Printer and/or more for high-end custom packaging

[Tatonka]

I'm looking to find a good printer/process for printing very small runs ( probably less than 250/month) of high-end custom packaging, mostly sleeves but other styles as well. I do not care one bit about speed, I need the absolute highest print quality possible, especially in greys. It would likely be on a variety of substrates, from cardstock style sheets to specialty papers. The largest size should be roughly 30"x48".

I've received samples from a few printers so far, including the Canon Colorado M, HP R-series, Epson V7000, and SwissQprint. Of those, the only ones that might work are the Epson and the SwissQ. The rest just didn't seem to be able to hit the color gamut and saturation our customers require, presumably due to only being 4- or 6-color machines. I need to be able to get similar (or better) colors as our Epson SC-80600.

I'm open to a multi-machine process as well if anyone has ideas for me. We'll need the ability to apply spot gloss, foils, and embossing/debossing, and soft-touch/satin finishes to these parts, and I have no problem building jigs to line things up in other machines for those steps.

 

[Vassago]

I've used toner transfer foils before - very simple if you have a laser printer and your prints are upto A3 in size. Usually zero cost investment wise. Anything you need to hot foil can work with this.

 

[Zse444]

Buy swissQprint! You can choose a light black channel, too, for smooth grayscale. The quality is REALLY AMAZING! Check it if you can before buy anything. We love our Nyala-4.

 

[MarkSnelling]

You should look into the Roland CO "object" printers. They can print on flat and odd shaped substrates. Have an expanded color gamut using orange, red, and green. Two sizes: 64"x98" and 30"x60" (which sounds like it would work for you. The larger unit is only $75K++ and the smaller unit is only $50K++. Incredible color capability and a 9" throat so you can print on all sorts of cool things when you aren't printing on packaging material. I can't sell them in Minnesota, but I can put in you touch with a Roland dealer out your way if you want an introduction. Here is a link to the page on their printers: ROLAND CO PRINTERS

 

[bteifeld]

You need to be careful with Roland orange and red inks- be sure to ask a Roland company person what their accelerated wear testing revealed
so you can see if they provide the permanence appropriate to your applications and customer base.

As for gamut/saturation- if you do your own calibration and profiling of media/materials- you can only achieve what the color management approach and physical reality will allow. ICC-based calibration/profiling is a good start, but there are other approaches as well- based on the same technology/approach that paint mixers use to formulate color out of base colorants known as Kubelka-Monk.