When it comes to creating a winning prototype, customer satisfaction is everything. Your success relies on presenting fully realised, production-quality mock-ups that reflect your clients’ vision.
Creating prototypes on final proof equipment takes time, and sometimes that vision can be sacrificed in favour of meeting deadlines or managing costs. With advances in digital print and cut, coupled with UV printing technology, it’s now possible to produce representative prototypes quickly and at low cost on a single device.
What is UV Print?
UV printing has become popular in several industries due to the workflow advantages it offers. Because the ink is cured instantly using low-temperature UV lamps, output can be handled immediately, and the range of printable substrates is greatly increased.
Pictured: The LEC2-330 UV Printer/Cutter
6 Benefits of UV Print and Cut
1. Extended Capabilities in a Small Footprint
With a single device, you can print high-quality colours and white ink with small details, add gloss effects, precisely apply primer and cut with varying depth. Rather than blocking out a press for hours or days, you can produce close-to-final prototypes from the corner of your workshop.
“Running prototypes on our final proof equipment was very expensive, both in terms of operating the machines and the cost of the specialised media. The VersaUV lets us print directly on foil stocks and plastic media.”
Wynalda Litho
2. Great Quality and Colour Accuracy
The latest advances in UV printing technology have enabled sharp quality, even on a small scale, and outstanding colour reproduction capabilities. When creating packaging mock-ups, quality and accuracy are essential for building customer confidence in your business.
“Our mock-ups are finished at close-to-production quality, in around one hour. It had a big impact on production speeds immediately and the attraction for our clients was huge. Even now we're one of a very few businesses to offer full-colour mock-ups. The Roland lets us offer that bit extra.”
Beams International Ltd
3. Easy to Integrate with Existing Systems
The learning curve of new equipment is one of the factors that determine how soon you can expect a return on your investment. Ideally, any new system should work in harmony with your existing workflow. The most effective UV print-and-cut devices are optimised to work with the most popular RIP platforms, as well as the manufacturers’ proprietary systems.
“Not only does the machine set up quickly, but there is also very little scrap or overage. We save on tooling, time and materials for every job we run.”
Impact Label
4. Condensed Workflow and Faster Amendments
It’s rare to produce the perfect prototype on the first try and amendments are inevitable. You need to be able to act on client feedback quickly. With so much onboard functionality in a UV printer/cutter, producing proofs and making rapid amendments is a quick and user-friendly process, mainly handled within a single operation.
“The packaging prototypes market is very fast, with clients typically requiring mock-ups the next day or even the same day, which simply wasn't possible before the LEC was installed.”
Litmus Mockups
5. The Freedom to Innovate
With the flexibility and speed of digital technology, you are no longer bound by time and budget constraints. This is where you can truly add value to your business, letting you innovate and experiment with materials and effects.
It also lets you expand your services and offer micro-runs of custom labels, even customising data for individual items, answering the growing demand for personalised packaging.
“We used to do everything by hand so having the automated Roland workflow will make a big difference to The Packaging Experts and to our customers. It's a very unique service.”
The Packaging Experts
6. Impressing Clients and Winning Business
Ultimately, you secure more business by offering a more compelling product than your competitors. The speed and versatility of UV printer/cutters gives you the flexibility to do more. The range and quality of the output gives you the freedom to demonstrate a variety of capabilities. All these features combined give your business the power to stand out and truly elevate to another level.
“It's a great aid to our salespeople and of course gives us an advantage over our competition.”
Monro
Improving Your Business
UV print technology has the potential to change your business dramatically, giving you more time and freedom to innovate. You can secure more business by providing production-quality mock-ups in a short time frame, or you can bring prototype creation in-house as part of a large-scale packaging production business.
Whatever your prototyping needs, Roland DG have a digital printing solution to help.