Supplied by SOS, the two machines were installed in early August at the Plymouth business, which has its roots in litho production.
Director Gordon Bryan, whose father Ron Bryan established the company in the mid-1970s, said: “We took our first steps into wide-format with a solvent-based Roland roll-to-roll machine which we got from SOS five years ago, mainly producing posters and banners.
“It became such a success it was running 24 hours a day – so it was clear we needed extra capacity.
“A major client was asking for more and more work produced on rigid media, which meant mounting to board, a time consuming process. So we needed a hybrid machine which would produce direct to materials such as Corex, but also meet demand for our roll-fed work.”
The business took some time to investigate the market for wide-format hybrid equipment.
“SOS offered us the Xenons machine and the Ameida cutter for less than the price of a standalone hybrid machine from their rivals – it’s literally two machines for less than the price of one,” said Bryan.
“At first, this put me off a little – you wonder how it’s possible – but we were reassured that the Xenons uses the latest Ricoh printheads, which is the key component. Other users gave us good reports, and the test prints we did looked great.”
He added: “The cost may have been low, but the quality has been high. I can honestly say it has performed perfectly from day one, no matter what we have thrown at it.
“We’re very concerned with colour accuracy and it’s been calibrated to match the output of our other devices. The other big plus is productivity; because it’s an LED-UV machine, drying is instant, and because we opted for a rolling bed on the Almeida cutter, we have automated poster cutting which saves us upwards of four hours a day and frees up our operator.
“The cutter is very versatile; it comes with a big set of tools as standard – not as optional extras. The speed is great, and the accuracy is amazing.”
The Xenons X180 has a maximum width of 1.88m and will print on ACP, foam, board, flute board, glass, ceramic tiles, wood, and on a wide range of vinyl and flexible media. The Almeida cutter, meanwhile, is available in a wide range of sizes, in PDS Print’s case 2.5x1.3m.
