Big Picture - June/July 2018 - 30

SIGN INK - DAVID VS. GOLIATH
A Nyala 2 and an Impala LED large-format printer have transformed a small print shop into a serious player in the wholesale digital printing
market. Diversity, reliable quality, productivity, and an optimal price/performance ratio are the cornerstones of success here.
If there's someone who works passionately, it's Tom Matherly,
the owner of Sign Ink (signink.net). His position does not stop
him from getting operationally involved. His motto? "Do and
learn everything that goes on in the business so you understand
it from the ground up." Tom especially likes operating the two
swissQprint large-format printers that stand at the heart of his
operation. As he points out, "If we hadn't bought the Nyala 2 in
2014, our business wouldn't exist."
DAVID VS. GOLIATH
As a small company, Sign Ink has proven itself in the highly
competitive wholesale market. The company is a subcontractor
to copy shops, sign makers, print shops, and brokers: places
that outsource everything they cannot handle themselves. Fast
turnarounds, reliability, and flexibility are crucial in this business
- and, of course, a good price/performance ratio. The competition operates large, expensive equipment. Sign Ink, by contrast,
processes the majority of orders using just four machines: a
Nyala 2 and an Impala LED large-format printer as well as two
Zünd cutters. Together, this Swiss quartet covers practically
everything. Sign Ink can offer competitive prices thanks to a

SWISS ARMY KNIFE PRINTER
Tom first invested in a Nyala 2 printer in 2014 and added an Impala
LED in 2017. He compares the machines with a Swiss army knife:
"You can do anything with them." There is a stable flatbed for rigid
substrates i.e., boards of different types and sizes. As Tom knows,
"The others can't handle this variety of formats." And, he explains,
"Thanks to the registration pins, we can make optimal use of the
print bed with any given format." The Nyala 2 is also equipped with
a roll-to-roll option so it can also process flexible media.
MATERIAL CHOICE MADE EASY
"There really isn't anything that we don't print with the Nyala
2 and Impala LED," Tom points out; plastics, acrylic, glass, polycarbonate, foamboards, all the way through to metal, wood, and
paper. Because the ink has such good and wide-ranging adhesion
properties, standard-quality material generally suffices, says
Tom. It doesn't have to be the expensive kind, optimized for digital
printing. "That has a positive effect on costs," he concludes.

June/July 2018

WHITE AND VARNISH WIN BUSINESS
The possibility for printing white has won Sign Ink a number of
new customers. "The double white configuration that we have
on the Nyala 2 is paying off," Tom mentions. Sign Ink also offers
varnish applications, which were something quite new and appealing for some customers. He names Dropgloss for tactile and
visual effects as one example.
A FULL-GROWN DAVID
Tom says: "Our yearly sales were up by 30 to 50 percent since
the Nyala 2 arrived." Customers very quickly noticed improvements in print quality and delivery times. Thanks to higher
productivity, Sign Ink was also able to drop prices. All this has
led to more orders. That was the reason that Sign Ink decided to
invest in another swissQprint machine in 2017, an Impala LED
operating with LED curing. "We have become a serious player,"
Tom points out. "With our swissQprint printers, we cover areas
that are out of reach for our competitors."

BIG PICTURE
30

relatively low capital investment and equipment that does not
require a lot of floor space.

Registration pins do valuable service, especially with the flip function. In general, they ensure a precise registration and help to make full use of the print bed.

swissqprint.com

http://www.signink.net http://www.swissqprint.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Big Picture - June/July 2018