Installations News
The Essential Image installs fifth Jeti inkjet printer

The Essential Image, based in Kitchener, Ont., is one of North America’s largest marketing services providers with roots in the photo imaging business. The company retailed as a digital photo printing and framing business that also serviced photo labs. Low margins, steep competition, and short-lived technology drove Essential to target the business- to-business category and transition to wide format printing.

Print offerings began with indoor water-based, then outdoor solvent-based, and grew into lamination and mounting capabilities. To increase efficiencies, management made the leap to UV printing, purchasing their first Jeti wide-format printer in 2008.

“We were there at the very beginning of UV-based printing,” said Tony Tuka, president of the Essential Image. “We saw endless opportunities with inkjet and liked the idea of offering a large range of SKUs from one machine.”

The company has become a leading wide-format provider and counts a Jeti Tauro H3300 LED as the latest inkjet engine among its five Agfa printers.  Suited for a wide variety of rigid and flexible substrates, the Jeti Tauro H3300 LED prints up to 3.3 m wide with speeds up to 680 m²/h.

“We looked at what we are trying to accomplish and how we could be more competitive in the market,” explainedTony Tuka, president, the Essential Image. “It came down to efficiency and running more continuous jobs compared to the Titan, which is a true flatbed. The Tauro H3300 LED allowed us to run continuous sheets and much higher throughput. Also, moving to LED vs. mercury cure positively impacted different kinds of plastics we produce.”