UV inks
The Eagle is marketed exclusively by Sericol Imaging on
a global basis. Sericol Imaging is the digital arm of Sericol, the world's
largest manufacturer of screen inks. The Eagle was developed to use UV-curable
inks from its very inception. The most obvious benefit of UV inks is the
fact that they cure instantly and won't fade outdoors. This shortens production
time and makes them the right choice for outdoor P.O.P. Sericol Imaging
formulates the UV inks for the Eagle. "Without a doubt, our more
than twenty-five years of UV curable formulation experience has been crucial
in successfully developing the Uvijet inks for the Eagle," said Terry
Amerine, Business Manager for the Americas for Sericol Imaging.
Sericol's expertise starts with ink formulation. But it doesn't stop when
the ink is delivered. Extensive technical support, business building programs,
and extensive work in color calibration and profiling are critical in
enabling the Eagle to accurately hit a large percentage of PMS "spot"
colors. According to Cable, "We're hitting most PMS colors pretty
exact which was critical to our success in securing this major order."
What's
more, because the Eagle's UV inks were made exclusively for the press,
many of the issues experienced with other inks in digital presses are
not a problem. Case in point: you don't have to worry about ink drying
in the print heads and the resulting loss in production time and ink.
You can change ink on the fly simply by replacing the gallon jug.
"With other digital printers, when a cartridge runs out, you have
issues with recalibration, downtime and loss of graphics," said Cable.
"If you're in the middle of a project, you can mess a job up. This
is not a problem for us with the Eagle."
UV inks plus patented custom chemistry equals expensive, right? Not so
with the Sericol inks used in the Eagle. Whereas many inks in digital
presses are in the 50 cents a square foot range, Cable Imaging audited
its ink usage and discovered the ink cost was 14 to 16 cents a square
foot.
Dollars and sense
The Eagle is building Cable Imaging's business.
"We expect to do about three million dollars in incremental sales
on the press the first year," said Cable.
The Eagle has also given Cable Imaging a strong competitive position.
According to Cable, the cost to print is about half the price if the job
had been quoted photographically, making them more competitive on jobs
for all major retailers.
According to Amerine, "The Eagle enables all conventional printers
and photo labs to produce commercial-quality graphics in an entirely new
way and at speeds and costs never before seen in the digital segment."
