November 2018

In the past I've called my self a hunter of wide format devices. I'm know moving on to call myself a hunter for color labels, which will lead me to placing net new label presses. 

Over the last month or so, I've noticed multiple rolls of color labels in Wawa's, Quick Chek (both of these are gas station/food markets here in New Jersey).  In addition I also scoped multiple rolls of labels in McDonalds and Dunkin Doughnuts (or Dunkin as they have re-branded).  See and ye shall find color labels everywhere!

Ink is all around us, while pages are reducing in the office, ink usage for branding is on fire.  Next time you're at you're favorite gas convenience store, stop and take a look at the opportunities, you'll be floored!

Label Press University

At the top of each blog you'll see .  Clicking that link which is at the top of each blog will then bring you the collection of blogs for Color Label Press University.  It's pretty neat, you'll see all of the blogs that we've posted for an easier read and simple way to toggle from blog to blog.

Color Label Presses can be used as seeding devices in larger Print4Pay opportunities, or help that dealer or rep get a conversation going with an account where they have never had any traction with MFP's or IT services.  In addition, the competition is ripe for takeover.   Let us not forget about the GP!

The market for full color digital labels in huge and the potential to make some serious commissions is enormous.  BTW, isn't that why we're in this crazy business? 

Flock  A commercial fuzz or lint consisting of fine strands or filaments from textile fibers, animal hair, synthetic resins, etc. It is applied to an adhesive coated surface to produce a decorative felt-like appearance.
Flood Coat   The coating of an entire surface with an ink, adhesive, coating, etc.
Flow Out   The capacity of an ink or adhesive to spread, filling in the hills and valleys on the surface of the printed or non-printed substrate.
Fluorescent Paper   A paper that is coated with a fluorescent pigment which not only reflects a visible wave length, but is activated by most of
the remaining absorbed light to re-emit it as color of a longer wave length which results in reinforcement of the reflected color.
Fluorescent Pigments   By absorbing unwanted wave lengths of light and converting them into light of desired wave lengths, tehse colors seem to
possess an actual glow of their own.
Fluorocarbon Films   A film with very high and low temperature limits, excellent electrical characteristics, and a very slippery, non-sticking surface.
Flying Splice   A splicing or joining of two webs accomplished while the web is in motion.
Foaming   A property of a liquid related to a surface tension. Frothing.
Focal Distance   Ultraviolet light energy, like visible light, can be collected and focused by an elliptical reflector. The focal distance is the distance from the lamp to the substrate, whereas the maximum energy is concentrated at that distance which gives the narrowest band of focused light.
Foil   A very thin metal sheet that can be used as face stock material in label production.
Foil Paper Laminate   A foil laminated to a sheet of paper used as a face stock. The foil is usually top coated to improve ink receptivity.
Font   In composition, the complete assortment of type of one size and face.
Format   The size, style, layout, margins, etc., of a label.
Fountain   A pan or trough on a flexographic press which contains the ink and in which the fountain roller revolves.
Four-Color Process   Printing with yellow, magenta and cyan color inks plus black, using screens to create all other colors.
Freezer Adhesives   Adhesives that will function at temperatures below the freezing point. They are usually removable at room temperatures.
Fuse   To join two surfaces by heating them to their melting or softening point.
Gapping   Openings between layers within a roll of self wound laminating tape.
Gauge   A unit of measure usually the thickness or diameter and generally express by a number.
Gauge Bands   Areas where material or liner is thicker, forming a hard ridge as layer after layer builds up in the same spot.
Gear Chart   A handy reference compilation of the various printing lengths, or repeats, obtainable within the different gearing systems.
Gear Marks   A defect in flexographic printing. Usually appears as uniformly spaced, lateral variations in tone exactly corresponding to the
distance between gear teeth.
Gear Streaks In printing, parallel streaks appearing across the printed web at the same interval as the gear teeth on a cylinder. Same
gear marks.

Gel   A state or condition in which an ink, varnish or coating has a jelly-like consistency.
Gelling   The thickening of an ink or other liquid, which cannot be reversed by stirring.
Ghosting   (New) Vary faint reproduction of printed design without actual ink transfer.
Ghosting (Old)   Shadows or indistinct images appearing in solids or reveses typically caused by poor ink distribution and/or poor base ink
formulation.
Glassine  A super calendered, smooth, dense, transparent or translucent paper manufactured primarily from chemical wood pulps which have been beaten to secure a high degree of hydration of the stock. Sometimes used as a backing paper.
Gloss  Characteristic of the surface which causes it to reflect light at a given angle..
Grab   Ability of an adhesive to quickly adhere to a surface with a minimum of pressure (usually touched to the surface with its own
weight). Also called instant adhesion or initial tack.
Grain  In papermaking, the direction in which most fibers lie corresponding with the alignment of the fibers in the direction of the
paper travel through the paper machine.
Gram   Unit of weight in the metric system; the weight of one cubic centimeter of water at standard conditions. 28.35 grams equal
one ounce.
Gravure Printing   A printing process employing minute engraved wells. Generally, deeply etched wells carry more ink than a raised surface,
hence print darker values. Shallow wells print light values. A doctor blade wipes excess ink from the cylindrical printing surface. Rotogravure employs etched cylinders and web fed stock.
Guard Bars   The bars which are at both ends and center of a UPC and EAN symbol. They provide reference points for scanning.
Guillotine   An instrument for trimming sheets of paper (with a downward cutting action).

-=Good Selling=-

My sales month ended today, thus allowing time for our beloved bean counters the chance to close the month on the calendar end of month.   don't mind and I'm kind of use to it. I figure that closing the month early gives me two end of the month chances to close some orders.  Of course one is our actual close and the other is calendar end of month.  December this year is a little frightening since Christmas falls on a Tuesday.  Which means most will not be working on the 24th.  Thus December only gives me 19 selling days compared to the average month that has 22 selling days. It's GO time!

Enjoy these threads from 15 years ago this week!

Re: Hewlett-Packard is leaping into the high-

Member

Neal

Member

pubcrawler

Busy, busy week last week, at least for Monday and Tuesday.  Wednesday turned out to be a dud with just a couple of small orders.  We all know the story for Thursday & Friday.  I took a well deserved break from the site for four days.

End of the year, the month, the year and the quarter coming up. I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!

Enjoy the most popular threads from ten years ago this week.

Ricoh, IKON, and the Next Great Bubble ''''1

Just about a year ago, Canon USA released their new TX Series of Wide Format inkjet printers and MFP Systems. Canon has positioned the TX Series as a higher volume solution to capture opportunities on the production side of the aqueous inkjet technical documents market. There are two basic TX Series models available, the TX 3000 and TX 4000. The difference in these models is their supported print width, the 3000 being a 36” printer and the 4000 is a 44” printer. Both TX printers are single roll units with the option of a second roll that is easily field upgradable. In addition, Canon also launched their new T36 scanner with these units for configuration as a full MFP unit. So, the result is a very flexible configurable higher volume lineup of 8 printer and MFP models. Fully loaded, the two-roll 4000 MFP unit lists at $9,495.

Canon designed these models to fit a variety of technical print markets including standard architecture, engineering, construction and something they are calling “office document enlargements”. I believe this last item is the ability for departmental workgroups to use the supplied MS Office plug-in to produce large format timelines, PPT presentations and Excel graphs and spreadsheets. For ease of understanding lets just call the “office document enlargement market” (where do they come up with these terms?) what it really is…and that would be POSTER PRINTING.

So, the product was launched with great fanfare and special incentives a year ago. Sales went well, despite limited inventory, but over the last six months we have seen a very interesting trend emerge with the imagePROGRAF TX Series. Sales of the product to corporate America are increasing month over month and quarter over quarter. What is the reason you may ask??? Well for starters, there is virtually nothing to not like about this product, it’s got everything you would expect plus much more. I won’t bore you with a full list but some of the more outstanding features of the TX Series include:

• Fast print speeds – up to 3 D-size prints per minute.
• Increased print quality – new Canon high density, high precision print head design with over 15,000 nozzles (Canon’s head technology is by far superior to anything in the market) lays down 5 picoliter-size ink droplets at 2400 x 1200 dpi.  
• Optional second roll unit for up to 3,900 sq. feet of uninterrupted printing. The roll units can also double as a take up reel.
• Automatic media loading- The printer detects the roll and automatically feeds it through. No manual feed required.
• Direct USB thumb drive printing.
• Enhanced security features including a self-encrypting hard disk and secure disk and file erase.
• TX Series stacker- increased flexibility and document handling with mixed sized prints up to 100 sheets.

I could go on and on but for a sub 10k price point, the Canon TX Series includes features that may not be available in units twice their price. There are several other key features that have emerged as the true drivers behind the growing success of the TX Series and they are ….

Reliability- Canon tried something new with the TX Series and that was to offer the product with a 90-day warranty instead of the standard one- year. This move was based on requests from the reseller channel to allow the service and support revenue stream to begin earlier in the life cycle of the product allowing them to capture revenue faster. Now this only works if the product is reliable and what we are seeing in the field has shattered expectations. The TX is truly exceeding the metrics provided by the manufacturer. We know of placements doing 10-20k per month without a problem.

New LUCIA TD Pigment Ink Set- The TX series features a pigment-based ink set which produces fine text and lines on both inkjet and non-inkjet plain paper. The addition of the new LUCIA water resistant pigment-based set opens more usage for the option to print posters, maps, signs and displays. This capitalizes on the trend that the technical print market is experiencing which is the cross-over from standard black and white technical prints to graphic arts or poster printing.

Canon software suite- Newly developed for the TX Series are a series of industry leading software utilities designed to help the users print, a trend Canon calls an “investment in the simplification of printing”. The included software suite includes Free Layout Plus, Poster Artist Lite, Direct Print & Share, Accounting manager, Unified print drivers, AutoCAD optimized print driver, Print Plug-in for MS Office, Apple AirPrint etc. A space limitation keeps me from a full explanation of each of these utilities but please take a few moments to peruse Canon.com and enter any of the above names into the search field. Or click this link for a software suite list: https://cloud.azon.com/index.php/s/wYfgmx4gcRF2yXY.

Summary- Whether you are currently invested in wide format sales and support, or just beginning the process, the Canon TX Series is a product worthy of very strong consideration. From the excellent print quality to the ease of service, the high-quality scan/copy/print, low cost of operation, poster printing, media offerings, pigment ink, and included software utilities the TX Series is the first truly hybrid printer designed to help you capture the move from B/W technical to Color technical, poster printing and beyond.

-= Good Selling=-

Chantilly, VA — November 13, 2018 — Contex, the world leader in large format scanning, today announces the success of its recent VIP event at the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas, Oct 18-19, 2018.

Professionals from across multiple industries attended the event to see Contex’s full line of scanners in action, ranging from the compact SD One to the market’s fastest and widest HD Ultra X. Attendees also had the opportunity to preview a new wide format scanner from Contex, which is scheduled to be released in January, 2019.

Due to the tremendous success of the event, more regional VIP events are slated in 2019.

“We were extremely impressed by the attendance at our VIP event, as well as the tremendous response to the newest HD Ultra X scanner series,” comments Steve Blanken, General Manager, Contex Americas. “Our goal is to provide solutions that are one step ahead of the requirements and demands of our customers, and these events give attendees the opportunity to see how they can leverage these advancements to grow in new directions.”

“As the primary distributor for Contex, we were excited with the success of the VIP event. Many new and existing customers are adding new Contex scanners to their portfolio after seeing first-hand what the new technology can do,” comments Rich Gigl, Senior Vice President, National / AZON.

The VIP event was facilitated by National / AZON, and scanning experts were on hand to discuss how each scanner fulfills customers’ various requirements. For more information, visit a Contex distributor or contact info@contex.com.

About Contex

As the world’s leading developer and producer of large format imaging solutions, Contex leads the market with innovative technology and advanced scan and copy software applications. Sold worldwide in more than 90 countries, Contex solutions are recognized in a wide range of industries for reliability, value, high performance, and superb image quality. For more information, please visit www.contex.com.

-=Good Selling=-

We're pretty excited about the response from P4P'ers. 

As of today we have 52 RSVPs.  If you're interested and have not RSVP'd we can add another 23 members now.  I expect this to be a max event so please make sure you RSVP here and I'll send you the registration link. For those that have RSVP'd the registration link is below.

The date is set for November 19th at 4PM Eastern Standard Time. 

I copied the below content from the Webinar registration page.

"In this highly anticipated webinar event, Wes McArtor, President of BEI Services will explain the nuances of transitioning to a Flat Rate, Device as a Service (DaaS) billing model. In this webinar, you will not only learn how to implement your own Flat Rate – aka One Rate device service – and supply plan, but you will also learn why it is imperative for you to understand this billing method, and how you can compete with those who’ve already adopted this billing strategy. DaaS is picking up speed and it's just a matter of time before the BIG BOYS (Ricoh, HP, Xerox, Canon) launch their own programs"

I'll be on to welcome everyone at the start and will then view the entire webinar.  If you have RSVP'd you will need to follow this link and register.  Please register as soon as possible.

-=Good Selling=-

So it was fifteen years ago that Ricoh launched the first GBC puncher.  I remember it well, chads were evenly distributed through out the entire device!  One of my accounts had to vacuum their GBC puncher once a week.

Enjoy the threads from 15 years ago this week!

Toshiba America Business Solutions Introduces the Flagship Model in its Workgroup Color Printer Line