Wide-Format: ‘An Incredible Opportunity’

In a session on wide-format printing during the Association of College and University Printers conference, Paul Roberts, with the University of New Hampshire, detailed some of the new products his shop now offers, such as retractable banners printed on vinyl,  repositionable wall decals for students printed on a pressure sensitive-adhesive material called wallNOODLE, and one-view perforated adhesive window graphics that allow people to see out but not in.

“There’s just an incredible opportunity,” said Roberts.

His co-presenter Wesley Grigg, of Elon University, agreed and said the new Ricoh Pro L4160 his shop installed last August has been so busy that it will be paid for by the end of this year. The margins on wide-format printing, he noted, are excellent.

“You can certainly save your university a whole lot of money,” he stressed, hinting that he plans to expand his shop’s wide-format offerings. “Our next purchase will be a flatbed.”

Roberts then revealed that his in-plant had just added an Acuity 1600 hybrid flatbed printer, able to print on material up to a half inch thick.

“Now we can print directly to foam core,” he announced.

He noted that the LED curing technology does not emit an unpleasant odor as other printers do. He expects a short ROI of less than two years on the new printer.