If that question sounds like a tautology, allow me to explain what I mean. You’ve probably seen marketing sheets for printers that proclaim super-fast top speeds that will allow you to turbo-charge your turnaround. But what you need to ask yourself is whether those top speeds are really sellable speeds. Here at SEDO, we don’t think they are. Our clients demand high levels of quality for print they’re going to sell on, and printing at your printer’s top speed will compromise your standards.

So how fast is ‘sellable’ print speed?
A lot of other suppliers market their printers on top speeds of 90sq m/hr but they make no mention of how sellable something printed at that speed is. We know through experience that the quality of 90 sq m/hr isn’t genuinely sellable. For customer-acceptable quality, you’ll probably need to slow your printing down to 20 or 30 sq m/hr.

Naturally, your top ‘sellable’ print speed will depend very much on what you’re printing and how it will be used. So when you come to us, we do things differently to most suppliers. If you’re considering, for example, a Mutoh ValueJet 1624X, we’ll demonstrate photographic quality printing at 5 to 7.5 sq m/hr, production/normal speed at 10 to 15 sq m/hr for day-to-day work like roller banners or self-adhesive vinyl, and then 21 sq m/hr, at which you can print sellable banners. In this way, you can see how the printer truly performs for the operations you need. It’s all about ensuring you get the most appropriate quality for the job – not about how fast you can go regardless of whether you can sell the results.

For example, if you need a banner that will be viewed from a distance, the print quality won’t need to be absolutely perfect. However, if you’re printing smaller posters that will be viewed close up, you’ll want higher quality production. You’ll need to know which speed will be appropriate to produce the right results for each job – and that’s where we can help you.

Insist that you try before you buy
If you’re in the market for a new printer and you feel tempted by some of the high speeds being touted around, ask for a demonstration. The best thing is to ask whatever supplier you’re talking to print out one of your own files. Pick something that you know the quality of and ask for a demonstration at high speed on gloss self-adhesive, such as Boss Monomeric or Polymeric Gloss SAV from our Fusion range, because gloss prints show up any flaws in the print quality. Certainly, anyone can print to banner mesh at speed because the holes mean that you’re only printing on a fraction of the surface. But ask for a demonstration on gloss and you’ll see if there are drying issues, banding problems or quality flaws.

We operate a try-before-you-buy policy with all potential new customers because it’s the only way of demonstrating what print speeds they’ll achieve on a day-to-day basis for their regular workload. It allows us to estimate realistic prints speeds and turnaround times, which means buyers will know their return on investment before they make a commitment to a new machine.

We’ll be happy to print your own file for you on the most unforgiving media, because this way we know you’ll make a decision that you’ll be happy with. It also means that we can help you identify the right media, media profiles and RIP software for the most cost effective results. And if other suppliers aren’t offering the same service? Just ask yourself why not.

Want to put us to the test? Give us a call on 01268 724570 or fill in the enquiry form here.