By Ed Avis

The ISA International Sign Expo is currently underway in Las Vegas, and many new products are launching. One that is especially impactful, according to the folks at National/AZON, is the Canon Colorado M Series UVgel printer. In this interview, AZON Senior Vice President Rich Gigl and Vice President of IT Andrew Brockhaus explain the benefits of the new machine.

Avis: What makes this new printer special?

Gigl: The biggest new feature is that they’ve added the availability of white ink, which is huge. White ink is used for quite a wide number of applications, including wallpaper applications and a tremendous amount of point-of-sale applications.

Brockhaus: And because this printer is using gel instead of aqueous inks or eco solvents, you don’t have to worry about shaking or stirring the white ink, like you do with other printers. We’re already suspending our pigment in a gel, so you don’t have to worry about any of that. We call it “worry-free white.” If you don’t print white for three weeks, no problem on this machine. On other machines, that can cost you a printhead.

Avis: Why is adding white ink such a big deal?

Brockhaus: When white is printed over the top of other opaque colors it creates an oustanding image quality; it’s something the customer base has been asking for. Another reason is that adding white expands the different types of media we can use, such as metallic media, textured media, clear films. And you can print double-sided on these things.

Gigl: And when you purchase the white option, you get a new piece of software called Prisma Guide XL, which allows users to easily create “recipes” so that you can do multi-layered white printing very easily. For example, if you have an image for a retail shop and the inside window shows one portion of an image and the outside window shows a different portion of the image, you’ve got to print a black layer in there, multi-layered white, and then multi-layer color. Putting those together front-to-back is not easy. The Canon Prisma Guide XL makes it much easier and allows users internally to create recipes and save them.

Avis: What else is special about this printer?

Brockhaus: Another thing is an improvement in reliability. We’re using the second generation of Canon heads, so instead of using eight printheads, we’re using four printheads that can jet faster and produce the same high speed printing.

Gigl: They’ve doubled the number of nozzles in each of the printheads, and they’ve recessed the nozzles so reliability is greatly improved.

Avis: Why does that improve reliability?

Brockhaus: Less crashes. They’ve also added automated maintenance on the printhead. One of the hallmarks of the Colorado machine is the automation, the lack of user intervention, you just don’t have to mess with it. They’ve changed the way the machine maintains itself and added its own manual wiping system. So printheads are lasting longer, user intervention is lower.

Gigl: Another advantage of this machine is its modularity – it is field upgradable. You can add the white capability at a later date, or add a second roll or double-sided printing for increased speed. All those things can be added to the base unit after purchase.

Brockhaus: Another thing we haven’t touched on, but is super important, is the operational cost advantage of this machine. We’re talking about 40% savings on ink costs compared to a latex machine. On a latex machine they use disposable printheads; we don’t. So if you’re printing 10,000 square feet a month, you go through something like 28 printheads a year. At $150 a piece, that’s substantial.

Gigl: UV gel uses no water, so you’re using 100% of your ink, which is part of the reason there is such incredible savings to it.

Avis: How much does this machine cost?

Gigl: That depends on the feature set. The entry level is $55k, fully dressed out is $75k. And Canon is constantly running specials on those and special trade-in values for current field latex machines, for instance.

Brockhaus: This is not an entry-level machine. But if you’re doing volume and want to make money by producing more, this produces more without having to add people. If you’re doing more than six to nine rolls a month, with the cost savings of the ink and the speed it pays for itself.

Avis: Are maintenance contracts required?

Brockhaus: It’s not required, but we definitely see it with our higher volume users. They love the worry-free capabilities of a service contract. But it is not a requirement for this piece of equipment.

Gigl: The Colorado has become a very reliable piece of equipment; it’s gained a great reputation in the field. So a maintenance contract is fully a customer choice. It does come with a one-year warranty, on-site.

Avis: Is the new machine available now?

Gigl: It will start shipping after the ISA show. Demo units are going to be hard to come by at first, because they’re prioritizing getting machines to the field for sales. There’s been a tremendous groundswell of enthusiasm for it.