Press Release Summary | |
Oostende, Belgium | October 29th, 2019 |
Japan based wide format printer manufacturer MUTOH Industries Ltd.- represented by Mutoh Europe nv for the EMEA business area – today announced that it has obtained GREENGUARD Gold Certification for its MS41 Eco Solvent inks. The certification was obtained for the category Wallpaper, which is the top category allowing the highest surface load of prints per classroom, office or healthcare environment. With this certification, Mutoh MS41 inks meet the UL 2818-2013 Gold Standard for chemical emissions for building materials, finishes and furnishings. The certification provides assurance that Mutoh MS41 inks meet some of the world’s most stringent and comprehensive standards for low emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into indoor air. As such, prints made with MS41 inks are perfectly suited for indoor applications including office, classroom and healthcare environments. GREENGUARD Gold Certification is a voluntary certification issued by UL with worldwide recognition. As opposed to GREENGUARD it offers stricter certification criteria and considers safety factors to account for sensitive individuals such as children and elderly. It requires lower total VOC emissions for indoor environments and helps print buyers to identify and integrate certified, healthier and more sustainable products into their buildings. To learn more, visit https://services.ul.com/service/greenguard-certification/ “We are very pleased to receive a GREENGUARD Gold certification for our MS41 inks for the new XpertJet 64” wide sign & display printers. Print businesses and print shops investing in a new XpertJet printer are offered full peace of mind and a competitive advantage of being able to offer a certified solution for wall finish applications”, says Kenji Yasuhara, Mutoh Europe’s Managing Director. “The certification demonstrates Mutoh’s continuous commitment in offering digital printers and inks which are safe and environmentally responsible and which contribute to healthier indoor environments”, says Yasuhara. About Mutoh’s MS41 inks Available in 7 colours (C, M, Y, K, Lc, Lm, Lk), Mutoh MS41 Inks feature a wide colour gamut and deliver vibrant high density prints with excellent dot gain. The additional Lc, Lm and Lk colours will bring extra quality to businesses focusing on highest quality prints with smooth skin tones & gradients for short viewing distances. The liter ink packs in foil go into re-usable ink pack cases, reducing waste. Suited for long term outdoor and indoor applications, Mutoh’s MS41 inks have an excellent weather, abrasion and chemical resistance. UV durability without lamination is rated up to 3 years outdoor. |
Most Adults Don’t Learn Until They Have To
Do you know when most adults learn new things? Not until they absolutely have to.
Do you know when most adults learn new things?
Not until they absolutely have to.
Do you have a bunch of adults working for you in your print business?
Do you know what this means for implementing any kind of new process, program, workflow, or software? It means that if you as the leader want learning to happen, you must inject the “have to” part of the equation.
Who in your company has the authority to enforce “have to”?
We all have hierarchies in our businesses, but there is also a lot of informal authority as well. There are also a lot of people at the top of hierarchies who have lost their ability to enforce “have to.” Many print businesses are run with labor that carries so much of the intellectual property in their heads—the business owners/leaders believe they cannot operate without them. If you have employees like this, you may have lost your ability to enforce “have to.” What happens in this scenario when new systems are brought in and there is nobody to enforce the “have to” part of learning? If you’ve been in this business for more than a few years, you can immediately think of many examples of this.
I have seen prepress automation systems operate as “black boxes” that nobody in the print business understands for years. There was never a “have to” learn this new system required so the system was implemented and is a mystery to the entire organization. When asked about how files end up in certain places, the responses can include:
“I have no idea, that’s just how it works.”
“Tom set this up five years ago and he left the company two years ago. Nobody knows how it works.”
“We call the vendor when things go wrong; we don’t know what they do to fix it.”
“It doesn’t really work, but I’ve been working around it for years.”
The learning never happened. You can do lots of research, spend lots of time in the sales process, then spend your valuable investment dollars on a promising new print software solution. Everything up until that point is considered strategic leadership. Then the rubber hits the road (as they like to say), because this solution needs to be operated, driven, and configured to work inside your company by your employees. This is actually the most strategic part of the equation. It is what actually delivers the ROI. The sales process delivers ROI to the vendor. The learning process (your team adopting the new system as their own, learning it, tweaking it to optimize your business) is when the system returns ROI to you.
It is not fun. It does not involve people taking you out for nice dinners and buying expensive bottles of wine. It is tedious refinement of your data, your processes, your workflows. It takes your team’s persistence to keep chipping away at how to best utilize the system in your business. You don’t have to do any of this and a lot of printers don’t. When print businesses don’t learn software systems, their people can muck their way through but nobody feels comfortable or confident in how it all works or what it could possibly do for you.
As the owner, you are ballistically frustrated because this system was supposed to deliver efficiencies. It feels like it made the whole problem you were trying to solve worse. You want to kick someone—or maybe some inanimate object. Your people are complaining and blaming the vendor. The vendor is trying to explain what needs to be done to get closer to the ROI you were expecting. This feels paralyzing.
Remember: most adults don’t learn until they have to—and if they never have to, they don’t.
You can’t attain the ROI on your investment until real learning happens by your adult employees. Don’t confuse learning with training. When adults ask for more training, be skeptical because this can be a method of resistance to actual learning. Adults learn by doing. Adults learn when they have to. Don’t buy any more training until all the adults are perfectly clear that they are in the “have to” learn phase (like their job depends upon it).
How to assure learning is happening? I think the best thing to do is to require adult learners to demonstrate how they do their job to leadership and explain what they have learned and what they are still working on. Do not allow them to fill the time complaining. Their “have to” is to become an expert at the solution and then to constantly be refining that expertise to optimize the solution within your business.
Adults learn when they have to. Leadership has to deliver the “have to” and has to hold the adults accountable to keep learning. The rate of change driven by technology is only increasing. This requires everyone in your organization to be in the “have to” learn phase just about all the time. This can be a real bummer, especially for adults who hate change.
**********************************************END OF ARTICLE***********************************************************
Find out more about MUTOH training & education workshops for adults!
March 19, 20 2020 Orlando, FL
March 26,27 2020 Nashville, TN
April 19,20 2020 Washington D.C.
May 7,8 2020 Phoenix, AZ
How to Create a Weathered Effect for a Sign in FlexiSIGN
Weathered Signage
What is weathered signage? Well, the other day someone asked about this. They have a NEW sign that they want to print to look like it’s been outside for a while. You know what I mean, cracked paint, faded paint etc. Here are a few examples.
Creating the Weathered look in FlexiSIGN & Print
Creating the look of a weathered sign in FlexiSIGN & Print is rather easy. The video below will show you how.
Want to learn more about FlexiSIGN & Print and get some advanced training? You can choose your way of learning:
- Attend a LIVE training event
- Download the FlexiSIGN & Print training DVD from MUTOH
- Order a training manual that is over 240 pages of training.
Either way…You’ll also need a good wide format printer to make the sign, so click the image below to find the right one for you!
Read MoreMUTOH, ColorCasters & MacPapers to Host 2 Day Wide Format Printing Workshop
An Education in Wide Format Printing from the Nations Top Experts
On March 19,20 2020, MUTOH, ColorCasters, and MacPapers will align to present a 2-day wide format printing workshop filled with tips and tricks for FlexiSIGN, Adobe and ONYX users.
On day 1, Shelby Sapusek with ColorCasters will give you insights into using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign for creating great layouts. Then Mark Rugen with MUTOH will show you the right way to tweak and use FlexiSIGN & Print for the same reason. Day 2 will bring the design together with color printing using the talents of Jim Raffel with ColorCasters. These are three of the top experts in the US!
MacPapers has agreed to host the event at their wide format digital demo room, so you’ll see the latest in wide format printers from Dye sublimation to flatbed. why not see some of the latest printers in the wide-format market as well as the media they use?
In all, you’re going to get over 14 hours of intense design and wide format printing training, but only if you attend.
Seating is very limited so get the full picture including agenda. Click here…before there’s no room!
LUNCH PROVIDED BY
Read MorePrint and Cut Made Easy with These Awesome Tips
What is the Best Workflow for a Print & Cut Application?
Ever since the first wide-format printer was released, most sign shops saw the potential to create smaller images that could be contour cut and made into decals or stickers for various applications. Print and cut projects can be made easy with a few careful considerations and thinking your project through from start to finish.
In this blog, we want to show you some of the things to consider when preparing for a print and cut application and give you some tips for getting the best workflow for a successful project.
Print and Cut Considerations
Before we give you some tips, let’s define a few considerations to the print & cut workflow.
- Print & Cut Equipment
- In our opinion, a separate printer and cutter are a necessity. Most likely, many print & cut applications will need to be laminated. That means they will be removed from the printer, laminated and then contour cut. A separate cutter is good in this workflow. In addition, separate devices mean they can be used separately, you could continue to print while contour cutting.
- The width of your printer will determine the width of the cutter you may want as well.
- Be sure to choose the best ink type for your application, eco-solvent, UV-LED or others are used for different applications.
- Media Considerations
- They type of media you will use is important because the cutter you choose will have a limit on the thickness it can cut.
- Media such as adhesive-backed textiles are fibrous, so choosing the right cutter and blade is important. The same would be true of card stock or vinyl.
- Software Considerations
- The design software should be capable of importing or opening many file types.
- The software should be able to easily add and edit contour-cut and perf cut paths.
- The software/RIP should be able to control the speed of the cutter, the pressure used and other factors related to cutting.
- The software/RIP should be able to control color quality and output.
Print & Cut Tips and Workflow Using a MUTOH Printer
Below is a video/webinar on using the MUTOH printer in a print & cut workflow.
For more information about MUTOH wide format printers, click here.
Read MoreMUTOH America to Offer Awesome 1 Day Design & Printing Training in Phoenix December 6, 2019
How to Handle Crappy Customer Artwork
This will be the focus of this live training event by MUTOH America. We will cover how to use FlexiSIGN , Adobe Photoshop and other third-party programs to “fix” the artwork that customer typically provide you. In addition we will show you how to match colors from monitor to printer AND we will even show you the best way to keep your printer working in top condition through a hands on printer maintnance session.
All of this in a ONE DAY live training session to be held in Phoenix, AZ at the new MUTOH headquarters.
Going digital modernizes city traffic sign shop in Seattle
FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmailShare
For decades, the city of Seattle’s sign shop produced signs by screen printing or computer cut overlays. But today’s sign shop looks nothing like its past. Thanks to a dedicated team, the shop is clean, lean, and reliable; an example of what is achievable by transitioning to modern digital printing with the Avery Dennison TrafficJet Print System.
Leading the transformation was sign shop Crew Chief Robin Ford. While digital printing was not new to Robin, its use in the shop had been limited to non-regulated signs and decals. For years, Robin watched as the industry worked to improve technology suitable for digitally printed traffic signs. “We were looking for production speed,” Robin said. “We’re also looking at how it performs with reflective sheeting. Printing on reflective material was huge. Having multiple colors printed on reflective material meant that 70% of our signs didn’t need to be screened or plotter cut.”
His initial plan was to integrate the printer into their production for small batches only and continue to screen print and weed as needed. Three years later, the shop now runs three TrafficJet printers and has discontinued screen printing, going nearly 100% digital.
A nuisance for the shop operators, inks and cleaning solvents posed an environmental hazard. “We had to be fitted for respirators and work with our health and safety department to monitor wastewater and track chemical use,” explained Robin. TrafficJet inks are contained in sealed cartridges, with minor exposure to the atmosphere. “There is no noticeable smell with the TrafficJet printer and we’re no longer known for that awful screen printing smell.”
Robin brought up several examples of how the move to digital printing has helped his shop be more responsive to the needs of the public.
- Last year a rare snowstorm struck Seattle. The city needed 400 emergency road closure signs. “There’s no way we could’ve done that with screen printing or with plotter pens. The physical labor of weeding and then 8-10 hours of screen printing drying would take too long.”
An emergency bridge closure resulted in traffic engineering requesting a rush order of detour signs. “Being in a public service role, I need to be able to respond swiftly,” said Robin. The shop quickly produced 150 detour signs using digital printers.
With digital printing, Robin is quickly printing signs, eliminating the need to keep an inventory of purchased signs from outside fabricators. He has freed up shop space and reduced the capital costs of carrying a larger and complicated inventory of roll goods.
To learn more about the Avery Dennison TrafficJet Print System, visit reflectives.averydennison.com/
Mutoh’s New MS41 Inks Obtain GREENGUARD Gold Certification
Japan based wide format printer manufacturer MUTOH Industries Ltd.- represented by Mutoh Europe nv for the EMEA business area – today announced that it has obtained GREENGUARD Gold Certification for its MS41 Eco Solvent inks. The certification was obtained for the category Wallpaper, which is the top category allowing the highest surface load of prints per classroom, office or healthcare environment.
Sending Large Files is Easy with Any Web Browser
Firefox Send: Use With Any Web Browser
Firefox Send is a useful option to transfer big files with people who don’t want to rely on Google, Microsoft, or Apple. It lets you upload and encrypt large files (up to 1GB) to share online. To use Firefox Send, you don’t have to install an add-on. Point your web browser to the Firefox Send homepage and click the Select a file to upload button.
Once the uploading gets completed, Send creates a link that you can then send it via email. At a time, you can send a link to 20 recipients (one download per recipient). You can also set a password to encrypt the file. Each link created by Send will expire after 24 hours. The file also gets deleted from the Mozilla server and leaves no traces.
Be sure to visit www.mutoh.com for details on award-winning wide format printers.
Need more ways to send large files? Check out this article: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-ways-to-email-large-attachments/
Read More