Kyocera TASKalfa Pro 15000c Delivers Transformative Benefits

“Speed, quality, ease-of-use, and cost of production would be irrelevant without the 98% uptime.”

When a company chooses the right equipment, it can profoundly affect its path forward. For Fort Worth, Texas-based Brio Direct, a print production and mail distribution facility producing roughly 3,000,000 pieces of mail each month, that wise choice was the Kyocera TASKalfa Pro 15000c, a cutsheet inkjet printing system that has proven to be transformative.

Michael Willis, vice president at Brio Direct: “Affordable run costs allow us to offer high volume pricing for mid-volume production runs.”

Brio Direct installed its first TASKalfa Pro 15000c in June of 2021 and has since added two more units onto its production floor. “The goal in bringing in the technology was reducing digital print operating cost while improving throughput,” says Michael Willis, vice president. “Inkjet technology has really taken hold in the continuous feed (web-fed) world. And while we didn’t want to compete in that space, we did want to be able to support some of the larger mail production facilities … and remain profitable. We have done just that.”

Exploring the Benefits

Willis says he was told that once he put the TASKalfa Pro 15000c into production, his operation would substantially shift from toner to inkjet. Before the purchase, he talked to several companies already using the technology: “They said their toner boxes were sitting idle.” The “substantial shift” he was told to expect for Brio Direct has proven true. “We have moved much of our work onto the inkjet – 70%.” Regarding productivity, he estimates one TASKalfa Pro 15000c can replace 1.5 toner units and at a much lower cost: “Less than half of what it would take to run the toner boxes.”

In advance of purchasing its first TASKalfa Pro 15000c, Willis and the Brio Direct team worked with Kyocera to undertake quality and color testing. “We would send them art files and they would send them back quickly so we could see the quality and compare on cost.” Seeing those test prints confirmed that he was on the right path. “When we opened the sample box,” he says, “it was a no-brainer.”

Realizing the Advantages

First impressions mean a lot, and Willis says the delivery and installation of the TASKalfa Pro 15000c provided a strong first impression. He says his shop went from empty floor space to full production on the machine in two days. Once installed, the machine continued to impress. “The actual results matched the samples,” he says. Since its installation, that machine has continued to perform. “On that first machine, we have put 24 million impressions through it, and it is running as we speak.” These results and performance over time led the company to add a second and now a third unit.

Asked how he has been able to quantify the savings Brio Direct has realized from its path into cutsheet inkjet, he lists lower cost to operate, increased production speed, and improved or matching print quality. But there’s more: “We have moved some work from producing shells and overprinting variable jobs to white paper production. White paper goes in, and color print comes out.” Further benefits, he says, include low electrical use and high up-time: “We are ‘up’ substantially more than our toner boxes,” he adds.

The Path Forward

With so much success with the TASKalfa Pro 15000c, does Willis still have a place for toner-based printing systems at Brio Direct? The answer is yes, he says, clarifying that he finds toner systems preferable for certain glossy stocks. If the TASKalfa Pro 15000c could meet these needs, he says, “I would be 100% inkjet.” For the many reasons outlined here, his preference for moving forward is inkjet. He finds his results from the TASKalfa Pro 15000c to be very similar to offset printing output and reports being able to match customer-specific PMS colors with great fidelity. “We can lock them in and repeat them,” he says.

Willis says that what’s motivating Brio Direct’s equipment and production strategy is a mix of economics and production capability. “It’s about the economics while maintaining strong quality … the Kyocera machine met the quality needs.” he clarifies. While says it was quality that started the company’s move into inkjet – “the economics made it all happen.”

Asked to synthesize the benefits from the company’s transformative investment in inkjet, Willis says, “By putting the equipment on our floor, it has created the capacity and attracted the work that has allowed us to grow. We’ve grown quite a bit over this year. If I didn’t have that investment, we wouldn’t be where we are now. The Kyocera TASKalfa Pro 15000c was our toe in the inkjet water – allowing us to offer offset quality while providing complete variable information at a highly competitive price point.”

Quick Impressions on the Kyocera TASKalfa Pro 15000C

Michael Willis of Brio Direct on how the Kyocera TASKalfa Pro 15000c meets or exceeds his company’s key production needs.
Print Speed: “Exceeds our expectations.”
Print Quality: “Customers are continually impressed with increased quality in comparison to other presses, even offset.”
Ease-of-Use: “Easily trainable, allowing ease of position advancement or filling of digital positions. Simple and fast make-ready.”
Cost of Production: “Affordable run costs allow us to offer high volume pricing for mid-volume production runs.”
Reliability: “Speed, quality, ease-of-use, and cost of production would be irrelevant without the 98% uptime.”
Service: “While we service much of the press requirements internally, partnering with a reputable and reliable service group is paramount to the success of any technology.”