If Inca’s number-crunching and predictions are right, it will be screen printing that’s really going to feel the squeeze in the next few years. According to Inca Digital managing director Bill Baxter, many of his company’s current customers have screen printing equipment.

“They have wanted to exit screen for some time, but the current generation of digital printer did not have the throughput,” he argues. “But with the Onset, we allow them to put aside their screen operation.”

At present, around 60% of PoP materials are for the temporary display market, which Inca describes as a “vibrant industry”, and in this sector, 49% of work is produced litho, with digital at 29% and screen at 22%.

Changing trends
In three years’ time, that is expected to change. Litho is predicted to lay claim to 53% of the market, digital 33% and screen is anticipated to slide down to 13%.

As well as planning an assault on the screen market, Inca is set to be pretty busy over the next few months. The Onset aside, the company is set to showcase its new Spyder 320 range at next week’s Fespa show in Berlin. Inca believes the new product will cause “quite a stir” in the market although it remains tight lipped on further details.

Inca has two Queen’s Awards for Enterprise under its belt and it’s easy to see why – the firm ploughs 20% of its turnover into research and development and over a quarter of its 170-strong workforce are involved in R&D.

Their work has gone into launching several innovative products in the digital market. Back in 2001, Inca created the first ever inkjet flatbed printer, the Eagle 44. This then evolved into the Eagle H and Columbia ranges. With the experience of developing the Eagle behind it, Inca has now moved its digital flatbed offer on further.

“Digital is coming up with higher productivity, but what we are not doing is comparing a traditional screen print line with the Onset,” explains Inca chairman Nigel Puttergill. “It depends on the work that you are doing and, in this case, it’s the PoP market.”

While Inca is not comparing the Onset to any specific screen printing machine, the company believes it has the edge in PoP production in terms of speed and quality.

The machine has a production throughput of between 350 and 500sqm an hour meaning it can deliver around 100 full bed sheets in 60 minutes. Able to handle print formats up to 3.2x1.5m, the Onset is aimed at the high-volume display market on any substrate, from paper and board to rigid plastics and metal, up to a maximum thickness of 10mm.

Printhead power
In terms of size, it’s a monster of a machine, which is necessary to contain the massive array of Spectra printheads – 576 in total. This means the printer has 73,728 inkjet nozzles, which as Baxter admits is actually more nozzles than you need. But by having that volume of nozzles, he argues that should any fail, there’s plenty to ensure that the job still gets done.

In terms of quality, the Onset is able to finish in satin or gloss, with Baxter adding that many of Inca’s customers wanted the added option of a gloss finish. On the ink front, Inca’s technology partner Fujifilm Sericol developed its new range of Uvijet UV digital ink for use specifically in the Onset.

The range includes patented Micro-V dispersion technology and is formulated with automotive grade pigments that deliver the ‘right kind of density’. According to Inca, this creates vibrant, durable, light fast colours.

The partnership with Fujifilm Sericol stretches back to the early days of Inca. Both had worked on the Uvijet range of UV curable inks back in 2000 but the company isn’t the only one to partner with Inca. Anorad makes the drives around which Inca’s engineers assemble the printers while Xaar and Spectra have supplied Inca with printheads.

The company’s newest partner, Sun Chemical, has been working with Inca since 2002 to develop a printer for the corrugated market. That machine is the FastJet, which will be sold directly through Sun.

Value for money
The Onset begins shipping in September, but it won’t come cheap – the cost of the machine is £1.5m But despite the cost, Inca makes several arguments suggesting that, in the long run, the Onset will more than pay for itself. The firm has well and truly crunched the numbers and has come up with some statistics that, it reckons, will win the argument against screen once and for all.

Based on a 3sqm sheet size, Inca claims that the Onset is competitive with screen and offset up to a run length of 750sqm. In standard mode, the total print cost is 96p while in high-quality mode, the figure is £1.06 for 3sqm. This includes labour (£15 per hour for a single operator), ink (a net ink price of £60 per kg) and depreciation over five years. But these calculations exclude substrates.

With these figures, Inca reckons it can compete easily with screen and start eating into the low end of the offset market. Currently, by Inca’s calculations, digital costs nearer £3 per 3sqm sheet based on a 150sqm per hour run.

While the return on investment argument may be compelling, the statistics also show that digital print runs are on the rise. The 150sqm per hour run is around the commercially viable limit for digital flatbed at the moment, but the Onset goes further – potentially going into the low-run litho market.

“What is happening at the moment is that short-run jobs are getting longer,” says Inca’s Puttergill.
The arguments certainly interested several PoP printers, invited to have a sneak preview of the Onset at Inca’s Cambridge base at the end of April. Those demonstrations have paid off with announcements expected soon on some UK sales of the new machine.

It’s another example of how digital technology is now making inroads into more traditional ways of printing. It’s a market that’s in general developing at a great pace, with increases likely in both speed and run lengths. It’s one of the reasons why, in PoP, Inca’s Baxter reckons that “the end of screen is pretty much in sight”.

“Digital will also develop more quickly than offset, but digital will not eat into offset for a while yet,” he admits.

Fujifilm Sericol international strategy and business development director Jerry Avis adds: “The market is seeking improved quality alongside faster production speeds and turnaround times and it is this need that has driven development of the Onset in partnership with Inca.”

Inca has high hopes for its latest machine and, what with the launch of the new Spyder at Fespa, it promises to be a busy time ahead for the Cambridge-based manufacturer.

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SPECIFICATIONS
Max speed 500sqm per hour
Max substrate thickness 10mm
Max print size 3.2x1.5m
Price £1.5m
Contact Inca Digital 01223 577800 www.incadigital.com; Fujifilm Sericol 01843 866668 www.sericol.co.uk

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THE ALTERNATIVE
Agfa M-Press
Considered by Inca as the only challenger in the market, the M Press was co-developed by screen press manufacturer Thieme and Agfa. The machine was unveiled at Fespa in 2005 and was, at the time, described as a “quantum leap in competitiveness”. According to Agfa worldwide commercial manager David Gray, PoP is the largest market with other sectors including general commercial print and outdoor advertising. “We linked up with Thieme because they are leaders in the screen market,” says Gray. “The M-Press goes across the whole spectrum – both rigid and flexible print.” Unlike the Onset, the imaging heads move over the media rather than the bed itself moving under the imaging unit. The machine is also modular and customers can specify a raft of bespoke options ranging from a screen printing unit (which costs an additional £180,000) to whether the machine comes in a right-hand or left-hand configuration, like a screen press.
Max speed 350sqm per hour
Max substrate thickness 10mm
Max print size 2.65x1.65m
Price £900,000 (fully automatic configuration)
Contact Agfa UK, 0208 231 4929 www.agfa.com