Ask Gazza!

Starleaton director Gary Smith has over 25 years experience in the signage and display sector and was a pioneer of digital wide-format, working with the first Rips to drive inkjet plotters. He’s just the person to direct your digital imaging questions to, so fire away!

Questions

1.What solvent printer do you recommend, if any?

2. I see you have Kodak roll materials but where can I get Kodak inkjet sheets in A3+?

3. Does SDS supply profiles for you medias?

4. Can inkjet printing achieve the kind of backlit display quality that photographic processes such as Lambda and Lightjet achieve?

5. I am looking at purchasing a 44″ wide format printer here in Queensland and will use mostly canvas but also some glossy photo paper, maybe some pop-up banner material. What printer and materials would you recommend?

6. Is Starleaton and Australian company?

7. Can I buy Starleaton products in New Zealand?

8. Gazza, which is best, liquid or film laminating?

9. There are several one-way (perforated) films on the market. What’s so good about ContraVision, the one you sell?

10. customers keep asking for recycled or FSC-certified sign boards, what have you got?

Answers

1. Solvent printers and inks have changed a lot since the early days. We like the Epson Stylus Pro GS6000 because it uses safe solvent and requires no fume extraction apparatus. There are no nasty additives in the inks but they still print a great colour gamut for indoor or outdoor work. It prints up to 62″ wide and is priced very attractively. It also uses much less power than other comparable printers.

2. Try our photographic industry partner, Australian Photo Supplies www.apspl.com.au – I am sure they can help.

3. Yes. SDS supply all profiles FREE of charge for our range of medias

4. Recent developments from Kodak and Dainippon Screen mean ‘Yes!’…and some. Kodak has released its professional UV-curable Display Film and Paper with a 7 mil ESTAR base. Dainippon Screen’s Truepress Jet 2500UV is the highest resolution roll-roll and flatbed wide-format printer at 1500dpi. It can print up to seven layers including white ink. The combination delivers truly excellent back-lit results. We have test samples available.

5. It sounds like your work is for indoor display and in the art/photo area so I’d suggest you take a good look at the Epson Stylus Pro 9890. The Ultachrome K3 inks are very wide gamut and you can chose from 3 levels of Black. Epson’s own canvas is probably the best choice and for photo glossy, you can’t go past Kodak’s Professional, and for pop-up banners, Kodak Polypropylene.

6. Absolutely. 100% and family-owned.

7. Starleaton has a distribution agreement with Aarque in NZ, for Neschen and SEAL brand products. Aarque also supplies ColorGate’s Rip and workflow. Please contact Aarque if you are in New Zealand.

8. Great question. It’s horses-for-courses. Liquid lamination suits high volume continuous work best and costs much less per square metre covered. It can also be applied to solid surfaces, either as anti-graffiti protection or as a primer to improve ink adhesion on difficult substrates. The downside is that the hardware costs a lot more than film-applied laminators. Film laminates offer a wider variety of surfaces and thicknesses and SEAL laminators start from under $10K, so it’s cheaper to get into. Because of the high cost of liquid laminating machines, some of our customers offer trade services for those long runs where film might be too time-consuming and costly.

9. Well, to start with, ContraVision invented perforated one-way window films, so they have much more experience. It’s not just a case of punching tiny holes through vinyl. You see many cases of de-lamination on buildings and it looks terrible – the graphics just fall off when it gets hot. Precision is another issue, ContraVision has both 30% and 40% translucent materials for various applications. Printability is vital and ContraVision is the only supplier that features Grayliner™ – it simulates how the image will look once applied so the operator can adjust colour accurately. Also, we have Contravision film systems that adhere to the inside of glass, yet retain image integrity and saturation. Try ContraVision and convince yourself; I’ll shout you a trial roll!

10. You can’t go past our Enviroboard MR from Converd in the USA. It’s a microfluted extra white board made from 90% FSC-certified sustainable fibres and 10% post-consumer waste. It’s constructed using aqueous adhesives and is 100% recyclable. It prints both-sides beautifully and we have both standard and oversize sheets available. Let me shout you a sample to play with!

Send us your question!

HOME     ABOUT US     CONTACT US

Enquiries: 1300 880 605   Starleaton locations: click here   Site Design: Solutions First