Craft Signs - Why They Installed a Colorado 1650 Printer

Mark Michelson, editor-in-chief of Printing Impressions is interviewing Seth Austin, the operating partner with Craft Signs in Fort Worth, Texas. Craft Signs opened up in January 2020, serving primarily the trade market, as well as direct customers, brokers, and other print shops. Some of the equipment and applications used by Craft Signs include the Arizona 1360 XT, HP365 latex roll-to-roll, Canon Colorado 1650, a Colex flatbed cutter, and a Colex flatbed laminator.

Prior to installing the Colorado 1650 roll-to-roll printer, Craft Signs was using the HP365 to produce graphics. As they opened up, they didn’t expect their primary market to be roll-to-roll and thought they would be more flatbed-based, so they started with the HP365 and added the Colorado 1650 later.

Craft Signs found that there were bottlenecks with the HP365 - it’s much slower than the Colorado and much more difficult to load and handle the media. They had to come in at 2 am to change rolls and at 6 am. As they got busier, they had people running 24 hours a day. The Colorado really allowed them to get done in one shift what they were running in three shifts. Even if they weren’t staffed 24 hours a day, there were times when they were running it 24 hours a day, which meant that someone would have to come in at 2:00 in the morning, then at 6:00 in the morning, then the shift would do another change at 10:00 in the morning. So being able to do in one shift what they were doing in three was very significant for them. Craft Signs wasn’t outsourcing work but had to tack on more shifts as needed or coming out at all hours of the day and night to get the roll swapped.

Craft Signs got to a point where they had so much work come in so quickly because of COVID that they had to add the Colorado on for the sake of speed. Not only in the speed of the machine running, but the speed that you’re able to change out a roll and walk away from the machine. The takeup system is much more efficient on the Colorado than the HP365, so that speeds it up as well.

The thing that convinced Craft Signs to get the Colorado 1650, in addition to the speed, was seeing and hearing from other people at Canon outside of the sales team and hearing the pride that the Canon team had for the Colorados from the media sales team to the technicians that worked on the Arizona to the trainers that trained them. That gave Craft Signs the confidence to buy the Colorado sight unseen. Seth Austin said that the “aha moment” comes as you go through the training and realize how much faster it is to load, and how easy it is to handle the media.

With the Colorado, the way Canon has structured the way that the ink is purchased, it’s easier for Craft Signs to quote a job without having to worry about the coverage. It’s also very ink efficient, so they don’t have to load new ink very often. The primary driver for Craft Signs is the speed of loading and the speed of production. It allows them to get more done in a single shift.

Craft Signs was in a position where they had several RFQs come in all of a sudden. As schools and other businesses looked at reopening, they were suddenly faced with more work than they could handle. They called their Canon rep and asked to get the Colorado 1650 as quickly as they could get it. There was no discussion on Craft Signs’ part about whether they needed it, just how fast that Canon could get it. The Canon team was very flexible and got the Colorado 1650 in place in about 10 days.

A repeat job that Craft Signs gets pretty consistently, it’s a large job, about 500 window clings that get distributed across the country. The first time running it on the HP, there were a lot of issues that they had to work through and it took them about two weeks to get out. Running that same job with the Colorado, they had the job done within two shifts.

The Colorado 1650 allows Craft Signs to take on jobs that they probably wouldn’t have taken before - banner media in particular. They can now run banner media quickly and efficiently with a better ROI than outsourcing.

Craft Signs is always looking for new opportunities and new ways to use the Colorado. For example, more art-based projects like stretch canvas. The UVgel ink is a lot more flexible than previous UV ink sets. Even other retail signage like giant window clings. They anticipate using the Colorado 1650 for either of those two markets.

The automation at Craft Signs from the cutting processes to the file prep sets them apart from competitors in that they don’t have to extend a larger payroll. They can have their machines do a lot of the work that other print shops had to take another person to do. They’re able to be more competitive with pricing. When they do need to add another shift, they can bring in relatively unskilled labor and train them quickly.

Check out the Canon Colorado 1650 printer online: https://csa.canon.com/internet/portal...