Rotoprint chooses Epson SurePress L-4033A to expand offering

January 2015

SYDNEY, 17 December 2014 – With over twelve years experience in the printing industry, Queensland-based Rotoprint, a specialist in the design and manufacture of self-adhesive labels, has long relied on its existing flexographic printing equipment to provide full colour printing, laminating, varnishing and custom die-cut labels to customers in the beverage, food and health supplements industries.

However, as its customer base broadened, Rotoprint found that a number of its customers were looking for short production runs at cost effective prices particularly when launching new products at low volumes. "Our current flexographic process is most economical for longer runs, and so we were looking for a digital solution that could save our customers on set-up costs," explains Rotoprint managing director Danny Bogatie. "We looked at a number of digital machines and the Epson SurePress L-4033A was a clear cut winner from the start," he says. "Buying the machine was going to be a major investment on our part and we did a lot of research to ensure we were getting the best machine to meet our needs."

According to Bogatie, the Epson’s stand out features are its colour accuracy, its ability to do short runs economically with no 'click' rate restrictions, and its colour and data manipulation features.

"First and foremost, the print quality and clarity of colour provided by the Epson SurePress L-4033A is unmatched by any other digital equipment. And because Epson colour proofing is run as the norm internationally, it gives our customers a lot of confidence when they hear their job is being done on an Epson."

Bogatie lists Epson’s renowned MicroPiezo™ print heads and its newly developed SurePress AQ ink as the key factors ensuring the SurePress produces the best digital labels possible.

SurePress AQ Ink consists of high quality pigment colour particles coated with a high-density resin that promotes quick drying and strong bonding to uncoated and coated paper and film substrates. AQ Ink was developed specifically to improve image quality over analogue printed labels, maintain water fastness and rub resistance, and is engineered to dry quickly to increase productivity. The six colour aqueous pigment ink set - cyan, magenta, yellow, green, orange, black (and matte black) - provides an extremely wide colour gamut capable of reproducing specific corporate and natural colours.

The SurePress L-4033A has 15 six-colour high performance and highly accurate print heads that produce thousands of labels per hour while creating smooth tonal gradations, remarkable colour quality, and sharp detail for easy bar code readability, plus crisp small type and line work. Each print head uses Epson’s patented Variable-sized Droplet Technology (VSDT) to both ensure smooth tonal gradations and accurate colours for optimum image quality, and to help improve print speed over large single colour areas.

An added bonus is the fact that the SurePress L-4033A doesn’t require a full-time operator. "We set the printer to the specifications required and go off to do other work. The job is done to perfection when we return," says Bogatie.

The main motivation in acquiring the Epson SurePress L-4033A, however, was so that Rotoprint could provide new and existing customers with the ability to print small volumes which are both high quality and cost effective.

"The Epson SurePress L-4033A has opened up a whole new business opportunity for us. We weren’t able to offer this service to our customers before, particularly new customers, who often want to start off with a smaller volume. Now we use the SurePress L-4033A for this short-run work and turn it around for them incredibly fast at a great price and the quality is exceptional. Over and above that, we can now offer our customers the option within a short production run to have a number of variations on their label, such as different flavours, without them incurring the setup costs of multiple production runs. The SurePress has the ability to personalise individual labels with variable data and it is helping us build great relationships with new customers who then go on to use us for their longer production runs as well," says Bogatie.

Another unexpected advantage is the synergy between the short-run capability of the SurePress with Rotoprint’s long-run flexographic machinery. "Typically, there would be a big variance in label appearance when switching from a digital machine to a flexographic process but with the colour coding features of the SurePress L-4033A, differences are minimal. In addition, our existing paper stock can be used on the SurePress without needing to be coated as is usually the case with other digital machines," added Bogatie.

Bogatie is also enthusiastic about the service Rotoprint received from the Epson sales team and the company’s future with their Epson SurePress L-4033A. "I could not be happier with the way they treated us. Technicians were flown in from Japan to get the machine set up, train our staff and iron out any glitches. And any time we have a query, they do whatever they can to help us sort out the issue. Rotoprint’s business model was always good and we kept our customers happy. Now with the Epson SurePress L-4033A, we’re able to offer even better results for those short-run jobs and there’s no other company in Australia that can offer customers the Epson high quality label solution and the ability to customise their label within a single run as we are now able to do with this technology."

For more information on Rotoprint go to: www.rotoprint.com.au

Picture credit:
Rotoprint managing director Danny Bogatie with the company’s new Epson SurePress L-4033A printer.

About Epson and Epson Australia
Epson’s global product line up ranges from inkjet printers and printing systems, 3LCD projectors and industrial robots to sensors and other micro devices. Led by the Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, the Epson Group comprises more than 68,000 employees in 96 companies around the world.

Epson Australia offers an extensive array of award-winning image capture and image output products for the commercial, industrial, consumer, business, photography and graphic arts markets, and is also a leading supplier of value-added point-of-sale (POS) solutions for the retail market. Epson is the market leader in Australia and worldwide in sales of projectors for the home, office and education. Established in 1983 Epson Australia is headquartered in North Ryde NSW and is a subsidiary of the Epson Group headquartered in Japan.

www.epson.com.au

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