Equipment Trends by Gordon Rivera

We all know that we are increasingly utilizing digital devices for print production and that wide-format demand is growing. The question is what is your plan for equipment enhancement or replacement in the next five years? Are you going to replace your existing equipment with the same configuration or are you going to modify your production workflow to meet changing customer needs?

If you have already retooled your production printers or have a plan to do so, I hope to talk to you about your experience and what you selected. For those that have not done so yet or in mid- process I would encourage you to examine some of the highlights from the In-plant/SGIA Equipment Investment Trend Survey completed last year by your in-plant colleagues:

Interesting facts of the typical in-plant who responded to the survey

• 40% of in-plants have an operating budget of less than $500,000
• 55% of in-plants are in the education sector
• 74% of in-plants have 10 or less full-time employees

Trends in sheet-fed offset and digital toner print production

• Over the last two years offset use declined by 21% (2016 to 2018)
• The majority of in-plants operate only with digital printing devices (58%)
• The majority of our existing printers (61%) are black and white
• In the last two years digital color printers have been the most acquired device (51%)
• In the next two years digital color printers will be the most acquired device (43%)
• In the next two years more in-plants will buy bindery equipment over black and white digital printers (30% to 27%)

Trends in ink-jet and wide-format print production

• 23% are seriously considering adding a production inkjet press
• Reduced printing costs and increase of productivity are the major motivators for adding inkjet (69% and 66% respectfully)
• 75% expected a moderate to major increase in wide-format demand over the next 12 months
• 70% of in-plants have at least one wide-format printer
• Posters, banners and signage are the top three wide-format applications
• 73% of wide-format roll-fed printers in use are 60” or less
• Top four types of anticipated wide-format inkjet purchases are ( in order) Aqueous, Latex, Eco-Solvent, and UV Flatbed

For those who have not replaced or bought new printers, if you are attending the PSP User Group Meeting in March, I will have a breakout session that will go over how data generated by PSP greatly helped Campus Graphics and other in-plants in our retooling efforts. I would also like to help others who wish to have their data analyzed in a way that may assist in their planning for future equipment purchases or who need justification for equipment. For those that wish to have their equipment data analyzed please run a Click Charge Summary by Equipment by Click Counts and Charges report from PSP for 2016, 2017 and 2018, January 1 to January 1, and for all orders. Export to Excel as one sheet (name year of report for each sheet, so three sheets total) for each report by year and email to me at [email protected].

I will compile a three-year equipment utilization report that we can go over in the breakout session for those who submitted their data.

If you have questions please contact me at 805-922-6966 ext. 3447.

I hope to see and talk to you at the 7th Annual PSP User Group Meeting in March!