Situation Summary
During the November 2019 ISSA Conference in Las Vegas, the VP of Sales & Marketing of an Industrial, Commercial and Institutional Cleaning and Maintenance products company stopped at the Brandywine exhibit booth for a demonstration of cost-effective full color print-on-demand labeling. His goal was to find a replacement platform for two aging Vivo! Touch printers. Because the product mix included government spec products requiring greater resistance to outside UV exposure, a pigment inkjet solution was determined to be the best solution. We demonstrated the Epson C7500 pigment inkjet printer (limited to 4” wide labels) and discussed the soon-to-be-released Epson 6000/6500 series of printers that can print up to 8 ½” wide labels.
Challenges
- Customer was using roll-fed laser printers that were no longer supported by the manufacturer
- Downed equipment resulted in a bottleneck, and expensive replacement parts had to be shipped and installed repeatedly on each unit
- The new Epson C6500A color inkjet printer would not be available until January/February 2020 for demo and possible test use
- After an on-site C6500A demonstration in late February, Brandywine provided cost analysis for label and ink costs on both Brandywine Prime™ Glossy Paper vs. a less durable semi-gloss paper label
- COVID-19 hit during the evaluation process and all communication turned virtual
- Customer required an April Implementation and had the added challenge of increased demand for Pandemic related institutional cleaning products
Solutions and Success!
- Customer determined that the Brandywine Prime™ Glossy Paper labels with durable pigment inks from the Epson C6500A printer were the cost-efficient way forward
- During initial travel restrictions associated with COVID-19, Brandywine delivered C6500A printed label rolls with customer artwork and technical support for production line application testing
- Brandywine delivered an Epson C6500A printer and UW6500 Unwinder and RW6500 Rewinder units for roll to roll printing at the beginning of April
- Customer started with two sizes of Brandywine Prime™ Glossy Paper labels in April allowing them to meet their Implementation schedule
- Result: a very happy customer with their Epson color inkjet platform and plans to add additional C6500A units before the end of 2020 as well as plans to add new label sizes as previous label inventory is depleted