When top golf supplier Titleist wanted personalized boxes to package golf balls, its print broker was almost stumped. Surprising, perhaps, considering Titleist has long been able to custom print golf balls—with an easy-to-use order system residing on its web site.

But the company wanted to add to the appeal by allowing online customers to upload an image of a favorite hole from the links to create a truly unique offering.

It wasn't long before that broker thought of nine-year-old print-on-demand specialist Odyssey Digital Printing (Tulsa, OK). The commercial and packaging printer had for some time been using roll-fed digital presses from Xeikon America (www.xeikon.com) to print custom point-of-purchase (POP) work. And it had already developed the technical savvy to link to its customers' online ordering systems, allowing retail sites around the country to specify laminate overlays for everything from soft-drink dispensers to gasoline pumps. It had also demonstrated its ability to hold consistent color and quality for some of the best-known packaged brands on the planet.

Odyssey's 55 employees relocated in 2002 to a 33,000-sq-ft facility, tripling its size to accommodate new wide-format equipment. "POP is about 80 percent of our business," says John Roberds, president of the $6.6 million company. Two ad agencies, representing eight convenience store chains, account for a large part of Odyssey's business. The pressroom holds two Heidelberg (www.us.heidelberg.com) Quickmaster DI 46-4 systems, for newsletters and higher volumes of smaller-format POP jobs, and two Xeikons—a 50D and a 50SP.

"Our main objective is to change the way customers view their printing experience, with convenience being the number one advantage," says Roberds. To a large extent, he says, integrating finishing with digital printing has made this possible.

Running two shifts for most of the year, both its dry toner-based digital presses print at resolution comparable to a 2,400-dpi platesetter, Roberds says. The Xeikon 50SP prints on a single side, while the 50D is a full-duplex unit that prints both sides of substrates in register, simultaneously. Odyssey handles Xeikon runs on rolls of paper, vinyl, polyester and polystyrene, with thicknesses ranging from 27-lb. text to 16-pt paperboard.

Feeding heavier stocks (10- to 16-pt stock) complicates the xerographic process, says Roberds. "When the substrate is thick, toner fusing happens differently than on thinner stock," he says, noting the challenges resolved with Xeikon's technology in "getting the particles of toner to consistently transfer from the hopper they're in and onto [the substrate], all within perfect registration."

Keeping toner secure on sheets during finishing is critical. And diecutting in register on digital-print engines, which do not employ the gearing and mechanical register systems seen on conventional presses, requires specialized technology. The retinue of systems used to produce personalized short-run packaging containers for Titleist custom golf balls was adapted from work done for CDs and VHS cassettes. An off-line integrated roll-fed coater applies a protective layer prior to digital diecutting. The unique i-cut digital finishing solution from Mikkelsen Graphic Engineering-MGE (www.mge-us.com) converts large rolls of mixed printed packaging into individual package units.

"Short runs—with a half dozen different kinds of golf ball boxes, CD sleeves and VHS boxes—are a breeze," says Roberds.

Based on MGE's proprietary "vision" technology, the digital diecutting arrangement consists of a Zund cutting table, scoring wheel, computer file with cutting shapes and an MGE camera system that recognizes black register dots printed on the package by the Xeikons. The diecutting software has a variety of barcode-identified package layouts in memory. To account for variances in print repeats in the digital realm, the software works with the camera's view to locate the first registration dot. Then, using either CAD or Adobe Illustrator files, it automatically adjusts cutting parameters, compensating for any mis-registration or stretch, and sends instructions to the knife head.

"Changing the diecutter takes only two mins, versus 30 mins for a sheetfed press," Roberds notes. Odyssey uses the Xeikon/MGE digital diecutter combo for other complex jobs, including poster images placed on the front of soft-drink machines with cut-outs for dispensing beverages; boxes with special cut-outs to highlight a specific product or image; and magnets cut into special shapes with particular themes.

The 20-in. web width and unlimited length is the most important feature of the Xeikon web presses, says Roberds. "This means that customer applications are not limited to one particular sheet size. The 50D is very versatile because of its roll-fed nature. Odyssey was referred to Titleist because we're totally digital, and Titleist's turnaround requirement was three days for individual orders," says Roberds.

Titleist, with a 75-percent market share of the custom-logo golf ball market, offers a Diamond "PackEdge" with a photo of a golfer's favorite hole printed on the paperboard carton. Odyssey averages 40 to 50 of these orders each week, so automating workflow was key. Initially, files were built on-site with a Titleist artist, using specific order requirements for each customer. Now, orders are e-mailed from the customer's sales force, and PDFs for box covers, bodies and sleeves are uploaded to an FTP site. Because this job is consistent in design, most of the diecutting is done on a Preco Industries (www.precoindustries.com) Series III, which is a standard diecut press. "It's our workhorse," says Roberds, "and it's fast."

This article originally appeared in Graphic Arts Monthly (May 2005).