中文At Visual Impact, Direct-to-Object printing took center stage on the Mutoh stand, with managing director Roman Bacci naming DTO one of the “biggest growth categories” in print. The emphasis reflects a broader repositioning of DTO from niche customization novelty to a serious, higher-margin production opportunity for print service providers looking to diversify beyond flat-sheet and roll work — and a recognition that the next wave of print expansion happens on the surface of the objects themselves.
Mutoh’s DTO credentials in the Australia-New Zealand region are unusually specific. Bacci noted that Mutoh is the primary supplier of DTO systems for braille signage in ANZ, an application with strict, measurable requirements. The company’s models use LED UV flatbed and benchtop printers with multi-layer ink control to build precise braille dot heights, typically between 0.6 mm and 0.9 mm — a capability where tactile accuracy, not just visual quality, is the product, and where compliance drives recurring, mission-critical demand.
The hardware range spans accessible benchtop units to full-sized flatbeds. The XpertJet family includes the XPJ-461UF (A3+ benchtop), the XPJ-661UF (A2 benchtop) and the full-sized XPJ-1462UF flatbed. These are powered by Mutoh’s VerteLith RIP software or compatible design tools such as CADLink Digital Factory, which let operators layer CMYK, white and clear varnish inks into tactile dots without traditional embossing equipment. That layered-ink approach is what makes braille and other raised-effect applications feasible on a standard UV printer, collapsing a specialist process into a general-purpose machine.
Direct-to-Object printing’s appeal is economic as much as creative. By printing directly onto the end product — a phone case, a promotional gift, a sign, a panel — decorators eliminate the intermediate substrate and the labour of applying a transfer. For short runs and personalization, that simplification protects margin and shortens turnaround, both of which matter as customers expect faster, more customized output and as decorators compete on speed as much as price.
Mutoh also showcased its four-colour eco-solvent 1641 SRP2 64-inch printer among other machines on the stand. The 1641 SRP2 runs eight ink cartridges into four channels and, Bacci noted, is best suited to outdoor use because eco-solvent inks offer longevity under varied weather conditions. The contrast on the stand — UV DTO for objects and tactile signage alongside eco-solvent wide format for outdoor graphics — illustrates how a single vendor now spans very different application logic under one roof.
For ANZ print businesses, the takeaway is that DTO is no longer experimental. Whether the entry point is braille compliance, promotional product personalization or industrial marking, Mutoh is positioning its XpertJet line as the accessible, RIP-supported route in. As Bacci’s “biggest growth categories” remark suggests, vendors are betting that Direct-to-Object printing will be one of the few segments where print service providers can still command healthy margins by adding capability rather than cutting price.
Information source: Print21 (https://print21.com.au/vi-direct-to-object-focus-at-mutoh/).
This development arrives as the global printing and packaging industry navigates a period of simultaneous consolidation and specialization, where the ability to add a credible new capability — whether a sustainable substrate, a productivity tool or a diversified technology — increasingly separates the shops and suppliers that grow from those that merely hold market share. The companies and associations moving decisively now are positioning themselves to capture demand that will only intensify as regulations tighten and customers professionalize their own supply chains. For smaller players in particular, the lesson is that resilience comes less from scale alone than from the willingness to adopt proven technology and to communicate value clearly to a market that is rapidly professionalizing around them.
Looking ahead, the practical implication for print service providers and converters is that incremental improvement is no longer sufficient; the market rewards those who treat capability, sustainability and workflow as connected investments rather than separate line items. Whether the trigger is a new material, a new press or a new software layer, the winners tend to be the organizations that integrate the change into how they sell, produce and account for work. That integration is precisely what turns a headline announcement into durable competitive advantage, and it is why trade coverage of individual product launches is most useful when read as a signal of where the whole industry is heading next.
None of this happens in isolation. The suppliers, converters and associations making headlines this season are part of a single, interlocking shift toward higher-value, lower-waste, better-connected production. Capital is flowing to the assets — presses, films, curing systems, software and people — that let a business say yes to more kinds of work without proportionally expanding its cost base. For an industry long defined by thin margins and cyclical demand, that ability to flex is the clearest path to stability, and it explains why so much of the current news cycle is about capability and capacity rather than pure volume.
