NEWS

(04/26/2013 / nho)

Fujifilm installs its first Jet Press 720 in Italy

Fujifilm has announced that it has installed its Jet Press 720 inkjet printing machine for the first time in Italy at Faservice, a forward-looking company located in S. Martino Buon Albergo (Verona). Faservice has chosen the Jet Press 720 for its ability to produce the highest printing quality, to promote limited editions and exquisite applications.

“We would never have thought that a digital printer could offer such surprising quality results, better even than those of an offset press,” declares Renzo Farinati, owner of Faservice, demonstrating his satisfaction with the high value the Jet Press 720 has already provided.

On the strength of his experience in the graphic arts industry, Mr. Renzo Farinati created Faservice in 1997, focusing primarily on the provision of pre-press services. In line with the evolution of the industry, the company today employs about 20 members of staff, who are managed by Mr. Farinati together with his daughter Lisa and son Massimo - respectively administrative and production managers. In 2004, the company took a new direction, focusing on high quality finishing and on a wide range of finishing techniques. Varnishing, laminating, embossing, glittering and metallic effects obtained through screen printing, are just a few of its specialities.

Renzo Farinati says: “Differentiation has always been our objective. The print industry today is more than ever a competitive sector where you need to explore new market niches to survive. It is essential for us to equip our business with cutting-edge technologies that support our goal effectively.”

With this in mind, the Jet Press 720 attracted Faservice’s interest and was integrated into the production environment by March 2013. “The Jet Press 720 is the first printing machine we have installed in our company with the objective of combining finishing with printing services,” explains Farinati. “We work primarily with printers and publishers and in recent years we have witnessed a consistent reduction in print runs, as well as a subsequent difficulty for many vendors to manage their work in a profitable way through traditional technologies. In addition, we have experienced a growing demand for innovative and customised short run applications. Following this trend, we’ve recognised a business opportunity to transform Faservice into an end-to-end service provider able to offer limited edition printing and finishing applications,” he adds.

The choice for an appropriate printing technology to pursue this goal has been a crucial step for Faservice. “While recognising that digital printing was the most effective tool for producing short-runs, the quality of the devices available on the market was unsatisfactory for our standards. Furthermore, the popular B3 format was not ideal for our services. So when we found out about Fujifilm’s Jet Press 720, we were impressed by the technical features that appeared to fully meet our needs,” explains Farinati.

The Jet Press 720 is an inkjet printer capable of printing in full colour, and in a single pass, a B2 size sheet (720x520 mm printable area, 750x530 mm paper format), with a speed up to 2,700 sheets per hour. The Jet Press 720 uses Samba printing heads that reach 1200x1200 dpi resolution with a 2 picolitre drop size, raising quality standards achievable through digital printing systems. What’s more, the Jet Press 720 is capable of printing on many standard offset coated and uncoated papers, by applying a primer to the sheet. After printing, the sheet can be treated in the same way as a normal offset sheet and then finished to have any desired special effects applied.

“The print format and excellent quality and versatility, which allow us to reproduce a potentially unlimited number of applications on a variety of media, are the distinctive values of the Jet Press 720 that proved to be key factors in our decision making process. This Fujifilm solution raises the bar because it bridges the gap between offset and digital print quality,” explains Renzo Farinati. And he adds: “The Jet Press 720 is extremely competitive compared to offset, printing up to about 1,000 copies, and guarantees the consistency and repeatability of results, from the first to the thousandth copy. Colour reproduction is excellent and system reliability is amazing.”

Faservice decided to invest in the Jet Press 720 at the end of 2012, and is now finally able to start the business project it has aspired to for so long. Just a small selection of the applications that Faservice wants to experiment with include limited editions, personalised covers, inserts and commercial print, distinguished by short-run production and exclusivity defined by sophisticated finishing techniques.

“Thanks to the Jet Press 720, we plan to grow our range of services and our potential customer base. Next to printers and publishers, who today we can offer convenient and innovative solutions for reprints and limited editions, we believe we have what it takes to stimulate the interest of end users and companies operating in a variety of industries,” explains Farinati. “From food and beverage to design, fashion to travel and hospitality, there are no limits to the sectors we can approach, offering eye-catching, tactile print solutions, produced thanks to the successful combination of the Jet Press 720 and our ability in finishing techniques,” he says.

With the aim of giving further impetus to the direction of the new business, Faservice has also decided to develop a new online web-to-print sales service. To support this project it has installed XMF PrintCentre 3.0, the web-to-print system developed by Fujifilm, to allow the creation of websites dedicated to the sale of print, and to manage the entire process from the online purchase to the PDF file submission for printing. “We have mutated several times since our foundation, and Fujifilm will be our partner of choice to deal with the coming challenges within the business,” concludes Farinati.

Elio Ramponi, Graphic Systems Business Domain Manager at Fujifilm Italy, says: “We are proud to have completed the first Jet Press 720 installation in Italy at a dynamic and innovative company like Faservice. Differentiation, exploring new businesses and, above all, offering outstanding applications are key elements in continuing to make printed communications valuable and profitable.”