HAVING A print engine isn’t an absolute prerequisite for offering digital printing services, but it definitely helps. Shops that install a press do, however, find that having some level of in-house digital finishing capabilities—in-, near- or off-line—is required to be competitive in meeting the short run, quick-turnaround demands of this market.
As a result, digital printing operations are faced with figuring out where to draw the line between the efficiency of in-line finishing options versus the flexibility of off-line systems.
Trends in digital finishing was one part of a comprehensive market study—titled “Digital Printing Outlook in a Production Environment”—released by PRIMIR late last year. According to the report, the vast majority of “production” digital press owners are primarily using off-line finishing today. While 50 percent of the installed black-and-white production digital presses have been configured with at least one type of in-line finishing, that figure drops to 18 percent for process color models.
A significantly greater number (43 percent) of survey respondents indicate they do intend to add in-line finishing options to their planned color press purchases in the 2006-2011 time frame. Saddlestitching tops the list of currently installed in-line finishing capabilities and is projected to remain the most popular hardware option, growing from inclusion on 12 percent of digital color presses to 28 percent. Coating/varnishing unit installs are projected to show the biggest jump, from 3 percent up to 17 percent of color press purchases.
The installed base of off-line finishing equipment shows almost the exact opposite trend in that two-thirds or more of the surveyed companies already have off-line cutting, folding/scoring, saddle-stitching, trimming and perfect binding capabilities. Only 39 percent currently have standalone coating/varnishing equipment, but that capability came in second only to folding/scoring systems in the breakdown of planned off-line finishing equipment investments.
The 300+ page “Digital Printing Outlook” study currently is only available to PRIMIR and NPES members. For more information, visit www.primir.org.
Views from Front Lines
Trends can, of course, be very different at the individual shop level than they are for the industry as a whole. Differences in customer bases, applications and capabilities can make one approach better suited to a particular business environment.
As president of LaVigne Inc. in Worcester, MA, Chris Wells’ perspective is that of a chief executive of a multi-press digital printing operation that also continues to be a strong player in the commercial offset segment. According to Wells, LaVigne has found that its finishing capabilities must be “quite flexible” to meet the demands in digital printing work, despite the limited format range of most presses (especially cut sheet models like the ones it has).
As a result, digital printing operations are faced with figuring out where to draw the line between the efficiency of in-line finishing options versus the flexibility of off-line systems.
Trends in digital finishing was one part of a comprehensive market study—titled “Digital Printing Outlook in a Production Environment”—released by PRIMIR late last year. According to the report, the vast majority of “production” digital press owners are primarily using off-line finishing today. While 50 percent of the installed black-and-white production digital presses have been configured with at least one type of in-line finishing, that figure drops to 18 percent for process color models.
A significantly greater number (43 percent) of survey respondents indicate they do intend to add in-line finishing options to their planned color press purchases in the 2006-2011 time frame. Saddlestitching tops the list of currently installed in-line finishing capabilities and is projected to remain the most popular hardware option, growing from inclusion on 12 percent of digital color presses to 28 percent. Coating/varnishing unit installs are projected to show the biggest jump, from 3 percent up to 17 percent of color press purchases.
The installed base of off-line finishing equipment shows almost the exact opposite trend in that two-thirds or more of the surveyed companies already have off-line cutting, folding/scoring, saddle-stitching, trimming and perfect binding capabilities. Only 39 percent currently have standalone coating/varnishing equipment, but that capability came in second only to folding/scoring systems in the breakdown of planned off-line finishing equipment investments.
The 300+ page “Digital Printing Outlook” study currently is only available to PRIMIR and NPES members. For more information, visit www.primir.org.
Views from Front Lines
Trends can, of course, be very different at the individual shop level than they are for the industry as a whole. Differences in customer bases, applications and capabilities can make one approach better suited to a particular business environment.
As president of LaVigne Inc. in Worcester, MA, Chris Wells’ perspective is that of a chief executive of a multi-press digital printing operation that also continues to be a strong player in the commercial offset segment. According to Wells, LaVigne has found that its finishing capabilities must be “quite flexible” to meet the demands in digital printing work, despite the limited format range of most presses (especially cut sheet models like the ones it has).
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