EMKA Cards

“We can print almost
twice as fast with the
HP Indigo 5600 Digital
Press
1
. By doubling
our productivity,
we have increased
our customers’
confidence in our
capabilities as a
service provider.”
— Ofir Adar, Chief Technology Officer
(CTO), EMKA Group
As service providers, finding the right balance between
quantity and quality is a constant primary challenge. In a
competitive market, everyone strives to offer customers
both a diverse product range and consistent quality across
the board.
The EMKA Group has decades of experience in juggling those
goals. Founded more than 60 years ago by the Klein family to
produce sandpaper and abrasive products for the carpentry
and wood industry, the EMKA Group has evolved into one of
Israel’s biggest commercial printing companies. With more
than 300 employees and seven divisions, EMKA’s offerings
now include direct mailing and forms, envelopes, cards,
rolls and labels, and office supplies – all under the same
roof. Yet despite this rapid growth, EMKA has maintained its
commitment to providing its customers with specialised and
high-quality printing solutions.
As CTO of the EMKA Group, Ofir Adar understands the
importance of technology in this winning mix. The company
has a long history with HP Indigo presses. It purchased its
first HP Indigo Press – the HP Indigo press s2000 – in 2006,
and later acquired the HP Indigo press 3000 and HP Indigo
press 3050. In late 2011, EMKA decided to purchase another
HP Indigo Press.
“HP has never failed us. We trust the company and its
technology, and this, together with the well-proven benefits
of digital printing, is what led us to test the HP Indigo 5600
Digital Press as a replacement for our offset machine for
certain jobs,” explains Adar. “It wasn’t cost effective to run
such a big machine for medium-size jobs due to the long
setup time. With the new HP Indigo 5600 Digital Press, the
setup stage is much faster, so we can print smaller quantities
with very high quality and fast time to market, which makes
our customers very confident in our capabilities. We can print
almost twice as fast as we could with our older HP Indigo
press s2000 so we have doubled our productivity.”
New HP Indigo 5600 Digital Press boosts
ISO card and transpromo business
Due to its versatility and ability to switch easily between jobs
and varied media types, the HP Indigo 5600 Digital Press
does double duty at EMKA. The company uses the press for
two major applications: ISO-compliant plastic cards produced
by EMKA Card Systems, and paper transpromo (transactional
print and proactive marketing) applications produced by
EMKA Direct Mailing.
Adar says: “We can now use the same machine to print on
both PVC and paper. This means that we use one press to do
the work of two. Before we purchased the machine, I had to
convince management that printing cards and transpromo
applications on the new HP Indigo 5600 Digital Press would
increase productivity, lower production costs, and enable us
to win new customers – and that’s exactly what happened.”
EMKA uses the unique HP Indigo One Shot Color printing
mode on the HP Indigo 5600 Digital Press to print specialty
applications on a wide range of synthetics, including PVC. Its
high-quality PVC gift cards, loyalty and membership cards,
employee identification cards, and chip cards are used by
some of Israel’s biggest banks, retail stores, loyalty clubs,
companies, and governmental organisations. For cards
requiring high security standards, EMKA uses HP ElectroInk
UV Red to print invisible data; and it uses HP ElectroInk White
to print on a variety of substrates, including transparent
materials, synthetics, metallics, and paperboard for
folding cartons.
EMKA also uses the new HP Indigo 5600 Digital Press
to print medium-volume transpromo jobs for SMB retail
chains, gas companies, tech service companies, and banks.
“Our customers need to dynamically change the graphics
and marketing messaging in their billing statements and
promotional materials. The speed and quality of the HP
Indigo 5600 Digital Press enable us to do this with quick
time-to-market,” explains Adar.
Fast turnaround with digital offset quality
Adar is a big believer in digital technology. “We are trying
to convince most of our customers to move from offset to
digital because of the benefits. Using a digital platform is far
more productive and flexible. The high setup costs of offset
printing mean that customers need to commit to a specific
design. With digital, they can make changes far more easily.
We get the design file from the customer and print it with the
data file in one stage – it’s as simple as that!
“With the HP Indigo 5600 Digital Press, we get the versatility
of a digital solution with almost the same quality as
traditional offset printing. Our customers give us excellent
feedback and the majority hasn’t even noticed the difference.
So we can supply our customers with a high-quality product
in a very short time. This is a contributing factor to our ability
to maintain the lead in the Israeli market.”
© 2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change
without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements
accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting
an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
4AA3-9951EEW, Created March 2012
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1) Compared to the HP Indigo press s2000
* In 2012, EMKA Group served as a beta site for the HP Indigo 5600 Digital Press