Sporteze 2000+, a husband and wife screen printing operation in Barragup, Western Australia, has one of the more memorable names in the printing industry.
“We chose the name Sporteze 2000+ back in 2000,” explains co-owner Jackie Watson. “It comes from what we do for sporting clubs, that is, screen printing of shirts, stubby holders and the like.”
The company’s clients range from corporate – Telstra and Big Pond out of Adelaide - to local WA businesses and sporting organisations that require the printing of logos or promotional material onto polyester shirts and neoprene stubby holders. The company also does embroidering of promotional business shirts. Like many small businesses, Sporteze had humble beginnings. “In 1998 we bought a business that produced screen printed tea towels for tourists. We were working from under a carport.” After moving into shirt and stubby holder printing, the business grew by word of mouth. Jackie recalls those times. “The business was growing. We were using basic screen printing equipment based on a 6-colour and 4-colour carousel and we were doing it all by hand. We were at the point where we felt new equipment was needed. So we took ourselves off to a printing expo in Sydney.”
While inspecting the new technologies on display – in Jackie’s words ‘we were blown away by the amazing equipment’ - they encountered the Fujifilm Sericol Mutoh ValueJet 1604W1 digital dye sublimation water-based inkjet printer. Jackie and her partner felt this was their next purchase, but it was something other than the technical ability of the machine that convinced them.
Andrew Marrs, Fujifilm Sericol’s digital textiles applications specialist said, "The Mutoh ValueJet 1604W1 printer has been specifically developed as an entry level digital dye sublimation water-based inkjet printer. It offers impeccable print quality up to 1440 x 1440 dpi and print speeds of up to 15 m² per hour. Inexperienced operators need not be concerned as the ValueJet 1604W1 is easy to set up and use. The machine uses CMYK ink and offers a media width of 1625 mm and a printing width of 1615 mm. The ValueJet incorporates the new generation piezo drop-on-demand variable drop ‘wide-model’ print head. The 1440 nozzle head incorporates four colour sections - two nozzle rows of 180 nozzles per colour."
“We really liked the machine but we were sceptical at taking the plunge,” says Jackie. “We had been given the run-around by another company on some new equipment, who promised a lot but didn’t deliver, so we were once bitten. Meeting the Fujifilm Sericol people changed our mind. They showed us how the machine worked and we were impressed with it, and reassured by them. We’ve never looked back.”
Jackie believes the ValueJet 1604W1 has made her job easier. “You’re not lining up screens and washing down anymore. You just do the artwork on the computer, transfer it into the printer and heat-transfer the printout onto the product. Much easier and the result looks much better. “I like the way the (water-based) inks don’t sit on top of the fabric. They sink in and you don’t have to flash-cure them colour by colour so the printing is quicker. The final colours are so vibrant. It’s easy to operate and I enjoy working with it.”
Sporteze chose the complete ValueJet package that included the J-Feeder continuous ink delivery system, J-Eco Subly Nano NS-60 inks designed for polyester textiles, and Jetcol digital transfer papers.
Jackie believes the ValueJet has been instrumental in bringing in more business, due to the higher quality of their product without a commensurate higher cost. “But I don’t really want the business to grow too much more,” says Jackie. “I enjoy getting out and meeting people all the time. I don’t want to get to the stage where I miss out on that.”
Fujifilm Sericol Australia
http://www.fujifilmsericol.com.au/
