Balancing Cost-effectiveness and Sustainability

Large format printers from swissQprint are designed for durability with minimum maintenance, thus keeping operating costs low and minimising the environmental footprint. How does the manufacturer achieve this standard? swissQprint’s chief of development gives the lowdown.

Customers confirm: swissQprint machines have low maintenance costs. And the biggest point, maintenance downtimes can be planned ahead. “Our printers have always been designed to run with great reliability over years of multi-shift operation,” explains Marc Baumgartner, CTO at swissQprint. And it’s a fact, around 90 % of the first-generation machines are still in use. In other words, working away after as long as 15 years.

Little Wear and Tear

Marc Baumgartner illuminates a key dimension: “Less wear means fewer service calls, hence lower maintenance costs and CO₂ emissions.” Two things are crucial to achieving this. First, the use of high-quality materials and components. And second, having the fewest possible wear parts.

Marc Baumgartner | Credit: swissQprint

One of those used to be mercury UV lamps. Since 2017, swissQprint has only used LED lamps. They are energy-saving, toxic waste is no longer an issue and, very importantly, lamp life expectancy is similar to that of the printers. All this saves resources. Likewise of course, the fact that 95% of machine parts have potential for returning to the circular economy.

Thinking about such longevity, one might question for how much time swissQprint will support earlier printer generations. The answer comes from Marc Baumgartner: “Not only do we continue supporting first-generation output software, we naturally supply spare parts and inks as well – ‘end of life’ isn’t in our vocabulary.”

Don’t Replace – Repair Instead

He goes into another aspect of the swissQprint philosophy: ‘Don’t replace – repair instead’. “In the development process, we always ask ourselves what are the repairable components,” he explains. In particular, print heads or electronic circuit boards that are still in good condition are given a second life. The conclusion from Marc Baumgartner: “Doing repairs not only saves our customers money, it also conserves valuable resources.”

With its low-maintenance, durable large format printers, swissQprint strikes a balance between high performance and environmental responsibility.