Commercial printer, Prisma, stands out in Southwestern US with new SCREEN Truepress Jet520HD digital inkjet web press

January 31, 2020

Commercial print/marketing solutions provider, Prisma, based in Phoenix, AZ, has earned a well-deserved reputation in the Southwestern US as a ‘leading edge’ technology-driven company. So when it comes to helping its customers get their messages to market, the company’s newest technology, the SCREEN Truepress Jet520 HD digital inkjet web press, will help further elevate its lofty standing among a growing list of customers… much to its competitors’ chagrin.

“We believe digital technology is the future of our industry,” said Rob Nawfel, president of the progressive, 40-year-old company. And with the SCREEN technology soon to be on its production floor, “Prisma will be the only commercial printer in Arizona with high definition, digital inkjet, web-fed equipment capable of meeting the needs of that market segment,” he added. “Plus, we feel that this is also going to open up some other markets for us, as well.” The company’s six primary vertical markets are financial, healthcare, restaurant, hospitality, retail and paperboard packaging.

Prisma, who is not new to digital printing, currently operates a very respectable lineup of 10 cut-sheet devices, considered one of the largest digital fleets in the Southwest for satisfying the increasing demand in variable data-driven commercial jobs. But, Prisma’s increasingly frequent, longer run-length VDP projects, which are obviously not feasible on its bank of traditional, sheetfed offset presses, also are not ideal for the cut sheet digital units either, because those projects can then require between 36 and 40 hours of production to complete. That’s where the SCREEN Truepress Jet520HD continuous feed press comes in.

“The 520HD will be a nice complement to our digital side… much more economical, allowing us to process those projects in a quarter of the time and at a significantly lower cost,” states Nawfel. “I could not think of a more efficient way to produce this workflow than to put it on the digital web. I saw where our customers were going with this and knew if we didn’t acquire the technology, it was definitely going to impact us,” he suggested.

Turning the clock back 3 years, when Nawfel realized the company’s digital business was starting to exceed expectations, and likely becoming a challenge just to keep up, he and his team started attending Inkjet Summit, a series of annual gatherings hosted by NAPCO Media, intent on conducting a calculated, in-depth analysis of inkjet technology options. They evaluated all the major digital press manufacturers, ultimately narrowing down their considerations to two companies. “We then looked at each of the two companies’ philosophies vis-a-vis ours… not only where they are now, but moving forward, where they were going with the technology,” Nawfel explained. “We felt that SCREEN was leading the charge within the primary focus of our business — the commercial side.”

With SCREEN’s 520HD high definition press and the inkjet technology leader’s proprietary Truepress SC wide-gamut inks, Prisma can print directly on offset coated stock without the need for additional primer coatings typically associated with other inkjet technologies. With its broad stock range and dependable operation, the Truepress effortlessly accrues time savings and paper savings, plus delivers print quality indistinguishable from offset printed work.

The Truepress Jet520HD, the flagship model of SCREEN’s high-speed 520 digital inkjet series presses, is among the best-selling inkjet machines for the direct mail and transactional markets, and is fast becoming the preferred technology among commercial printers looking to complement and supplement their offset capabilities.

SCREEN has sold more than 1,500 Truepress Jet520 press units worldwide since its launch 10 years ago. And as commercial print jobs skew more and more toward variable data output, SCREEN believes its Truepress Jet520HD will become a mainstay technology among commercial printers of all stripes.

Nawfel couldn’t agree more. “We are always looking for new equipment and new technology to help us get into new markets and the Truepress Jet520 is just the start of it. We will definitely continue to evolve with it. It’s a perfect fit, and Prisma is already generating phone calls on some new opportunities,… just because we have it.”