As Jim Williams, Director of Marketing at Kirk-Rudy, Inc., correctly observes, “printers love metal.” For more than 50 years, they’ve been buying a lot of what they love from Kirk-Rudy in the form of paper handling systems and other equipment that the company designs and manufactures at its factory headquarters in Woodstock, Ga.
Kirk-Rudy will be exhibiting in booth 11734 at PRINTING United (Dallas, Tex., October 23-25, 2019). Although Williams hasn’t released the details of the equipment the company will be featuring, he has indicated there will be something new joining an existing line of superior inkjet systems for variable printing applications.
The appeal of Kirk-Rudy equipment, Williams says, lies in the fact that it is exceptionally well made, flexible, and easy to operate and maintain. The company’s portfolio – which also includes transport bases, autoloaders, conveyors, stackers, camera inspection systems, drying and curing units, inserters, tabbers, folders, and attaching systems – has customizable solutions for printing operations of every type.
The prospect of bringing this diversified lineup to an equally diversified audience is what attracted Kirk-Rudy to exhibit at PRINTING United, according to company president Rick Marshall.
“We liked the idea of all different types of printing being represented in one grand showcase,” he says, citing the cross-marketing opportunities that the broadly-based makeup of the attendee audience will create.
This is expected to occur as PRINTING United, an event owned by Specialty Graphic Imaging Association (SGIA) and supported by NAPCO Media, brings the industry a new perspective on profiting in segments from garment to graphic, packaging to commercial, and industrial to in-plant. BRAND United, a co-located educational program, complements the experience with content aimed at brand owners and other customer audiences.
With its exhibit space in Dallas’s Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center almost fully booked, PRINTING United will sound the theme of convergence: a trend that is transforming the industry as print service providers of all kinds equip for new forms of production in addition to the ones in which they specialize. Research by SGIA and NAPCO Media indicates that most printers believe it is happening now and that the trend will accelerate in coming years.
Like many other PRINTING United exhibitors, Kirk-Rudy has seen the effects of convergence among its own customers. It gained momentum, says Williams, when commercial printers began to realize that using inkjet technology and automation in their operations can be a highly effective revenue source. In fact, Kirk-Rudy has one of the largest selections of high-speed inkjet printers (monochrome and process color) on the market today, as well as a full line of solutions for card attaching, specialty labeling, and RFID encoding.
“In this changing economic landscape, printers must find new revenue streams to complement their core operations,” says Williams, “and we are all about convergence and providing the right equipment to make it possible.”
About Kirk-Rudy Inc.
Since 1967, Kirk-Rudy has innovated solutions for addressing and paper handling for the direct mail, printing, newspaper and card industries. Because they engineer and manufacture systems from end to end in their state-of-the-art Georgia facility, they cacontrol costs while delivering outstanding quality and performance. That means outstanding value for their customers worldwide. Their global network of dealers offers a full range of modular Kirk-Rudy components, allowing customers to create custom systems that meet all their needs precisely.
About PRINTING United
PRINTING United, a new event owned and operated by SGIA in partnership with NAPCO Media, will launch in Dallas, Texas, October 23-25, 2019. Focusing on the opportunities presented by the convergence of printing technologies and markets, PRINTING United will cover print and finishing technologies in industry segments from garment to graphic, packaging to commercial, and industrial. Its objective is to convey all components of integrated solutions to satisfy virtually any client need.