The latest investment in state-of-the-art Ricoh roll-to-roll ink jet technology, the Ricoh Pro VC70000e, is the reason why we visited Print Center Krapina. All about this truly impressive project was told to us by Mr. Vid Sanjug, the owner of Print Centar Krapina, and Mr. Zlatko Bosnjak, co-owner of Eurocop and head of the project team for this complex installation.
One or three steps ahead?
In the variable roll-to-roll printing segment, Print Centar Krapina made a serious step forward by acquiring Hitra produkcija dokumenata five years ago. That’s when they also encountered Ricoh ink jet continuous feed technology, brought to our region by Eurocop, with whom Print Centar Krapina has been cooperating for over 15 years, mostly through digital printers for sheet printing and enveloping.
“By acquiring Hitra, we took over their technologies and jobs and found ourselves in the variable printing segment. Today, we produce invoices, documents, personalized statements, various informational and promotional materials for almost all telecommunications operators, numerous banks, insurance companies, utility companies. We hold about 70% of this outsource market. We produce about 150 million variable prints annually,” Mr. Sanjug tells us.
Due to such volume of work, he says, they could no longer rely on just one roll-to-roll variable printing machine because it became a bottleneck in terms of both security and capacity. “That’s when we started thinking about which direction to take. Whether to buy another identical machine and move one step forward or invest in the most modern solution and move three steps forward. With huge support, understanding, and consulting from Eurocop, Mr. Zlatko Bosnjak, and his team, we decided to invest in the latest technology,” Mr. Sanjug says.
The decision fell on the Ricoh Pro VC70000e, a highly productive ink jet continuous feed machine. Or as Mr. Bosnjak says, the best machine on the market.
It is an investment worth about two million euros. As for the technology itself, it is not a big novelty for Print Centar Krapina while they already have a similar machine. However, it is important to emphasize that, unlike the older model, this one works on almost all types of paper from 40 to 350g, including coated paper. The capacity of this high-tech printer is about 150m/min, or about two million printed forms in 24 hours.
“Also, with the Ricoh Pro VC70000e, a whole new range of new jobs opens up for us, primarily towards marketing. These are top-notch luxury applications that require a higher level of print quality. We plan to present to marketing agencies what we can do compared to others,” explains Mr. Sanjug.
Project of 82 thousand personalized books
Both Print Centar Krapina and Eurocop are proud that an excellent project has already been completed on the new machine, in a segment where they have not been before. Namely, in less than two months, they made 82 thousand personalized hardcover books. More than 2 million prints were made, which few in Croatia can boast of.
