Digital Printing on Magnetic Receptive Media
Posted by Marty Kauls on Tue, Sep 15, 2009 @ 10:56 AM
Advances in large-format commercial imaging technology must address a range of factors – from image quality to the user interface, from media handling to print speed – to satisfy an increasingly sophisticated customer and an increasingly demanding market. With the right printer, a commercial imager can take on the most challenging and creative new applications.
For example, when national U.S. retailer Wilsons Leather needed dramatic wall-sized in-store images that could be changed quickly and easily to reflect seasonal changes in its product line, Graphic Systems of Minneapolis matched an innovative new magnetic-receptive media with its Durst Rho 351R UV inkjet grand-format printer to deliver a highly effective solution.
The process began last fall at the SGIA trade show. Representatives from Graphic Systems saw a new magnetic-based substrate developed by Xcel Products. Soon after, the print buyer from Wilsons Leather toured Graphic Systems and described its plans for new Wilsons concept stores, to be decorated with several 8x10-foot murals. The buyer said the murals, in addition to being visually striking, needed to be easy to change out on a quarterly basis.
Marty Kauls, Graphic Systems’ Vice President of Marketing, says a quantity of magnetic backing and magnetic-receptive media were ordered from Xcel, and a fashion image was received from Wilsons Leather. Tests were run in January. The performance of the Rho 351R’s precision media handling system and Quadro™ Array print head technology resulted in an image that fully met Wilsons Leather’s needs. In less than an hour, a Graphic Systems team mounted the magnetic backing to a wall and the image to the backing. That success led to an “official” test at Wilsons Leather headquarters (also in Minneapolis), and later to implementation in several stores.
“The magnetic media system from Xcel is an excellent product,” Kauls says. “Just as important to the success of this project, however, was our Rho 351R, which accurately fed the media through and printed on it flawlessly. It isn’t an automatic thing to be able to print effectively on magnetic sheets. But we’ve done work for Wilsons Leather before – and they know they can expect creative solutions, professional execution and quality printing from our team and from our equipment.”
Media handling was a critical aspect of printing the Wilsons Leather images. The Rho 351R comes equipped with innovative brush-stretch rollers and a tension regulation device to transport even the thinnest fabrics precisely and crease-free through the printing process. Printing also is enhanced by the Rho 351R’s precise registration for accurate two-sided printing, dual media roll loading positions and motorized roll take-up unit.
The printer’s ability to lay down quality images acceptable to Wilsons Leather onto the magnetic-receptive media opened the door to the many advantages the substrate system offers. For example, the printed media can be rolled up, placed in tubes and shipped more easily, safely and inexpensively than images printed on rigid material. While initial installation of the backing requires some expertise and a strong adhesive, the subsequent image change-outs can be handled by store employees – who simply line up the edge of magnetic-receptive image to the backing and unroll it. If the image is crooked, the employees simply roll it back up, reposition it and try again.
Steve Reudelsterz, an account executive at Graphic Systems, says Wilsons Leather originally was considering images on pressure-sensitive vinyl, changed out by professional crews at individual concept stores. “But we thought the magnetic system would be the perfect solution for what they were trying to accomplish, and it’s worked out extremely well.”
Reprinted courtesy of Durst Image Technology U.S., LLC.