By Melissa Donovan
Roll-to-roll (R2R) printers are integral to printing one of the most popular, versatile applications in the graphic arts—wallcoverings. Print service providers (PSPs) play a role in the creation of digitally printed wallcoverings used as décor or marketing. In either scenario, using digital R2R printers capitalizes on the latest consumer trends of customization and personalization, in addition to the benefit of reduced back stock and decreased inventory.
Many R2R devices offer features attuned to the needs of printed wallcoverings. This includes physical capabilities like handling larger rolls of media and aligning media while printing to ensure panels lineup properly during install; considerations related to print quality such as using colors beyond CMYK and taking advantage of inline spot varnish and layering techniques to give the appearance of texture; and software, particularly the RIP, which plays a large role in automating tiling, nesting, and scaling.
The ink sets found on wide format roll printers are also notable in regards to wallcoverings. Water-based pigment, resin or latex, eco-solvent, and even UV are all considered when printing this application.
Above: Found on the Canon Colorado, FLXfinish+ provides users with the ability to produce high-end, eye-catching effects at the same operating cost as printing CMYK.
Trends and Popularity
To fully understand R2R printers’ position in relation to wallcoverings, first you need to identify the drivers of digitally printed wallcoverings’ popularity—customization and affordability.
“Digitally printed wallcoverings are popular due to the increased demand for one-off personalized products and the ever-reducing price point to create them. The technology is getting more affordable and there is more competition in the market. The natural progression from customized items like phone cases, apparel, and housewares is to start increasing to scale via things such as vehicle wraps and wall/floor graphics,” shares Tony Simmering, product manager, Mutoh America, Inc.
According to Erik Norman, president, swissQprint America, “digital print enables designers to bring their inspirations to life in a low-cost manner, and it enables end users an opportunity to apply unique designs into their commercial or residential spaces at very affordable prices.”
In the age of customization, consumers drive demand. “With digital printing, consumers can order wallpaper with a custom design that fits their home’s style, without accommodating an order minimum quantity. This is possible due to print providers operating a print on demand strategy. Many manufacturers no longer keep a large back stock of orders. This allows manufacturers the opportunity to keep up with ever-changing customer trends,” explains David Lopez, product manager, Epson America, Inc.
In fact, Becky McConnell, marketing manager, Durst US and Vanguard Digital Printing Systems, believes the average consumer doesn’t even realize that it is digital capabilities that drive custom wallcoverings. “The fact that a restaurant can produce wallpaper that includes their logo or branding or a salon being able to install floral wallpaper that falls within its ‘look’ helps consumers connect with a space they’re occupying, no matter how brief the occupation.”
While digitally printed wallcoverings have had great success in retail, hospitality, medical, and commercial spaces, Bill Brouhle, digital print solutions architect, Agfa, sees the residential sector as a big growth area as home renovations are on the rise.
“Lots of home improvement companies such as Home Depot and online retailers now sell peel-and-stick printed products that cleanly apply to any surface without the need for paste, truly opening the imagination of people who want to decorate and be creative at home. The world of home decoration is an emotional purchase and therefore pricing can open up some new vertical markets for a traditional digital printer instead of fighting within a commoditized traditional digital print arena,” admits Shaun Holdom, marketing manager, Ultra products, Fujifilm Wide Format Inkjet.
According to Blake Moore, senior marketing specialist, Canon Solutions America, Canon customers printing wallcoverings have seen their volumes increase significantly, doubling or even quadrupling over a year’s time. “Essentially, mass customization and short-run printing has led to a sharp increase in wallcovering production.”
Specific Print Features
PSPs look for certain features when considering today’s newest R2R printers in relation to printing wallcoverings. These include appearance—color quality and resolution; durability—handling large rolls of media with proper loading and unloading; precision—maintaining proper media alignment; and productivity—reaching effective speeds while maintaining the desired quality.
Color quality is a key concern. “It’s critical that the printer can produce consistent, repeatable color. Wallcoverings involve multiple, repeated panels. If the color vibrancy, consistency, or tone is off between print panels, it’s obvious in the final product,” notes Lopez.
Epson’s SureColor R-Series R2R resin printers offer a 2.6-inch PrecisionCore MicroTFP printhead, and when coupled with Epson’s resin ink technology, it ensures projects with multiple panels have consistent color. In addition, the new printers operate a Quality Print Mode that separates the delivery of optimizer and color ink to create a stable base layer for high-quality output.
“From an operational standpoint, the ability to produce very high resolutions and to print large solid areas without banding play an important role in producing high-quality wallcoverings,” shares Norman.
Moving past CMYK is a consideration. “Key is the use of specialty colors that expand color gamut beyond CMYK. This allows customers to achieve more colors that meet their branding needs such as logos for corporate lobbies and entryways. Another example includes the use of wallcoverings for hospitals, specifically children’s wings. These color capabilities allow the creation of vivid sceneries and imagery for those distinct areas,” shares Mark Manning, solutions development manager, Ricoh USA, Inc.
Another way to differentiate a print is to employ inline capabilities of raised spot varnish and layered printing to provide a textured effect. swissQprint’s Karibu 2 can run with effect varnish, applied partially or across the whole substrate to produce visual and tactile experiences.
The latest technology feature found on the Canon Colorado series of roll printers is FLXfinish+. “The Colorado series was already able to produce matte or gloss finishes and now with FLXfinish+ you can produce both at the same time. Embellishments allow wallpaper manufacturers to differentiate themselves from the competition and capture premium prices and increased profits,” explains Moore.
A printer should be robust, asserts McConnell. This is because it needs to hold large, heavy rolls of media. For example, the VKR3200-HS from Vanguard Digital is capable of supporting substrate rolls of up to 15.75 inches in diameter and 440 lbs and the Durst Rho 312R is available with the option to increase the maximum roll diameter for that series to 21.2 inches.
Single-operator loading is an important feature, again because of how large and heavy rolls of wallpaper media tend to be. “Some of the unique and textured substrates available out there can be heavy and cumbersome. Like on the Agfa Oberon RTR3300 having the ability for a single person to load the press and in a timely manner are important factors to consider when purchasing a press,” shares Brouhle.
“Proper loading, tension, and tracking from beginning to end will help ensure that the prints are consistent,” assures Lily Hunter, senior product manager, Roland DGA Corporation.
Keeping media aligned during the print process is imperative, especially for wallcoverings, because the panels will align perfectly when applied to the wall, adds Norman.
Depending on the user, someone operating solely in the wallpaper design and manufacturing space may look for high-production speeds. The Durst Alpha Wallpaper Edition offers a production capacity of over 1,500 rolls a day or up to 1.2 million linear meters per year.
Productivity is also achieved in other ways. For example, Agfa’s printers “have the ability to skip white space within a job quickly by advancing the substrate through the press at a high rate of speed when in an area of a job that is a ‘no ink zone’ to help achieve the highest productivity,” explains Brouhle.
Automation software, primarily the RIP, drives productivity. “I see improvement in the RIP software that drives the printers. The features of tiling, scaling, and nesting make it easy to plan a very large surface area for wallpaper coverage,” shares Simmering.
Mutoh employs its own RIP software, VerteLith, on select printers. In addition to auto-generation of Pantone coated/uncoated spot colors, VerteLith includes tools and functions to create textured prints without complicated steps.
“Having powerful, feature-filled RIP software, like Roland’s VersaWorks, contributes greatly to the consistent production of high-quality prints,” agrees Hunter.
Roland VersaWorks 6 boasts a Harlequin RIP dual core engine and native 64-bit processing, a new icon-based interface with drag-and-drop functionality, and a host of features that optimize efficiency, productivity, and ease of use, according to the company.
Ink It
R2R printers are capable of running with any ink set. There are a number of options to choose from if you plan to print wallcoverings including water-based, UV, and eco-solvent inks. What is of utmost concern, however, is whether the ink addresses health concerns by generating low or no odors/potentially volatile emissions.
“Many installations for wallcoverings are in corporate, healthcare, and hospitality environments, so using non-hazardous technologies or Greenguard Gold certified inks are preferable and often required,” notes Manning.
Durst’s water-based pigment ink on its Alpha Wallpaper Edition is environmentally friendly, in addition to offering lightfastness and an overall natural appearance, according to McConnell. Overall, she feels that a PSP should choose an ink for wallcoverings that “bares certification enabling it to be immediately installed after printing with no health concerns because of volatile organic compound (VOC) emission. Not only does this expand the potential wallcovering client base for a PSP, but also ensures the safety of the employees of the print producer.”
“When I think about the wallcovering marketplace and inks, the most important factor is the ability to print in the widest range of applications without causing respiratory harm to the people in those areas, especially sensitive areas like hospitals and schools,” concurs Brouhle. The latest generation of Agfa’s UV ink is UL Greenguard Gold certified.
“UV inks provide the right combination of flexibility, lightfastness, and durability,” asserts Norman. swissQprint’s UV inks, Greenguard Gold certified, are low odor and contain no N-vinyl caprolactam or NVC.
Canon UVgel ink is Greenguard Gold certified. This means that unlaminated Colorado graphics can be installed in places like hospitals, daycares, and homes.
Roland’s TR2 eco-solvent inks are Greenguard Gold certified. “Greenguard Gold certification provides assurance that they meet the most rigorous standards for low VOC emissions into indoor air. The inks also image beautifully, offering expanded color gamut, increasing the creative opportunities for users, and making accurate matching of brand and logo colors easier than ever,” says Hunter.
Besides the ink not emitting harmful VOCs into the air after the wallcovering is installed, it is also helpful—depending on the PSP—if the ink is compatible with multiple substrates and dries fairly quickly. For example, Epson’s resin ink technology allows for printing to a variety of media, whether coated or not, and delivers instant dry, scratch-resistant output.
Similarly, the Fujifilm Acuity Ultra R2 using LED UV ink technology offers the ability to print on a variety of substrates. Plus, there is the added benefit of offering instant dry and low-odor prints. “It’s important the print image has no odor from the ink and that the odor is not harmful. The inks used should comply with Greenguard/AgBB/ISO9001/ISO14001 and any solvents used must be completely evaporated and dried before installation,” notes Holdom.
While the majority of the technologies involve printing directly to wallcovering media, Simmering notices an increased use of dye-sublimation to transfer onto polyester fabric-based wallcoverings. “The advantage gained here is similar to silicone edge graphics signage—it looks good from every angle in many lighting conditions and is very easy to clean in comparison,” he adds.
Next-Level Production
R2R printers are ideal for many an application. With wallcoverings increasingly popular, it makes sense to understand the features on a R2R device that can take a PSP’s wallcovering production to the next level.
Published in January 2023, Polaris Market Research’s Digitally Printed Wallpaper Market Share, Size, Trends, Industry Analysis Report, By Substrate (Nonwoven, Vinyl, Paper, and Others); By Printing Technology; By End-Use Sector; By Region; Segment Forecast, 2023 – 2032, states that the global digitally printed wallpaper market was valued at USD 3.63 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 19.4 percent during the forecast period.
If this prediction holds as expected, plan to see more digitally printed wallcoverings in the future, whether commercial or residential. To register and watch our recent webinar on the topic visit digitaloutput.net/webinars.
Mar2023, Digital Output
