By Melissa Donovan
Wide format printers are well equipped to handle graphics that ultimately become vehicle wraps or decals. More importantly, the newest models offer supreme levels of productivity—something no vehicle graphics shop can be without—thanks in part to efficient ink sets and fast drying techniques. In addition to the physical aspect of the printer, workflow solutions powering these devices are also helpful in reaching peak productivity.
Above: Mutoh centrally frames the vehicle graphics market when it comes to its eco-solvent line of printers. From features like piezoelectric printheads for consistent color from panel to panel, FeedMaster automatic alignments to ensure long panels are accurate to size, and multiple take-up unit options to collect the printed material.
Market Innovations
Print service providers (PSPs) look for wide format printers that increase efficiencies and provide high-quality output. This is achieved in a number of ways.
“Several key innovations drive digital printing for the vehicle graphics market, including increased print speeds, enhanced output quality with larger color gamut, and automation in both the printer and accompanying hardware. Together, these innovations drive a more effective printing process and increased productivity in print shops,” says David Lopez, product manager, professional imaging, Epson America, Inc.
Efficient Ink Sets
When it comes to improvements from their predecessors, the wide format printers used for vehicle graphics output today are more sophisticated. Mike Horsten, senior press and press release manager, Agfa, credits this to ink type.
“The production of vehicle graphics has changed in the last few years, it came from solvent and it has evolved to UV curing and resin-based printing. UV inks have a lot of benefits due to the longer lasting outdoor lifetime of the inks on the vinyls. This allows for long-lasting imaging on the wraps. This resistance to sunlight is maybe the main reason why UV inks are used in this market more,” notes Horsten.
Timothy Mitchell, senior manager, customer experience, Mimaki USA, Inc., argues that eco-solvent printers are still the dominant stable of workhorses—for full vehicle wraps especially. “In addition to ink formulations designed—and often guaranteed—for outdoor durability, eco-solvent inks offer the flexibility required to form vinyl around intricate surfaces. UV LED printers can also be used—some with outdoor durability guarantees as well, though mainly for decals or vehicle markings on less demanding surfaces.”
HP Inc.’s latest iteration of inks found in its latex—resin based—printers produce more vibrant and saturated colors than earlier ink sets, shares Joe Goicoechea, large format category manager, HP. “The latex inks are also cured within the printer delivering instant dry prints without degassing or waiting for lamination.”
Immediate workability is a challenge for print providers in the wrap business, admits Mitchell. “Waiting for a print to fully dry impacts total job time. This can be an issue with eco-solvent inks. Some printers include intelligent heating systems that heat the media to a proper temperature to achieve quick drying and accurate fixation, ensuring the print is ready for installation without long dry time. UV inks do not require dry time after printing.”
Newer ink sets do allow for immediate lamination. “This is vital because the most expensive aspect of a wrap is the installation. Delays caused by waiting for replacement panels to be laminated can lead to increased costs, reduced efficiency, and lower customer satisfaction. Immediate lamination capabilities help avoid these issues,” admits Patrick Donigain, senior manager, marketing, Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Donigain has seen installers use thicker calendered vinyl in combination with more durable inks, which allows them to skip the lamination step. “This approach enables the printing of spot gloss or textured effects directly onto the vinyl, setting their offerings apart from the competition and significantly enhancing the visual impact of their customers’ graphics.”
A printer should yield durable output. “Unique to vehicle and outdoor graphics, output must be weather and scratch resistant as the final output is vulnerable to extreme conditions, as well as general wear and tear of parking lots and highway debris,” shares Lopez.
High-Quality Color Gamut
Another feature to consider is the printer’s capability to color match. “Color consistency is crucial, particularly for fleet graphics. Maintaining uniform corporate colors from panel to panel, or across an entire fleet, has historically been a challenge. Modern technologies now feature advanced inks that reduce color variation due to dot gain or ink coalescence. Additionally, durable printheads that resist nozzle fatigue ensure consistent color across all vehicles in a fleet,” explains Donigain.
“Some of the challenges when printing vehicle graphics is making sure the colors are consistent across the fleet of vehicles and tiles that you need to print. You don’t want mismatched colors on a project. CalderaRIP’s color management engine makes sure the colors match across all the prints so the full project looks great,” says Sebastien Hanssens, VP marketing, Caldera.
Lopez says color accuracy is expected no matter if the wrap is for advertising or creative purposes. “The final output must accurately represent the brand, product, or artist’s vision. Printers must be capable of delivering exact colors, regardless of the gamut, to ensure both brand integrity and customer satisfaction,” explains Lopez.
“Productivity matters, but quality will always come first. An extended color gamut using red and orange ink sets and a photographic gray balance using light black offers a huge advantage in this business. Add proven outdoor durability to an extended color gamut paired with a variable drop printhead and you have the perfect recipe for success,” agrees Mitchell.
Inherent Automation
There is inherent automation built in to today’s printers, the physical printer itself as well as the RIP software that runs the printer offers efficiencies for vehicle graphics/print shops and addresses bottlenecks in production.
“Automation enables the production staff to focus on tasks that require human interaction while assuring the digital components are productive,” explains Mitchell.
Design and Prep
Horsten believes the biggest bottleneck is the design phase of the graphics for the vehicle. “Every car, truck, boat, or airplane is different and has different application problems. PSPs need to juggle application approvals and certifications to be able to comply with regulations and laws. This can be a nightmare. If you want to wrap an airplane there are many more rules and guidelines to follow than wrapping a car. Wrapping a boat needs attention as it’s in contact with fast moving water all the time, this means learning a different way of how to apply the media on the boat. Remember the last thing you want is the wrap to blow off,” continues Horsten.
It is a challenge to manage all of the design files. Caldera designed PrimeCenter to simplify the preparation of print-and-cut files. “Nowhere is that more pertinent than when it comes to preparing multi-piece graphics for motorcycles, ATVs, and quad bikes. Located upstream of your RIP, PrimeCenter checks, corrects, sorts, groups, and prepares files for production in a fraction of the usual time, saving operator time, reducing media wastage, and banishing human error through automation,” attests Hanssens.
Another consideration, job preparation. Hanssens says efficient job preparation is constantly requested by customers. “Typically, these types of projects are laid out as a single artboard with lots of different pieces, such as logos and wording. Many of the designs have more than ten elements and some can have up to 30 or 40, and when I see them as artwork layouts, they’re not nested very well at all. So, at the prepress stage, the challenge is to make sure that all the elements are nested as efficiently as possible to reduce media waste.”
In addition to nesting, RIP software is helpful for creating cut lines around the graphics, to create more efficient finishing at the end of the process. “Creating vehicle graphics requires cutting prints into non-standard sizes to fit car doors, windows, hoods, and other parts. Since every vehicle wrap must be customized based on the car’s make, model, and year, this process can be time consuming for print shops. Fortunately, modern RIP software includes tools for creating cut lines compatible with cutters to streamline the process, saving valuable time and effort,” suggests Lopez.
“The ideal vehicle wrap workflow would apply all of the necessary cut lines and marks automatically and send finished files over to the RIP,” agrees Mitchell.
Having the infrastructure in place to print files successfully overnight is important in a print shop. “There is the need to stack multiple jobs to print consecutively, and in most cases print overnight to save time. Mutoh introduced a feature in VerteLith called MPS or Mutoh Print Server, which allows for the processing of large print files for seamless roll-to-roll printing,” shares Tony Simmering, product manager, Mutoh America, Inc.
Also surprisingly, something that harkens back to the RIP software, is remedying the problem of drying graphics so they are ready for immediate lamination. “One of the well-known drawbacks to eco-solvent printing is the need to outgas the vinyl material before lamination to ensure there is no silvering or delamination. We can combat this in the RIP by creating ultra-efficient ICC profiles through VerteLith that further reduce outgas time by laying down just the right amount of density to achieve the desired colors,” explains Simmering.
Hardware
When it comes to the physical printer, automated tools that offer efficient media handling as well as printer maintenance are helpful.
PSPs look for fewer touch points in their production process. “The ability to fill a job queue, load a full roll of vinyl, hit ‘go’, and walk away absolutely helps a PSP achieve efficiency and cost savings. They can only do this, however, through thoughtful printer design and innovation,” admits Mitchell.
HP’s newest latex printers, “offer instant reprint capabilities directly from the front panel of the printer. This streamlines and simplifies workflow in cases where a panel needs to be quickly reprinted, laminated, and installed in a matter of minutes, as opposed to hours or even days with some competitive technologies,” says Goicoechea.
Monitoring ink before it needs to be replaced is another option. “If a printer is using only smaller ink cartridges, one or more will likely run dry before that roll of vinyl is finished. Bulk ink systems with two-liter bottles or packs are available, and uninterrupted ink supply systems offer built-in redundancy that automatically switches from an emptied ink container to the next full container. These systems reduce the instances the operator needs to check on the print process, freeing them to be productive elsewhere,” explains Mitchell.
Scheduled maintenance is helpful. “Automatic printer maintenance is essential in today’s fast-paced atmosphere. Print shop managers need printers that handle maintenance tasks automatically—at a scheduled time. This approach ensures maintenance occurs on a routine basis and at optimal times, preventing disruptions during active print runs and aiding in maintaining the consistent, high-quality output that customers expect,” shares Lopez.
“The most common request is for automated quality control, enabling lights-out operations. For fleet graphics, where print runs can be extensive, paying an operator to monitor the printer or reprint costly cast vinyl can be the difference between profitability and loss. Automation in quality control helps maintain efficiency and cost effectiveness,” expresses Donigain.
Speed and Precision
Today’s wide format printers feature a host of functions that cater to vehicle graphics production. Visit digitaloutput.net/webinars to view a recent webinar on this same topic.
Nov2024, Digital Output
