BelAire Displays recently installed Fujifilm‘s Inca OnSet S40i digital press – the first of its kind installed in North America. The press was installed with Fujifilm Uvijet OZ ink, which is a more flexible ink that provides higher performance across a broad range of substrates. The installation has increased BelAire Displays’ competitive advantage and profitability, especially in comparison with using a midrange wide format press.
BelAire is a San Francisco Bay Area-based leading provider of retail in-store solutions and large format graphics for international brands. BelAire Displays was founded in 1959 and quickly established its reputation in the retail space as a problem-solver in large format graphics and in-store marketing for the advertising industry. The company’s engineering capabilities makes them the go-to partner for complex challenges. As the retail space continues to evolve, BelAire Displays is always seeking more efficient and higher quality digital solutions for shorter print run lengths to compliment their screen printing capability for high-quantity orders. For BelAire Displays, the Inca Onset S40i was the right solution.
“We can now do more jobs for clients requiring only digital print quality, and we are better equipped to handle their short deadlines,” said Christopher Shadix, president, BelAire Displays. “We have already increased our overall capacity with our retail customer base’s current busy season.”
The Onset S40i was installed at BelAire Displays in early September, and within the first week, BelAire had printed 17,000 square feet in one day—a quantity and timeframe that was not possible prior to the installation. The job called for a three-panel, 8-foot tall-by-58-inch wide display made up of one single image with a barrier laminate and two different images on each side for a large window mural to be used in 360 different retail locations. The design required sheet-to-sheet color matching, a task made easier by the Onset S40i.
The new installation has reduced the number of man-hours BelAire Displays spends on jobs. For example, for a run of 300 posters, the Onset S40i cut the time in half—not taking into account the make-ready time typically spent on screen making necessary for inline printing. Additionally, a typical job that would require three attendants monitoring the process, now only requires one on the Onset S40i.
