As many of you know we recently rolled out a new brand and a new website.  The old website was very equipment focused, and discussed in great detail all the equipment we have to produce the varied print jobs our clients request.  For the new website, the approach was very different.  Forget about ‘what machine produces it’ and simply show clients and potential clients ‘what we create’ so they can get a clear picture of all we can offer to the B.C. print buyer.  I think we’ve achieved that very well with the new site and we intend to continue along that path as we expand the site over the coming months.

I agree with our new approach, in fact I championed it, but that doesn’t mean that the equipment doesn’t matter.  It does matter, and making the right equipment choices has been an integral factor in our ability to grow and continue to meet our client’s needs as we went from a 6 employee company solely focused on reprographics (i.e. blueprinting) to the full service digital printing firm we are today.  It has always been and will always be our mandate to ensure that we are ‘the one stop shop’ and choosing the right equipment from the best vendors goes hand in hand with this mandate.  We always take great pride in giving current or prospective clients a tour of our facility.  Inevitably they are shocked to see the breadth of equipment and capabilities we have ‘hidden’ in our main plant just next to the Cambie bridge on W. 2^nd avenue.  We pride ourselves on having the broadest menu of services available from any printing firm in B.C. and that comes from our continued reliance on top quality manufacturers who make the best equipment in the industry.

At the root of our business is our strong and close relationship with Océ.  Océ is the global market leader in systems for the production and management of wide format technical documentation packages for architects, engineers, construction companies (AEC industry) and manufacturers.  The backbone of PacBlue’s business has been servicing the needs of the AEC industry, and we are an Océ shop and proud of it.  We’re proud to work closely with this award winning company and to equip our shop with high quality and reliable Océ equipment.  With Océ equipment in place our clients can be confident we have the capability to meet the most demanding needs of B.C.’s AEC industry.  We have the largest print capacity of any reprographic firm in Vancouver, with 2 OCE TDS 800, one TDS 860, and four OCE 9800 machines for traditional B&W drawings and renderings.  Additionally we have 2 TCS 500 colour machines to serve the expanding need for colour plotting and rendering.

OCE 350GT

In our graphics business, we’re proud to be one of the first in Vancouver to install the award winning OCE 350GT flatbed and roll-to-roll printing system.  This has expanded our sign shop’s capability to meet the high quality requirements of the graphic design, retail, food & beverage industries to name a few.  This printer was just awarded a Gold medal at Outdoor Expo 2009 held in Poznan, Poland (read more).

This complements our other equipment from Gandi Innovations (a Canadian firm from Mississauga, ON whose products were formerly sold and serviced by Océ) in our full service sign shop where we have a 5 X 10′ flatbed Jeti 3150 and the Jeti 3148 10′ wide roll-to roll printer.  Our Mimaki JV33 rounds out the major equipment in our signshop allowing us to meet almost any requirement or budget for indoor and outdoor signage. The JV33 is a very high quality inkjet printer which prints up to 1440 DPI on solvent ink which allows us to meet the high standards of our customer base.

Our digital printing business is built on our deep relationship with Xerox.  Xerox is a global leader in digital printing equipment, and PacBlue has a full stable of Xerox printing equipment to produce high quality digital toner based prints that meet the high standards of the Vancouver print buyer.  Our iGen is the star of the bunch, but this is backed up by our DC7000, DC 240 and DC12s.  This breadth of equipment means we can meet the most demanding requests such as high quality full size brochures with variable data elements through to simple colour copying needs.

HP Designjet Z6100

Our large format department has been equipped to try and meet any desire dreamed up by Vancouver designers, artists, marketing managers, retailers, restaurateurs etcetera.  We have fitted our large format shop out with 2 HP 5500 dye-based inkjet printers and an HP Z6100 pigment-based inkjet printer that prints up to 60″ wide.  These allow us to do print indoor and outdoor signage, window graphics, backlit signs, giclee printing and a host of other options that only our customers can truly imagine.  We then have an OCE Lightjet (made right in Richmond, BC but now owned by the aforementioned Oce) wide format photo laser printer on which we print photo-quality images (apparent resolution is 4000 dpi), up to 50″ wide by 10′ long.  This printer has the unique distinction of being the most award-winning large format photo laser printer ever.

The scanning department is rounded out by our Cruse Synchron Scanner.  PacBlue is one of the few companies including the Vatican Secret Archives, the Beethoven Museum in Germany, Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and the Pentagon, that uses this high-end scanner. This table scanner is noted for its unparalleled ability to accurately reproduce artwork and detail in other items.  Many of our customers utilize the scanner first to scan an item and then use the resulting digital file which is printed on any one of our high quality printers.

KBA 74 Karat

Finally, a few years ago we purchased our 74 Karat Waterless DI Digital Offset press.  One of the key benefits of this press is it’s larger 29″ sheet size and the quick ‘make-ready’ where the machine is printing customer ready product after only 15 sheets.  This vastly reduces wasted paper when compared to traditional offset printing.

This fabulous press met two goals for us:

1. Expanding our capability to offer short to medium run offset printing to our customers which provides the quality they demand.
2. Providing the most sustainable offset printing option in the lower mainland.  This press uses 98% less water in the printing press versus conventional offset printing and when combined with our FSC certification, customers can now be assured that they are printing with the environment in mind.

To close out this rather lengthy blog, let me circle back to the title of this post.   In the world of printing, there are numerous options for attempting to achieve the same results and like any business there are reputable equipment vendors with a long history of quality equipment and there are those that just simply get you in the game.  At PacBlue, the owners and management team believe that every piece of equipment we choose is very important in how well we are able to service our customers.  We will continue to explore and invest in equipment that helps us raise our level of service for our current and future customers.  We’ll keep working toward our goal to be the single source for all of Vancouver’s printing needs.