The Curious Life of Rigid Substrates

Driven by the advent of flatbed printing, cutters and routers, rigid substrates are being incorporated into wide-format signage in such a way that the products are practically works of art.

Terry Amerine, director of product marketing for Durst Image Technology U.S., noted increasing numbers of elaborate shapes and products engaging customers in a more powerful manner.

“This is much easier and cost-effective due to printing and finishing equipment,” Amerine added.

Tom Wittenberg, AMS sign and display market development segment manager, HP, noted that among the “different, unique ways we have seen rigid substrates incorporated into signage and displays in retail and industrial settings”:

• Use of printed foam board to display 10x5-foot caricatures of basketball players, each one cut out to show the image
• Printed acrylic signage in the shape of a box to also hold a shoe that will right its position on the box through the use of embedded magnets
• Cut-outs of 10-foot tall shoes for display in shoe stores and in windows
• Different rigid materials printed and combined to create a sled as a wine holder and signage for a wine store
• Printed slats attached to each other to create a wine barrel for decoration and store signage in a wine store
• 5x10-foot cereal and juice boxes to display cereal and juice products with messaging for each
• Bluetooth stereo speakers printed on pre-attached canvas and hung on walls in a variety of stores with messaging and music coming from them
• Printed doors for stores with signage and displays for dressing rooms
• Printed wood to create a rustic setting in a store for jeans

With UV flatbed printers taking more market share, rigid substrates have played a vital role in offering print service providers options to do more work for their point-of-purchase suppliers, noted Kazu Kudo, associate marketing manager, Workflow Solutions & Wide Format Media, Fujifilm North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division.

“The signage market has been expanding with a variety of specialty printed applications due to UV flatbed printers can print on almost any surface,” said Kudo. “All printers have their unique capabilities with limitations on ink adhesion to material thickness.”

In wide format printing, Fujifilm Graphic Systems Division offers a range of high performance media and display systems for every application designed to work with its printing systems and inks, including Laird, Kommerling USA, EnCore and Elmer’s Products, and Transilwrap.

Printing service providers (PSPs) are not only able to print directly to rigid material, but on materials that were typically impossible to print on in the past, noted Thomas Krumm, product manager for EFI VUTEk hybrid printers.

The post-press that creates special applications with rigid materials also is unique today, he added.

Beatrice Drury, Zünd America’s director of marketing and communication, noted the possibilities for printing on rigid substrates in wide-format sign-making are “truly endless” given the variety of available rigid substrates “coupled with ever more powerful and efficient digital printing and cutting technologies.”

Gilman Brothers developed INFINITY, a 100 percent styrene board featuring digital grade styrene sheets designed to maintain their color under any light source as part of the company’s s new ColorOne White Point Management System.

The INFINITY surface eliminates pre-production cleaning and preparation for increased printing speed and efficiency. Modifiers in the styrene promote ink adhesion. The foam is designed with 2.5 times the density of other market products and allows for recyclability and 3D forming characteristics.

INFINITY may be printed, scored and shipped flat and then hand-bent for a 3D graphic display for projects including direct digital printing, direct screen printing, shipping, in-store signage, and point-of-purchase (POP) displays.

It can be knife- or die-cut with optimal cutting results on digital contour cutters.

Zünd, which has installed its G3 Zünd digital cutter at its new Customer Experience Center, has entered a strategic alliance with Gilman Brothers, offering PSPs solutions for producing signage, intricate lettering, tradeshow exhibits or complex 3D displays using INFINITY as well as vinyl, cardboard, polypropylene, acrylic, foam board or wood.

The Zünd G3-2500 Cutter is a multifunctional machine designed for industrial use with the technology and build for high-volume, 24/7 production.

Mark Schlimme, director of marketing/product manager - wide format for Screen Americas noted whether ink will adhere to a substrate is a function of the ink the customer is using and the surface characteristics of the substrate, he adds.

Schlimme has seen PSPs trying glass, metal, wood, stone, barn wood, window blinds and lenticular lenses. When adhesion is a challenge, promoters and primers can help, as well as post-print coatings, he adds.

“Printing systems that give the operator control over curing energy and time are beneficial when printing to unique substrates,” he adds. “Flatbed printers with accurate X and Y drop placement also can print to small premium items such as phone cases, USB drives, and golf balls, among many other items, with the added use of jigs.”

With today’s UV inks, sign shops have “almost unlimited rigid substrate choices,” noted Josh Hope, applications product manager for Mimaki USA.

“The combination of a wide gamut, along with white UV inks, clear UV inks and jettable primers, opens a new world for the sign market,” Hope notes, adding flatbed printers can print materials “as thick as a door and create textures to simulate wood, textile, and other 3D effects.”

EFI recently introduced flexible ink sets that can be printed on a rigid substrate and vacuum-molded or formed into a 3D object, said Sean Roberts, manager of EFI Inkjet Customer Experience Centers.

Of note are pan formed faces, which Roberts pointed out have traditionally always been printed through a screen print or analog process.

Today’s ink technology – such as ThermoForm – gives printing service providers the capability of providing signs with a depth or relief of about three to four inches, he said.

“More traditional UV inks tend to be a plastic and once they’re cured, it’s much overstressing any piece of rigid plastic – it has a breaking point and it will crack or break,” Roberts said.

Flatbed UV technology has enabled dimensional printing, Roberts said.

“Multiple layers of ink can run within a single pass on the printer,” he said. “Many customers are purchasing the more economical substrates such as a card stock paper and printing a texture onto it, making it look like an oil canvas, a wood grain or foliage. Using layers of ink and some pre-press techniques gives their product a more premium look at an economical cost.

“We’ve seen that treatment quite often being used more on interior POP signage bringing what is traditionally known as 2D space flat printing into a 3D effect.”

EFI recently introduced a clear ink that has been used in offset for such applications as varnish plates. The ink brings print to life in such illustrations as water droplets, eyes or lipstick and creates higher value work, Roberts noted.

Amerine pointed out that as retailers and businesses seek a more environmentally-friendly focused strategy, rigid substrates face some challenges moving forward, particularly in terms of end-to-end shipping cost and in-transit damage.

“They cost more to ship than materials like fabric and incur shipping damage at a much higher rate,” said Amerine. “This is becoming a point of focus for many retailers, especially the larger ones with hundreds or thousands of locations spread across the country or world.”

Kudo concurs environmentally-friendly and renewable materials play a role in ways rigid substrates have been incorporated into wide format signage, with the demand for recyclable/biodegradable materials increasing and consumers embracing environmentally- friendly solutions.

Rigid material offers to the digital signage market a material and labor cost reduction, noted Kudo.

“The convenience of PSPs not having to print on vinyl and adhering it directly onto flat, rigid media is quite valuable,” Kudo said, adding it helps them stand out from among competitors and offers customers lower costs.