We can move with the customer demand; if they are ordering more corrugate or adhesive, changing their product or their kits, it’s allowed us to move our production to what’s on-trend.”
Essential is known for its versatility providing a wide range of wide-format SKUs and kitting and fulfillment. It’s not unusual for the company to produce 2,000 kits and ship them across the U.S. Customers consider Essential Image a knowledgeable, trusted partner that can provide answers on a wide range of print subjects and deliver what they promise.
The cutting-edge technology on the Tauro H3300 LED is impressing customers and making Essential Image more prosperous, competitive, and inspiring greater creativity.
