Adgraphix flies high with personalised kiteboards

Large format Christchurch digital printer, adgraphix, and manufacturer, Underground’s expansion into personalised graphics for kiteboard riders puts them in the running for a Pride In Print Award.

For the past five years, adgraphix has been working with Underground sublimating the top and bottom sheets for their kiteboards. Scott Shore, adgraphix operations managing director, said that there was a gap in the market for this type of work.

“For Underground it was great that they could make boards with personalised graphics for the riders,” he said.

Picured: Pride In Print convenor of judges, Fraser Gardyne, with on one of the personally-printed kiteboards.

Producing the graphics saw adgraphix print Manoukian inks onto Digistar 4000 paper via a JV4 inkjet printer and then sublimate on Polyester Surface Film (PBT) via a UTX6700 Rotary Heat Press.

The job has been entered in this year’s Pride In Print Awards, in which adgraphix was a first-time entrant and winner in 2008.
 
“We had not been involved with Pride In Print until last year -- we entered a billboard that we were pretty proud of and won Gold,” Shore said. “The whole team here were pretty stoked. Certainly in the billboard market, the Gold is a good selling point for us.”

When printing the job, key points had to be observed to achieve consistently high quality.
 
“The ink density had to be not too high but still yield rich colour. Obviously the printer had to be running perfectly; any banding on the paper also shows on the board. At the press, dust was the enemy so careful handling was important,” said Shore.
 
“Probably the most challenging part was working out the initial heat, speed and pressure settings to get the high throughput. The core process is the same as we use for sublimated flags and textiles. We have to allow for shrinkage which occurs at a different amount in each direction. This type of work was new for us.”