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Editor’s Note: This is Part 2 of a series focused on purchasing digital presses. Part 1 appeared in last month’s issue.
The process of purchasing a digital press is simplified by determining beforehand exactly how it will be used.
The Digital Press Workflow
It’s important to consider how a new digital press will tie into your existing production workflow. Will it run in isolation from other press workflows? Will multiple presses work together? For example, if you set up a web-to-print solution, you may output to offset and digital presses. If you purchase the press to unburden offset equipment, and therefore operate the press in a production environment where the workload is shuffled around, the digital front end (DFE) will play an important role.
Moving into a larger automated workflow like web-to-print might mean purchasing a JDF-enabled press, even if you don’t plan to use JDF right away. What level of software sophistication do you need to support these applications?
Finishing Concerns
Finishing is a major consideration when choosing a digital press. For most workflows, manufacturers and distributors will want offline or nearline options, since this allows for the greatest production flexibility. However, if you produce a lot of work for a single customer with specialized needs, an inline solution may be the most profitable solution. One manufacturer, for example, considered purchasing a press with inline finishing to serve a key customer, but the volumes the customer anticipated were less than $60,000 per year, so the idea was scrapped.
When looking at a captive customer solution, work backwards. Not every manufacturer offers the same inline solutions, so the choice of press will be determined by your finishing needs. Xerox is widely considered the industry leader in inline finishing, but for specific applications, don’t overlook other vendors. For example, HP resells a Dorn UV coater optimized for customers ordering photo applications or postcards. In the label space, its dedicated finishing solutions allow customers to emboss, engrave and add metallic inks on the back of its label press.
One manufacturer confirms just how important the “working backwards” concept can be. It purchased a digital press to create a specific client application and based on the color needs of its clients. The company decided on a press that it felt would have the best photo replication capabilities. What it didn’t check, however, was whether the output of this press could be re-run through another laser printer for subsequent variable imaging. It couldn’t, so it had to find other applications to pay for the substantial investment.
Even if you print a variety of work for different clients, many presses, especially monochrome presses, have simple and useful inline finishing capabilities, such as stapling, collating, and booklet-making. There are also time-saving features, such as feeds and inputs that allow you to insert pre-printed pieces, such as color pages or different stocks, into the piece on the fly. For manufacturers planning to run certain types of applications (such as high volumes of books), such time-saving features could be a significant differentiator between one press and another.
Other inline/finishing features that can have an impact on productivity include inline aqueous or UV coating available on presses such as the Kodak NexPress and Xerox iGen3.
Runnable Stocks
Every press has a list of stocks that will run successfully through the press. Some presses run paper-based substrates only. Others run paper and paper-substitutes, such as plastic papers. Others run films and foils. The range of substrates required goes back to the issue of your intended applications.
If you run direct mail, for example, you want a press that can handle heavier substrates for postcards. If you run books or financial applications, you may want a press that handles lightweight stocks for high-volume page needs. Don’t overlook the small-footprint printer/copiers. There are a number of shops that have chosen small-footprint copier/printers from manufacturers like Sharp and KonicaMinolta that, they felt, could handle broader ranges of substrates than the traditional digital presses.
This issue exists with monochrome as well as color presses. For example, the Nipson Varypress line uses flash fusing so that these devices can image a wide variety of stocks and substrates, including attached cards/laminates.
Remember to look at the weights, as well as the types, of stocks. Make sure you understand the minimums and maximums you can run, because this will have a major impact on the applications you can produce. Perform due diligence. Test the stocks you plan to run on the actual equipment. One manufacturer found out quickly that some of the heavier stocks it planned to run would not work well on the presses of several vendors it was considering.
On the monochrome side, stocks can play a particularly important role, especially if you are running a lot of halftones. The ability to run coated and chrome-coated stocks can really punch up a monochrome application.
Your customers will also determine what stocks you can offer. If you work with agencies, for example, they may want to run linens or textured stocks, such as vellum.
Price Tag
In any discussion about the purchase of digital presses, the price tag looms large. If you haven’t established the market’s needs, many productivity-enhancing features could push you into cost brackets that aren’t feasible. It’s important to evaluate the amount of existing work that can be done on the press to justify the purchase. Other factors include whether to lease or purchase, incentives, financing and other options that can increase or decrease the amount you’ll spend.
Also consider the possibility of purchasing a used press. For many short-run applications, older presses work fine, especially before volumes really hit their peak. But for those launching into VDP, newer models compatible with the latest software, PDLs, and standards may be required.
Running Costs
The cost of the press is more than the initial price tag. Running costs, including click charges, consumables, maintenance and other fees impact the overall cost of the press. Format size also is an issue. If you run high volumes of a certain application, and a larger press size allows you to print more on a sheet, your running cost will drop. Format size can save you run time and even the cost of an additional press once your volumes reach a certain level.
Vendor Support
If the speeds and feeds of presses determine productivity, you could stack up all the numbers and compare them side by side. But many of the purchase criteria related to digital presses (such as workflow) don’t work that way. While every press vendor offers some sort of workflow, every manufacturer’s or distributor’s shop can have different nuances and needs. As a result, the skill of the vendor to understand the workflow and applications is a critical selling point. This is doubly true when it comes to VDP. Digital front ends, larger workflows, Page Description Languages (PDL), RIPs and how all of these work together to handle the complexity of graphics, images and other data-driven elements on the fly can vary substantially from vendor to vendor. Some handle these better than others.
This is a particularly relevant issue for shops considering solutions from press vendors from outside the traditional graphic arts industry. It’s important to evaluate whether the DFEs, workflow, and applications development support will meet your needs for the kinds of products you develop.
Technical Support
You also need to consider technical support. How many technicians does the vendor have? How quickly will those technicians reach you if you need them? This is a critical issue for manufacturers and distributors in more remote locations.
This also is a major issue for shops looking into transactional applications. Turnarounds on these jobs tend to be extremely tight, and clients have zero tolerance for missed deadlines. It’s not unusual for contracts to require turnarounds of 24 to 36 hours. One manufacturer that invested heavily in transactional applications had a simple criteria for its vendor. Its technicians had to be available all three shifts, seven days a week and offer a one-hour telephone and two-hour “on the floor” response time on any of those shifts.
Put It Together
Evaluating the proper digital press for your customer base and applications requires a backwards approach. Before evaluating press specifications such as formats, speeds, colors, and features, you must first define the following:
• Your potential markets
• Your potential customers’ needs
• Intended applications
• Finishing requirements
Once these factors are fully understood, the press specs can be evaluated, but they must be evaluated in context. This starts with the larger workflow, including the impact of considerations such as PDLs and digital front ends. In other words, if you are saddling your production manager with the decision about what press to purchase, you are taking the wrong approach. It should be a team effort, with representatives from marketing, business development, production, prepress and IT.
Once you’ve narrowed the search to several models, it’s time to test. One manufacturer succinctly concludes the discussion as follows: “If you start in digital printing, take a hard look at the equipment, then do heavy testing. It’s great to look at the sell sheets and sample sheets, but until you test the press with your files, you can’t really understand how it will work.”
This article is reprinted from the January 2007 issue of PERF Report, a newsletter focused on industry-specific research. Visit www.theperf.org.