Large format printing is a business built on surfaces. A poster, a banner, a display panel-each one has a printed face that cannot be marked, creased, or scuffed. The final step, delivery, is where most damage happens.
One print shop we spoke to produces exhibition graphics, retail displays, and architectural renderings. Their output goes to venues, agencies, and directly to clients. Prints are rolled or flat-packed depending on size, and most deliveries are local, often by their own van.
Their packaging used to involve kraft paper and foam board. Kraft paper protected the printed face but offered little cushioning. Foam board was rigid and effective but expensive, and it had to be cut to size for each order.
The change came when they installed an Aircosan P90. The machine has a 90cm cutting width, handles cardboard up to 20mm thick, and runs at 12 metres per minute. It sits in their finishing area, next to the trimming table.
They use the output as a protective layer for flat-packed prints. The mesh goes against the printed face, then a sheet of cardboard goes on top, then the package is banded. For rolled prints, the mesh is wrapped around the outside of the tube.
The shop manager explained why the wide format mattered. Their print sizes are often 70cm and above, which meant narrower machines would have required cutting the cardboard down first. That extra step added time and created offcuts. The P90 takes the sheets as they come.
Two practical notes. The mesh should be clean and free of dust before it touches a print-they keep a dedicated bin for the material and do not use it for anything else. And the machine needs space to feed long sheets, which they solved by positioning it at the end of a bench rather than against a wall.
Aircosan builds these units themselves and manufactures models up to 120cm wide. The print shop mentioned this when explaining their choice-the sense that the machine was built by a manufacturer rather than assembled from bought-in parts.