Ralph Barras is CEO of Barras Enseignes in Chermignon (Switzerland), a small family business now in second-generation hands that he has run for 20 years. In 2023 he was considering options for a new UV flatbed printer, as the quality and reliability of the company’s existing large format printer were no longer up to standard. Its replacement would have to fit within a limited space and budget.
Life expectancy: 10+ years
Ralph Barras came across swissQprint at a trade fair. “At first I thought these machines were out of my price league,” he says. But a different picture emerged when it came to calculating operating costs: ink supplies, maintenance and electricity consumption. “The decisive factor was the expected service life of more than ten years,” explains Ralph Barras. “That was what finally convinced my bank, who were at first reluctant to back the investment.”
A swissQprint Oryx was the model of choice. Its dimensions, productivity and versatility fitted perfectly into Ralph Barras’ concept. He also liked having direct contact with the manufacturer.
Compact, economical and reliable
His team has been working with the new flatbed printer since January 2024. “The Oryx is a keeper,” is their unanimous verdict. Stress levels have gone down thanks to the Oryx being very reliable and user-friendly. Compared to the previous system, there is also massively less material waste and no more ink loss from white handling.
The Oryx is compact, its print bed measuring 2.5 × 2 metres. Nevertheless, Barras Enseignes can print 3 × 2 meter panels thanks to the swissQprint board option. Ralph Barras also had the printer equipped with a roll to roll option, which allows processing of roll media. This is where the team praises the machine’s multilayer mode, which makes for straightforward and registration-accurate printing onto transparent self-adhesive films.
Orders for international sporting events
Barras Enseignes continues to do a lot of business supplying sports events held in Crans Montana, among them the annual Omega European Masters Golf Tournament, the FIS Ski World Cup and the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup. “With Oryx, I’ve grown bolder when it comes to larger projects because this is a printer I know I can rely on,” says Ralph Barras. He is also venturing into backlit productions, something he did not previously offer.
Summing up, Ralph Barras says: “Now I understand what industry colleagues who do good work with swissQprint have always told me: here is a company that delivers outstanding products with top-notch service as well.”
