Rehms Druck, of Borken, Westphalia, in north west Germany, has been a loyal Konica Minolta customer for many years using its toner-based system. However, the company realised in 2016, at drupa, that the time was right to invest in cut-sheet UV inkjet technology and, specifi cally, the AccurioJet KM-1. Employing 110 staff and with a turnover of €18.5 million, Rehms Druck wanted a production system to enable it to grow into new markets. It wanted one digital inkjet technology in a team partnership approach using world-class expertise.
Before making the decision to invest, Rehms Druck set out a challenge for Konica Minolta to print a range of applications and to prove the ROI of moving to UV inkjet. The AccurioJet KM-1 team produced a range of applications that included direct mail and packaging. Various factors were compared to existing print processes, including:
Print quality had to match Rehms Druck’s extremely high standards, and those demanded by customers. Rehms Druck also set out a challenge that the break-even point had to be low enough to move jobs from off set to the Konica Minolta AccurioJet KM-1 to allow them not only to save money but also increase their ability to turn jobs around quicker. Another a key factor was to reduce the lead time customers waited for work to be printed and shipped.
This would enable the company then to split work to prioritise the longer run lengths on off set, with the new UV inkjet press producing lots of small jobs improving their customers’ experience and at the same time increasing Rehms Druck profitability. A key saving was the ability to use the same media the off set presses were using on the new inkjet system.
This enabled the maximisation of purchasing power with paper merchants through the highly accurate colour capabilities of KM-1 to print and match their clients’ corporate colours. The result was not only increased efficiency, but jobs were proving to be highly profitable. Rehms Druck also wanted to grow business opportunities in new markets and innovate its print offering to existing and new clients with the ability to print on a wide range of new media, including plastics.
The Germany-based print provider Rehms Druck has a history of being a traditional offset printing company. They decided to invest in Konica Minolta's digital inkjet press AccurioJet KM-1, in order to fulfill their customers' demands for short print-runs and production times, while keeping the ability to print on different substrates as well as producing highest print quality.
“Even a few years ago our management was open to exploring digital technology,” said Alexander Brand, Rehms Druck’s Assistant to the Managing Director and Project Leader. “We have been watching the development of UV inkjet very closely, as well as water-based. But we felt that water-based technology only addressed a certain amount of applications that we produce. Now the print quality for digital is there and we haven’t looked back.
The key benefi t is not only printing on all types of paper media, coated and non-coated, but it matched off set quality – this was criteria for our business. I can say without reservation that the AccurioJet KM-1 is a highly flexible, adaptable platform that has opened up a new huge world of opportunity for Rehms Druck.”
In addition to quality and performance advantages in the AccurioJet KM-1 B2 inkjet press, central to the decision to invest was the provision of support services from Konica Minolta. These included market planning, application development and insight, and on-site training. The solution required a business partner and one proven technology capable of printing packaging as well as commercial work. The ideal job on the KM-1 according to Rehms Druck is brochure work and manuals, but the company is also exploring different kinds of media to run on with the Konica Minolta B2 inkjet press.