INDUSTRY INSIGHT: Think Big, Print Big: Inside Epson's Vision for the Future of Print Manufacturing
Expanding the Map: New Products and New Revenue Streams:
Across textile, signage, photo and proofing, and CAD ranges, Epson is building product ladders - entry, mid, and high-end - so businesses can bring work in-house rather than outsource it.
“This is about helping businesses say "yes" to their customers more often, turning a single client relationship into multiple revenue streams.”
“In an industry obsessed with the next game-changer, the discipline of listening, refining, and improving what already works is its own competitive advantage”.
There's a quiet revolution happening just off Junction 20 of the M1. Tucked away in Leicestershire, Epson's innovation centre has become something more than a showroom. It's a place where the future of commercial and industrial print is being tested, questioned, and refined in real time.
I recently sat down with Rob Weissenberger at Epson's "Think Big Print Big" event, now in its second year, to understand what's actually driving change in print manufacturing, and why the way businesses adopt new technology matters just as much as the technology itself. What emerged was a candid picture of an industry in transition, where the winners won't simply be those with the newest kit, but those who make the smartest, most informed decisions.
Here's what stood out:
The Demo Centre is the Real Innovation
It's tempting to focus on the machines. And there are plenty of them - the facility opened around 18 months ago and, in Rob's words, they're already "running out of space." But the most interesting story isn't the hardware. It's the philosophy behind the space itself.
Trade shows have their place. They generate excitement, gather communities, and put new products in front of large audiences. But as Rob pointed out, the conversations at shows tend to be short, and customers rarely walk away with the depth of understanding they actually need.
The demo centre flips that model. Open Monday to Friday, it allows customers to:
Run their own print files on their own media, rather than relying on polished best-case demonstrations
Test multiple competing technologies side by side, such as resin versus eco-solvent, under one roof
Spend real time with application specialists who understand both the products and the markets they serve
This matters more than it might first appear. The gap between a manufacturer's brochure - running speeds, colour yield, ink consumption per metre - and the genuine, day-to-day production reality is where many businesses lose money. A space designed to close that gap is a quietly radical idea.
Colour: The Hidden Source of Waste
If there was one theme that surfaced again and again in our conversation, it was colour. And specifically, the enormous cost of getting it wrong.
Colour is, as we discussed, often the biggest source of waste in textile production. The problem is insidious because it's an input issue that only reveals itself at output. By the time a mismatched colour appears on the finished product, the material, time, and energy have already been spent. In traditional textiles, the volume of work running slightly off-delta represents a massive, ongoing drain.
This is where Epson's SD-10 spectrophotometer, released a couple of years ago, has proven genuinely transformative. The tool allows users to:
Scan a colour directly from a customer's sample and instantly check, via mobile phone, whether it's even achievable on their Epson device
Bring those values straight into their software RIP to recreate the colour quickly and accurately
Match colours across different print technologies, from eco-solvent S-series printers to dye-sublimation, DTG and the new DTF devices
That last point deserves emphasis. The SD-10 isn't locked to a single machine. A business running a home-furnishings operation might need to match a colour across polyester fabrics, cotton, and wallcoverings, all for a single client scheme - a hotel, perhaps, or a children's nursery. Matching colour across different substrates, batches, and inks at speed has historically been one of the industry's greatest frustrations. Tools like the SD-10 turn that frustration into a simple, factual, near-instant answer: it's a match, or it isn't.
The commercial impact is real. Rob shared that several high-profile sportswear manufacturers have used the SD-10 to transition from rival print technologies over to Epson, precisely because it gave them confidence that colour consistency would survive the switch. In a fast-moving fashion industry built on on-demand production, that confidence is everything.
Kaizen: Why Incremental Beats Revolutionary
One of the more philosophically interesting moments in our discussion was Rob's reflection on how Epson approaches product development.
When a machine lands well and earns respect within the industry, Epson doesn't tear it up and start again. Instead, the focus shifts to incremental, considered improvement - the Japanese principle of Kaizen, or continuous improvement.
The process is genuinely collaborative. Epson gathers feedback from existing customers, and colleagues are brought over from Japan to ask end users a deceptively simple question: if you had a magic wand, what would you change to make this machine even better? That feedback flows back into R&D, and the results appear in subsequent generations.
There's a lesson here that extends well beyond Epson. In an industry obsessed with the next game-changer, the discipline of listening, refining, and improving what already works is its own competitive advantage.
Expanding the Map: New Products, New Revenue Streams
The event showcased new and recent additions to the range, each designed to help businesses open up fresh channels of revenue rather than chase a single trend.
The SureColor V4000, unveiled this year, is a particularly versatile machine that straddles two markets:
Smaller-format signage, such as health and safety signs, with print sizes up to A1+, a zonal vacuum bed for handling A4, A3 and A2 pieces, and an adjustable carriage height that accommodates substrates from 5mm up to 200mm deep
The promotional and gifting market, printing onto golf balls, pens, USB sticks and similar branded items, but at a far higher productivity than its smaller predecessor, the V1000
Meanwhile, Epson has deliberately taken its time entering the DTF (Direct-to-Film) market. Rather than rushing, the company waited to launch an OEM solution it could stand behind -one that delivers the trust, consistent colour, and ease of use customers associate with the brand. The G6000 has sold strongly since launch, and a wider model, the G9000 (covering up to 1.6m), now extends that offering for higher-volume producers, with the ability to print twin rolls simultaneously through a shaker.
The strategic thread running through all of this is clear. Across textile, signage, photo and proofing, and CAD ranges, Epson is building product ladders - entry, mid, and high-end - so businesses can bring work in-house rather than outsource it. As Rob put it, this is about helping businesses say "yes" to their customers more often, turning a single client relationship into multiple revenue streams.
Key Takeaways and Action Points
For business leaders weighing their next move in print manufacturing, several clear principles emerge from this conversation:
Treat colour as a profit-and-loss issue, not a technical afterthought. The waste generated by poor colour matching is real and recurring. Tools like the SD-10 should be viewed as investments in margin, not just convenience.
Test before you commit. Don't buy on the strength of a brochure. Bring your own files and substrates to a demo environment, and make decisions based on your production reality, not best-case figures.
Look for ecosystems, not just machines. The greatest value comes when technologies speak the same language and smooth the journey from input to output. Consider how a new purchase fits within your wider workflow.
Adopt deliberately into emerging markets like DTF. A trusted, well-engineered solution will serve you better over the long term than an early but unstable one.
Use new technology to expand, not just optimise. The smartest businesses are bringing previously outsourced work in-house and opening entirely new channels of revenue and added value.
A Note of Thanks
Our sincere thanks to Rob Weissenberger for taking the time to share his experience and his vision for the future of the textile industry and the technologies that power its manufacturing community. Conversations like this one are a reminder that the future of print won't be built by hardware alone, but by the knowledge, collaboration, and care that surround it.
The doors at Lutterworth, Leicestershire are open Monday to Friday. For any business serious about its next step, that's an invitation worth accepting.
