Digital printer automates the production of displays and packaging to set itself apart from the competition

Pioneer in Germany

Established in 2004, digi tailors GmbH is a young and small business with four employees. It has responded to the fact that more and more customers are interested in small trial runs for trade fair materials and marketing campaigns: "A new market has emerged. We want to set ourselves apart from the competition with high-quality printed displays and packaging at reasonable market prices," says general manager Christian Hein. The goal was to automate the production of small digital print runs, just like in large-scale package printing. The new concept had to fulfill the demands of industrial production. In other words, human intervention in the production process had to be reduced to an absolute minimum.

Total automation

digi tailors prints corrugated board on a CORjet digital printing press from Scitex Vision and then cuts it on a Kongsberg DCM digital converting table for the production of displays and packaging. Since the CORjet system is equipped with an automatic, vertical substrate loader/unloader, digi tailors wanted to configure its postpress finishing system the same way. "The Kongsberg just keeps on running and running. The wonderful thing about it is that we can feed it with jobs unattended which allows it to run during the night," says Christian Hein. Vacuum sensors take up a printed sheet from the electronic elevator table and place it under the cutting unit. Thanks to the optical print-to-cut unit, the printed sheets are aligned true to register.

The future is in small runs

digi tailors usually prints runs of up to 300 or 400 sheets. Typical print jobs include displays, such as stand-up displays for trade fairs, suspended signs, presentation samples, and packaging for special campaigns and events. "A lot of companies produce good prints, and just as many are good at postpress," says Christian Hein. "But right now, only we combine the two in an industrial production process for small runs." This unique concept is what makes the young company optimistic about the future.

Customization goes digital

The age of high-volume standard print runs is over. Customers increasingly demand special items and small runs. The trend towards customized production has overtaken every segment of the printing industry. At digi tailors, the Kongsberg DCM digital converting table plays a key role in the professional, precise and automated postpress processing of small runs.

Unique Esko-Graphics benefits for digi tailors GmbH

• Higher productivity: Automated workflow.
• Minimum operator intervention: Unattended, overnight operation.
• Lower cost: Eliminates the expensive production of cutting dies.
• Faster delivery times: Shorter deadlines for new product launches, advertising events and sample collections.
• Higher quality: Optical print-to-cut unit ensures true-to-register alignment for contour cutting; high repeat accuracy.