The new HP Latex 3000 wide-format printer promises to offer the quality of print and vibrancy of colour associated with latex printing, but at industrial production speeds of 77sqm/hr for indoor application work and 120sqm/hr for outdoor quality.

When was it launched? Who is it aimed at?
The printer will make its UK debut at Fespa 2013 at the end of the month, and will be commercially available from August. It is aimed at larger operations, printing a range of wide-format products, such as billboards, banners, textiles, self-adhesive vinyl and truck curtains. It is aimed at those who might be considering two slower latex machines to achieve the productivity required, and at those considering UV and solvent technologies. "We've got customers who have got our products, but because their business is growing they would either need to buy another two of the previous iteration or buy one of these," says Jane Rixon, UK & Ireland channel business manager, large-format production products, HP. "It's also aimed at people considering Durst and Vutek machines."

How does it work?
HP has boosted the print speeds possible with latex, it says, by enhancing the way the ink is cured on the bed of the printer. "That enables the substrate to move through the machine faster," says Rixon. "It also uses half the power the current machines use to cure the inks."

How does it differ from previous products?
Aside from offering higher speeds than the previous generations of HP latex machines, the 3000 also offers more cost-effective and scratch-resistant prints, says the vendor. "If you were comparing it to a solvent machine then the cost-per-copy on a latex machine would have been higher and things like resistance to scratching would have been lower on the previous generation of latex inks than on hard solvent inks," says Rixon. She adds: "You're able to use heavier rolls on the Latex 3000 than you could on the previous 850. You've also got larger capacity, 5-litre cartridges. And you can put two rolls on side by side to maximise productivity."

Rixon adds that the current generation of latex printers -the L26500 and L28500, and the more industrial LX600, 820 and 850 - will, for now, continue to use the current iteration of latex inks. The machines will however become part of a new ‘HP Latex' brand, equivalent to HP's Designjet and Scitex families.

What is its USP?
HP says its latest latex inks are significantly different to those used in competitor latex models. "Our third-generation latex inks have six colours plus an ink optimiser, which is a transparent, almost seventh, ink that's laid down before the other inks to make these key to the surface even better," says Rixon. She adds that the overall USP of the machine is its "high image quality and versatility of materials you can print on".

How easy is it to use and what support is on offer?
"It's all touchscreen on the front, and as part of the installation we're offering ‘Ramp Up,' which means once the machine's been working at a customer's site for two or three weeks, we'll send someone in for two days to just be on hand to make sure everything's being done correctly," says Rixon. She adds that a year's warranty and next business day service support is included with all installations.

What are sales targets like and how has it been received?
The HP Latex 3000 has so far been beta tested by two yet to be disclosed printers, one in Spain and one in Germany. Reactions have been very positive so far, reports Rixon. In light of this response, sales targets will be dependent on how quickly machines can be built, she says: "That's going to be our challenge as everyone we're showing it to wants one. So it will be a matter of how many we're actually able to build. We've not released any targets."

SPECIFICATIONS
Max speed Indoor: 77sqm/hr; Outdoor: 120sqm/hr
Max resolution 1,200dpi
Inks Black, cyan, light cyan, light magenta, magenta, yellow, HP Latex Optimizer
Formats Roll-to-roll, roll-to-free fall, roll-to- collector, dual-roll
Media types Banners, self-adhesive vinyls, films, papers, wallcoverings, canvas, mesh (with liner), textiles (non-porous or with liner)
Roll widths Single roll: up to 3.2m; Dual rolls: up to 2x1.6m
Max substrate thickness 0.8mm
Price £230,000
Contact HP 01344 363368 www.hp.com

ALTERNATIVES

Durst Rho P10 320R
Part of the Rho P10 Series, the 320R is a UV printer rather than latex, but is comparable in the range of outdoor signage, POP and display materials it is designed to produce.
Max speed High-speed mode: 150sqm/hr; high-resolution mode: 60m²/hr
Max resolution 1,000 dpi
Inks Rho Roll Ink UV-curable pigment inks
Roll width 3.2m
Max substrate thickness 2mm
Formats Flatbed, roll-to-roll
Media types indoor and outdoor signage, POP material, packaging and backlit luxury goods
Price £250,000-£300,000 depending on spec
Contact Durst 01372 388540 www.durst-online.co.uk

EFI Vutek QS3 Pro
Although not a latex machine, the QS3 Pro is a similar offering when it comes to speed, applications and print quality. It is available in both a roll-to-roll and flatbed configuration.
Max speed 111sqm/hr
Max resolution 1,000dpi
Inks EFI Vutek UV Ink, six colours plus white
Roll width 3.2m
Max substrate thickness 50mm
Formats Rigid and flexible substrates
Media types Sign and display substrates
Price £311,435
Contact EFI UK 01246 298000 w3.efi.com

Fujifilm Uvistar Pro8
This UV printer is designed for high volume outdoor and indoor display graphics, and is available as a 3m or 5m model.
Max speed 275sqm/hr
Max resolution 600dpi (1,200dpi apparent)
Inks Fujifilm Uvijet QN, UV-curable, eight colours including lights
Max print width 3.5m
Max substrate thickness 25mm
Media types POS displays and outdoor advertising on rigid and flexible media (flexible or self-adhesive vinyl, mesh, blue back paper, backlit, spun bonded polyethylene)
Price £259,000
Contact Fujifilm 01234 572340 www.fujifilm.eu/uk

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There are good reasons why it was chosen to replace the old four-colour Komori Lithrone 426, which was boxed up, shipped out, and now trundles away somewhere on the subcontinent. First off, is the quality of the print, a particularly key requirement in Capital Group's line of work. The 35-staff company started life as a specialist photography business more than 25 years ago, and still has an in-house team of photographers and designers, along with floor-plan specialists, who create house plans to meet exacting professional surveying standards.

But a large part of the business now is printing brochures for estate agents, including Savills, Knight Frank and John D Wood. And so it's crucial to deliver the best first impression of a home, where roaring fires coexist in picture-perfect harmony with blue skies, with solid blocks of colour and shimmering tints on printed materials looking their unblemished best.

But the Enthrone E29 delivers more than just the quality of its print, says Thistleton. The new machine was bought at the end of 2011 to improve not only on the quality, but also the performance of the old Lithrone, which Thistleton says was "old-school spanners and bolts".

The new press is anything but, featuring automated pre-inking and plate changing. The company saw the Enthrone E29 at Ipex 2010 and its ability to handle heavyweight stock day in, day out, was one of several things that made it an attractive proposition. Most of Capital Group's work is on 350gsm stock or 220gsm for multi-page work.

"We design all our own work and needed corresponding printability," says Thistleton. "We needed very high standards to keep up with the demand for this kind of work. The old machine was a 1996 model and couldn't work with solids and tinted backgrounds. All our work is for estate agents, and we were sending more work out than we were printing."

The new press "has changed all that", and enabled the company to expand into B2 work. Occasionally a client will ring up for 10,000 high-quality folders, but the bulk of jobs are for anything from two-page A4 portrait leaflets to larger 60-page bound brochures, all in runs of 100 to 500 copies.

Testing times
Before these live orders, however, came many trials and tests. Capital Group's investment, which was around £450,000, was not a rushed decision. Although the machine went in at the end of 2011, as long ago as before the credit crunch the team had been doing a "bit of homework".

Capital Group looked at three machines, but the one that took the Komori Enthrone E29 up to the wire was a five-colour Ryobi 750W series machine from supplier Apex Digital Graphics. Thistleton lined up five demo jobs to test the presses with and included some difficult elements, such as print involving dark green. The Komori came out on top, but only just. What swung it was cost: a brand new Ryobi was around £60,000 more than the ex-demo Komori Enthrone. "To be fair to Ryobi, it was a fantastic demo, but it came down to price," recalls Thistleton.

Although delivery of the machine was always going to be challenging in a busy inner-city location such as Brixton, preparing the factory floor was relatively straightforward. No structural changes were required to floors or walls, as has been the case with other kit, reports Thistleton.

Then it was a case of getting down to the training included by Komori in the deal, which Thistleton reports was pretty straightforward for him and his brother Terry, as both are experienced minders who learned their skills on older, conventional equipment before touchscreen controls became the norm.

A highly automated system still has huge benefits though, says Thistleton. "Instead of two minders, the new Komori needs only one, so the company has saved on one salary," he says. "We make plates in-house, the file is ripped and goes to the press; it's all pre-set - there's no trouble."

"Fit-up for the first 20 sheets takes only five minutes, while makereadies take 10 minutes, this represents a 50% cut in makeready times," he adds of how quick the machine is to turn work around. He points out, however, that the maximum speed needed for runs of 400 or 500 is only 8,500sph rather than the Komori's maximium speed of 13,000sph.

Despite its impressive quality and productivity, using the new machine hasn't been completely without problems for Capital Group. The biggest issue the firm encountered has been with the ink duct, where instead of turning over smoothly, it juddered and produced a stop-start flow of colour.

"There was an issue with that particular machine before delivery," confirms Komori UK director of sheetfed sales Steve Turner. "It somehow got exposed to a little damp and there was a bit of rust on the ink duct. This happened in transit, but is highly unusual and was easy to fix. There have been no ongoing issues."

"At the time of installation, the machine at Capital Group was the first in the UK; we have since sold three more and several on mainland Europe," he adds.

Thistleton says he is well-satisfied with this diagnosis. He was also very impressed with the speed with which engineers were onsite to replace this part, and the speed with which phone support was given to resolve small software glitches that occurred early on. Komori engineers giving out their mobile phone numbers, has also really impressed Thistleton.

Dryer costs
The only other gripe Thistleton has had is with the machine's infrared dryer - or lack of it. This was ruled out on the machine because Capital deemed it too expensive, although Komori's Turner says the vendor buys the system from a third-party supplier and has no influence on pricing, and that Komori puts very little mark-up on this.

Either way, this is only a minor annoyance for Thistleton, who would not only recommend the machine, but has recommended it in demonstrations on Brixton Hill. A firm brought an Enthrone E29 a few months ago on the strength of a visit to south London, while a printer in Scotland has lined up a visit in a few months.

Thistleton's summary to that printer may echo his for PrintWeek: "There is nothing you can't print on the machine. We are taking on work we couldn't take on before and as far as quality goes it's a vast improvement. I would say 50% of the work we are doing now we would not have been able to do if we had stuck with our old press, and that statistic alone tells a story."

SPECIFICATIONS
Max speed 13,000sph
Max sheet size 530x750mm
Stock thickness range 0.04-0.6mm
Max printing area 520x736mm
Guide price £450,000
Contact Komori UK 0113 823 9200 www.komori.com

Company profile
Capital Group has more than 25 years of experience producing photography, floor plans, bespoke design for brochures, advertising and corporate branding. Everything, says print production manager Ray Thistleton, is produced in-house and under one roof for estate agents including Savills, Knight Frank and John D Wood.

Why it was bought…
The company wanted to bolster its short-run, fast-turnaround service specialising in high-quality brochures and leaflets. In searching for a new press to replace the existing 16-year-old Komori, Capital Group needed to ensure it could handle increasingly sophisticated designs with added-value heavy solids, reversals, graduated tints and knock-backs.

How it has performed…
Thistleton says there are "no real negatives", while positives include a reduction in waste, fast makeready and turnaround and good quality of print. He adds: "There is nothing you can't print on the machine, whereas before we were restricted to certain jobs and the bigger solids had to go out. It's B2 so we can print oversize, which we couldn't before."

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"Particularly for a lot of the ethical healthcare packaging that we produce for Japanese companies, the products are subject to very stringent expectations," says operations director Jon Drennan, who explains that the 245-strong team at Leicester produces a wide assortment of healthcare and pharmaceutical packaging products, from tablet and cream packs to complex vial inserts.

"In the world of packaging, it's just well known that anything that goes to Japan has a much higher quality expectation than anywhere else in the world," he continues. "It's dramatically higher. If there are problems with the packaging, it's associated with faults with the product, so all those items have to be 100% hand sorted offline once printed, cut and glued."

It's easy to imagine, then, just how excited the plant was when they were approached to beta test a product that would eliminate the need for manual checking completely, while maintaining a high level of quality control.

This opportunity came in the form of Heidelberg's new Diana X 80 folder-gluer with Braille unit and inline inspection.

Drennan reports that nothing else quite like this existed at the time and so opting for the Diana X 80 to replace a couple of ageing Jagenberg folder-gluers, back in May last year, was something of a no-brainer. "Very quickly after that, Bobst brought a similar offering out, but at the time, Heidelberg was the only supplier of this sort of product," reports Drennan.

He adds that the beta opportunity was appealing not only because the plant was already looking to upgrade its folder-gluer line-up, and because inline inspection would prove something of a godsend for their specific operations, but because the company generally prides itself as being at the forefront of technology.

"I'm not going to profess that beta testing is always a smooth road, but we pride ourselves on being at the cutting edge of what's possible. We have a number of examples around the factory where we have first-in-the-world machines that we're testing," says Drennan of the Leicester plant's array of kit, which includes, most notably, five Komori presses, six Bobst die-cutters and seven folder-gluers, which are a mixture of Bobst, Jagenberg and Heidelberg units. He adds: "We have a very good selection process, we don't do this with just anybody, so we've got a good hit rate in terms of successful returns."

Productivity boost

With its beta test period having just been signed off, the X 80 can certainly be counted as one of these successes. Drennan reports that the folder-gluer is so efficient that the company has "been able to remove shifts and machines equivalent to two folder-gluers". He adds: "It's much more productive, much faster. We've been able to replace those machines and reduce costs accordingly."

The inline inspection system has of course played a huge role in boosting productivity. Running the system doesn't involve any compromise on speed, reports Drennan, who explains that the system entails a camera comparing every product to a customer-approved PDF as it is processed at the gluing stage.

"It inspects at 300m a minute and if there are any deviations it ejects them from the line without slowing the process down or stopping the line," says Drennan.

"We can set the fault limits or deviations that we want to automatically reject from the machine and the ones we want to accept," he continues. "We can set the quality control to different levels depending on the type of packaging we're producing. We're able to set it in line with agreements with our customers."

So easy-to-use and reliable is the system, Chesapeake Leicester use it with all customers, even if their quality demands aren't quite as exacting as the firm's Japanese clients'. "Because it's been so successful, we run that camera on every job," says Drennan. "So we use it all the time - 24 hours a day, six days a week, because it allows us to remove any potential faults."

Drennan adds that quite apart from the inspection system, the way the machine operates just generally leads to fewer flaws in the finished products. "The machine reduces marking overall anyway," he says.

Meanwhile, having a folder-gluer with a Braille unit has allowed the plant to be more flexible in terms of which stage they add this finish. Whereas before, all Braille markings were added at the cutting and creasing stage, productivity can be boosted in some instances by adding this with the Diana X 80.

"We've done a commercial assessment and have found that, depending on the number of cartons per sheet, there's a cut-off point that means sometimes it's more effective to add Braille within the cutting and creasing process and sometimes on the folder-gluer," says Drennan.

He explains that where possible, it's preferable to use the folder-gluer due to the impressively short makeready time of the Diana X 80's Braille unit. "By working with Heidelberg throughout this process we've been able to get the makeready down to about five minutes. That's actually quicker than makereadies on cutting and creasing," he says.

And this proactive approach has been characteristic of Heidelberg throughout the beta test period. "They've been willing to work with us very closely all the way through," he says. "We've had general and detailed research and development meetings where they've been willing to continually listen to our comments, re-engineer the product and make changes to future versions, which is not something you can say about a huge number of manufacturers even if you're beta testing with them."

Tweaks included enhancing the sophistication of the inspection system software to boost its speed, and enhancing the user interface's ease of use. "These inspection systems are very, very complex and while they have to be, we also have to bear in mind that we're asking the operators to do an additional task and we're asking them to take control of something they haven't had exposure to until recently," explains Drennan. "In the beginning the inspection systems would have been taking 15 or 20 minutes to make ready, now it's down to two minutes. That's due to software upgrades, changes to the user interface and simplification of the system."

Size matters

One slight gripe Drennan has is with the footprint of the machine, something that made installation slightly tricky. "We do have quite a challenging environment because we don't have a particularly big area where the machine is," he says. "It was a little bit of a job to get the machine into position at that end of the gluing department. A standard folder-gluer for straightline cartons is around 17 or 18m long, but with the Braille and inspection units, this is more like 27m long, so it's 30% bigger. That does have advantages as the machine is capable of gluing cartons that are 800mm wide when flat, but we only go up to about 500mm."

But although this size isn't ideal for Chesapeake, Drennan does understand that the machine has to meet the needs of customers producing larger cartons. And with this the biggest niggle Chesapeake Leicester has, Drennan is on balance very pleased with his new machine.

The Diana X 80 system has brought new work the plant's way both in the form of those attracted by the high-quality assurance the inspection system offers, such as those in the Japanese packaging market, and in the form of those just generally attracted by a company with such cutting-edge technology, reports Drennan.

"The fact that we've been developing this with a key supplier, the fact that we're at the cutting edge of what's possible - there's no question we've increased our business as a result, even where a customer's work isn't necessarily linked to that. It's just the fact that we've got it," he says.

So pleased has Chesapeake Leicester been with the performance of its beta Diana X 80 and with the extra sales it has brought in, that another four of the same model - some straightline, some with more complex configurations - have been bought for other Chesapeake plants.

Gone soon, then, will be the days of laborious manual inspections and magnifying glasses at Chesapeake. In its place: a new age of speedy, automatic on-machine inspections, which should keep the company firmly at the cutting edge of technological innovation.

SPECIFICATIONS

Carton formats Straightline, lockbottom, collapsible and double-wall

Stock weight range 200-900gsm

Min footprint 16.2x1.9m

Price £420,000-£750,000 depending on configuration

Contact Heidelberg UK 0844 892 2010 www.uk.heidelberg.com

COMPANY PROFILE

Consisting of 43 companies worldwide, Chesapeake is a big player in the cartons, labels, leaflets and specialist plastic packaging markets. The group has 20 locations in the UK, one of which is pharmaceutical and healthcare packaging producer Chesapeake Leicester. The site produces around 690m cartons per year, ranging from packaging for tablets and creams, to skillet packs and complex vial inserts. Key assets at the site include five Komori presses, six Bobst cutting and creasing machines and seven folder-gluers, which are a mixture of Bobst, Jagenberg and Heidelberg units.

Why it was bought...

The Leicester site invested in a Heidelberg Diana X 80 folder-gluer to replace a couple of ageing Jagenberg machines. The team opted for this over a competitor model due to Heidelberg offering the opportunity for Chesapeake Leicester to be the first beta test site for this new folder-gluer model with Braille and inline inspection units.

How it has performed...

Operations director at the Leicester plant, Jon Drennan, reports that the beta test period has gone very successfully. He has been impressed not only with the speed and reliability of the machine, he says, but also by how proactive Heidelberg has been in correcting problems and responding to suggested improvements.

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DNS Enhanced Color Inkjet is one of a class of papers for inkjet printing called pigmented papers, which are a halfway house between uncoated and full coated papers designed to produce higher quality results at lower prices. "On high ink coverage jobs the ink is much more expensive than the paper, and pigment inks are more expensive than dye inks," says Bernhard Cantzler, Mondi business development manager for high-speed inkjet print. "On DNS Enhanced Color Inkjet the results from dye inks look as good as the results from pigmented inks on other stocks. You get the strength of colour without paying the premium for pigmented inks."

When was it launched?

It was first announced in the autumn of 2012 and then launched earlier this year at the Hunkeler Innovationdays in Lucerne in February.

How does it work?

According to Cantzler "it has a light, functional inkjet coating". It is a halfway house between dedicated inkjet coated papers and uncoated and inkjet optimised papers. Dedicated inkjet coatings can produce stunning results but cost several thousand euros per tonne, and therefore are unsuitable for most commercial work. Uncoated paper is just that and the water-based inks get soaked up like a sponge. DNS Enhanced Color Inkjet differs from optimised grades in that dyes in the ink adhere to the coating of white pigment, holding the colour on the surface.

How does it differ from previous products?

Mondi has been focused on inkjet for the past three to four years; DNS Enhanced Color Inkjet is the latest development in the range. "We launched this portfolio with DNS high-speed inkjet and diversified the range, bringing in DNS high-speed inkjet CF, an uncoated paper with a coated feel and DNS high-speed inkjet NF [natural feel]," says Cantzler. "Our high-speed inkjet portfolio also includes 100% recycled Nautilus high-speed inkjet and the totally chlorine-free bleached Bio Top 3."

What is the USP of the product?

Top quality results at a lower price point than previously possible for colour continuous-feed inkjet, which Mondi claims will expand the range of applications address-able with inkjet to include commercial print and direct mail.

How easy is it to use?

The paper has been tested by a number of printers using presses from a range of manufacturers, including Océ, Kodak Versamark VL, Ricoh and Screen equipment with dye inks, and HP T-series, Kodak Prosper and Ricoh and Screen presses with pigment inks.

What support is on offer?

Mondi will ensure the paper meets requirements by slitting reels to the appropriate width for the wider web machines from KBA, Océ and all the way up to the 1m-plus HP T400 series. It also offers a range of different weights, including those not produced as standard. According to Cantzler: "DNS Enhanced Color Inkjet is available in three weights: 80, 90 and 100gsm. We are also able to fulfil requests for heavier weights up to a maximum of 160gsm, which is a limit imposed by most high-speed inkjet machines."

How much does it cost?

Mondi was unable to give exact pricing, as this will depend on individual contract negotiations, including volumes and duration. However, it did say that pricing for DNS Enhanced Color Inkjet was 15%-20% higher than its inkjet optimised grades. (Inkjet reel paper prices have started to fall as the volumes used have increased and it is now estimated that market pricing starts at around €800 [£672] per tonne.)

What is the sales target and what is the uptake currently worldwide and in the UK?

Mondi claims to have one UK customer for DNS Enhanced Color Inkjet although was not prepared to reveal the customer's identity. In terms of total potential sites that could use the stock it depends on the number of installations of high-speed continuous-feed colour inkjet presses and the applications for which they are used. Also Mondi is not alone in this market, with a number of firms offering comparable pigmented grades in the European market.

SPECIFICATIONS
Type Pigmented inkjet paper for high-speed reel-fed printing
Weights 80, 90 and 100gsm as standard. Weights of up to 160gsm available as a special order
Price 15%-20% uplift on Mondi's uncoated and optimised inkjet grades
Contact Mondi Uncoated Fine Paper +43 (0)1 790130 www.mondigroup.com

ALTERNATIVES

Crown van Gelder Crown Digital FC

Dutch paper mill Crown Van Gelder has been one of the leading suppliers to the reel-fed inkjet market to date as it was one of the few smaller mills targeting the market when the volumes were too small for the major players to show much interest. Crown Digital FC is its pigmented paper, it also offers optimised papers.
Weights 90 and 120gsm
Contact Crown van Gelder +31 (0)251 262233 www.cvg.nl

Drewsen ProInkjet C

German specialist mill Drewsen is one of the firms with a pigmented paper that is on Océ's list of materials suitable for use with its dye-based inks.
Weights 90gsm
Contact Drewsen Special Papers 01442 245766 www.drewsen.com

Ziegler Z-Evolution

Swiss mill Ziegler is another smaller mill that has specialised in inkjet papers. Z-Evolution is its pigmented paper. It all produces optimised grades Z-Advance and Z-Plot 650.
Weights 80, 90 and 135gsm
Contact Ziegler +41 (0)61 745 12 12 www.zieglerpapier.com

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The NewBind Prima is a PUR single-clamp binding machine with a closed and pressurised internal tank. It features manual block loading with semi-automatic pre-setting of the clamp. Spines are milled and micro-notched and then a soft cover is fed, formed and nipped around the block. Bound books can be guillotined after an hour or so, but the full curing time is about 24 hours. This is fine for the books-on-demand market, where same-day despatch is often required although the book will not be opened until 24 hours have passed.

When was it launched and what market is it aimed at?
Prima was launched in March by Encore Machinery, UK distributor for NewBind machines, and having only been on the market for a matter of weeks has not been sold into the UK yet. It is intended for short-run printers, particularly those with digital presses and which, as they would not use it continuously, would not previously have been able to justify buying a PUR binder. Mike Biggs, managing director of Encore Machinery, explains that other sub-£20,000 PUR binders have open tanks, meaning they have to be used fairly constantly as adhesive in the tank absorbs moisture from the air after a few hours and has to be cleaned out if not used.

"The Prima opens up the possibility for more general short-run, quick-turnaround work, such as digital printing," says Biggs. "Photobooks, coated papers, difficult papers - it can do all that. PUR is becoming essential there."

How does it work?
The internal pressurised tank takes 2kg packs of PUR adhesive. Air from a compressor goes through several moisture filters before reaching the tank. A slot nozzle feeds adhesive on to the spine and sides of the block and, when not in use, the adhesive is pumped back into the tank to keep it out of contact with the air.

If the binder is to be left unused, the operator runs a wax stick over the head slot to seal it. At the start of the next shift the head needs a two-minute wipe. Very little other maintenance is needed, according to Biggs. There's an optional cleaning tank for an extra £1,950.

What's its USP?
UK agent Encore Machinery believes the machine is the only closed-tank PUR binder priced below £20,000.

How does it differ from previous versions?
NewBind has been manufacturing single- and four-clamp binders for some years, starting with high-end, high-volume models. It developed and patented an internal closed-tank PUR gluing system, which cut costs compared with rivals' external tanks and feeds, and then entered the low-cost, short-run sector with the Adventure binder for both PUR and hot-melt glues, costing in the "mid-to-high twenty thousands". This was followed last year by the Pioneer, which adds endsheet lifting for use with hard covers, for around £35,000.

The new Prima does without the automatic clamp adjustment and some other features of the pricier Adventure and Pioneer. Biggs says: "Prima does everything you need, but without some of the bells and whistles of the others."

How fast is it?
The rated speed is 200 cycles per hour but hand feeding the Prima will inevitably bring this down. "It's as fast as you can feed it," says Biggs.

What training and support is offered?
The price includes training and a 12-month parts and labour warranty. Encore offers a service contract, including six-monthly maintenance calls.

SPECIFICATIONS
Max binding length 350mm standard, 450mm optional
Max spine thickness 50mm
Max cover size 1,000x455mm
Max cover weights 350gsm
Max speed 200 cycles per hour
Price £19,995
Contact Encore Machinery 01582 562518 www.encore machinery.co.uk

ALTERNATIVES

Morgana DigiBook 150
The Italian-built DigiBook 150 is the entry-level option in Morgana's PUR range. It offers a closed tank and slot head for spine and slide gluing, plus spine milling and notching. Nominal cycle times are lower than the Prima, though this probably doesn't mean much in practice.
Max binding length 320mm
Max spine thickness 50mm
Max speed 150 cycles per hour
Price £23,990
Contact Morgana 01908 608888 www.morgana.co.uk

Watkiss 420PUR
An entry-level PUR configuration with a closed tank. Watkiss says its adhesive recirculating system is unique and minimises the risk of clogging. Book blocks and covers are manually loaded, with automatic clamp adjustment. Notching is standard, but an adjustable-depth milling wheel is an optional extra for another £1,000. A version with suction-fed cover feeder and scoring costs about £35,000.
Max binding length 420mm
Max spine thickness 50mm
Max speed 450 cycles per hour (realistically for about 260 books)
Price From about £25,000
Contact Watkiss 01767 685700 www.watkiss.com

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So, when around nine months ago, Feltham-based Geoff Neal Litho replaced its Resistor N9000 quick-drying, rub-resistant, sheetfed litho ink with the new Quickfast, intended for uncoated and other ‘difficult' papers, it didn't lose any time in checking out the new offering.

Being a well-established and respected player, and winner of the Direct Mail Printer of the Year title at six of the past seven PrintWeek Awards, this former N9000 user's adoption of the ink may well have been a significant factor in encouraging others to follow suit. Established in 1976, Geoff Neal is today an £11m printing company, often blazing a trail on the kit-investment front (in the past four years the firm has invested £5.5m in three new offset presses and new personalisation and finishing equipment), and with its formats, printing "high-end, complicated direct mail and brochures as well as anything out of the ordinary".

Geoff Neal was keen to try out the new ink and take part in early pre-launch trials, to take advantage of the promised benefits of quick drying, durability, high on-press stability and pigment density.

Richard Gill, UK technical manager at Stehlin Hostag, explains that the ink uses a production technology called Inkredible, instead of the now phased-out technology used with the N9000. The result is a high-pigment ink based on vegetable oils, suitable for non-IPA and alcohol-substitute printing with standard plates and blankets, which is Fogra ISO 2846-1 certified for compliance with the ISO 12647-2 standard and available in CMYK only.

In some countries there's the option of a ‘duct fresh' formulation, which stays open longer on the press but takes a bit longer to dry, but this is not an option actively marketed in the UK, reports Gill.

"We decided that, based on UK customer feedback, we wouldn't offer that option here," he says. "It's too similar to another product we have. To achieve the best drying results you have to use non-stay open."
Gill describes the ink's quick-drying and rub-resistant properties thus: "It is for uncoated papers, also matt- and silk-coated papers that can be susceptible to rubbing and marking. There are some other hard-drying inks available, but this reaches its optimum level of rub resistance in a much shorter time. Some printers need this so it can be finished more quickly. Typically this is less than half the time."

Rub-fast characteristics
Geoff Neal production director Ernest Wale reports that the rub-fast nature of the ink certainly impressed him. "Quickfast is a hard-drying-style ink for uncoated materials. We use it a lot for uncoated cartridges and so on, when we want a nice hard finish. It works very well."

"Rougher papers are much more prone to rubbing than smooth surfaces," he adds. "So I often tend to use a hard-drying coating on our Heidelberg XL press as a belt-and-braces operation - if the coating doesn't work, the ink will dry anyway and it works very well that way."

The quick-drying nature of the ink also comes in handy in situations where certain more ‘challenging stocks' need to be overprinted once processed on the firm's XL.

"I tend to use it for stocks that are difficult, such as book covers and particularly on heavy-coverage materials where I want to laser print afterwards," says Wale. "For instance, if I want to laser it and decide to put the hard-drying ink down, I know that if I leave it for 12 to 24 hours it won't come off on the laser."

He reports, however, that whether or not a job can now be finished in half the time of other inks depends on the details of the job in question.

"We would normally leave uncoated print for up to 24 hours to dry before finishing, although we can commence finishing after six to eight hours if we use a water-based coating and Quickfast," he says. "But it really depends on the ink coverage. I wouldn't really be able to say if it is 50% faster because the style of work has an impact on when we can start finishing."

No unwanted ink transfer
That said, Wale can confirm that, in Geoff Neal Litho's experience, the claimed benefits of ‘optimised carbonising characteristics' have held true - meaning long-term rub and set-off resistance where the ink won't transfer to other sheets in a stack or finished book is ensured.

"If carbonising is a long-term marking problem we don't see it, as we don't have the product long enough, but - touch wood - I haven't had any customer come back and say ‘it's rubbing off'," he says.
Due to being used to using Quickfast's predecessor, the N9000 ink, for similar types of job, there were no real issues in adopting the new ink, reports Wale.

"We run low-alcohol here, not alcohol- free. We use the same blankets and we can run it at speed," he says. "We don't have problems with it on plates or on the press. It's been working well and we will continue to use it until such time as we have reason to look elsewhere.

"I haven't looked elsewhere so far because Stehlin Hostag has been a very loyal and complementary supplier," he adds. "They've worked hard with us to ensure we run an efficient unit. I am by nature a loyal individual. I don't change for the sake of it, though if there is a reason I will. Currently there is no reason to change. They're very helpful, friendly individuals who will always help out if you've got a problem. From that point of view I can't recommend them enough."

Wale was also impressed with the way Stehlin Hostag responded to suggestions for tweaking the ink while they were in the early stages of trialling it. "We were very happy with that," he reports. "We trialled it and gave a report, with a few things that we thought it could do better. It came back and has been okay ever since."

The result is that today Geoff Neal uses the Quickfast ink for around 20% of work processed on the two larger Heidelbergs. The company also uses Stehlin Hostag's Impression ink, likewise formulated for rub-resistance but a stay-open type that doesn't emphasise quick drying so much.

"We did try the Heidelberg inks with the XL, but found them wanting and went back to Stehlin Hostag," reports Wale.

Geoff Neal does, however, use Heidelberg's coatings rather that Stehlin's, reporting that "their coatings suit us well." The company also opts to use Heidelberg's own-brand ink on the Anicolor press, which has a keyless ink system that has different requirements.

Nonetheless, Geoff Neal is overall very impressed with Stehlin Hostag and its Quickfast product. Wale concludes: "We don't always have time to wait for ink to dry and we don't want to have the press standing around while it does the drying before a second run.

"The work we produce has to be printed to a high standard," he adds, "which is what Quickfast does."

SPECIFICATIONS
Fast oxidative drying inks in CMYK colours.Formulated for high rub resistance, especially on critical uncoated and matt-coated substrates. Enables fast post-print finishing. Increased resistance to carbonising
Formulation 100% vegetable oil. Pigment intensive
Certifications Fogra ISO 2846-1 certified to enable compliance with ISO 12647-2 colour standard
Suitable for IPA-free printing
Price £16-£25 per set depending on container
Contact Stehlin Hostag UK 0115 986 0477 www.stehlin.co.uk

COMPANY PROFILE
Geoff Neal Litho is an £11m printing company based in Feltham, a few miles from Heathrow Airport. It runs 24 hours a day, with customers including the automotive sector, financial services, the retail markets and fine art. Its main offset presses are all Heidelbergs: a five-colour XL 105, a six-colour Speedmaster CD 102 and a B3 Anicolor. The latest purchase, announced in early April, is a Heidelberg XL 106 six-colour-plus-coater press, which will replace the CD press when it is installed in June.

Why it was bought...
Geoff Neal adopted the Stehlin Hostag Quickfast ink for use on 20% of work on its two larger Heidelbergs when the Stehlin Resistor N9000 ink started to be phased out. Quickfast, the vendor claims, offers quicker drying, and enhanced durability, on-press stability and pigment density.

How it has performed...
Production director Ernest Wale has been very impressed with the ink, reporting: "We don't have problems with it on plates or on the press. It's been working well and we will continue to use it until such time as I have reason to look elsewhere."

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SPECIFICATIONS
Platform SaaS. Can be fully integrated into existing e-procurement/MIS
Reporting Full reporting available from orders/job-tracking and further management information
Template management Either Coreprint Managed or Coreprint Pro, whereby you can control and create your own templates
B2C Coreprint engine can be used to create bespoke B2C W2P system
Included Free digital asset management tool for images
Price Coreprint starts from £750, with a charge of £100-£1,000 for template creation. Coreprint Pro starts from £7,500, with extra software modules costing between £350 and £2,500
Contact Vpress 01242 246970 www.vpress.co.uk

What was slightly unusual about Buckingham's situation was that the keys he'd received were to a Second World War aircraft hangar, and only half of one at that. Just as unusual, the next premises the company moved to had previously been a chicken shed.

Today, however, the company inhabits a purpose-built, 650m2-plus building on the same site at Kingston Bagpuize, Oxfordshire, and has changed its name to Artisan Print Solutions to reflect the addition of wide-format, web-to-print and cross-media services to what started as a traditional litho print house. But its ethos still nicely encapsulates the firm's humble roots, according to managing director Daren Elsley, who joined owner Buckingham at the company in 2009. "We base our business on a friendly, get-the-job-done, hands-on kind of attitude," he says, reporting that this is very popular with the range of charity, education, hotel and other SME customers the firm caters for.

And, unsurprisingly, this approach is something Artisan values highly from its suppliers. It is certainly a quality the team value in the supplier of their Euromedia substrates, Fujifilm. In fact, this was one of the main reasons the firm chose to use these substrates when it first branched into wide-format printing three years ago, with a Roland XC540 printer.

"I was at a show and got talking to Fuji and it's just gone from there really," reports Elsley. "With Fuji, it's a really welcoming experience. If you ever have an issue with how to work with a certain substrate, Nigel Briggs [UK sales and product manager, Fujifilm Graphic Systems] is at the other end of the phone. He really knows what he's talking about."

"We have trialled materials from another large supplier and the materials were good, but it's more about the support to be honest; we just found that we didn't have as good an experience with them," he adds.

Elsley says he could quote many examples where Briggs' in-depth knowledge of which wide-format substrates work best for what applications and with what kit, has been invaluable. He relates an instance when the company needed to produce crease-resistant, flame-retardant flags for a new client and, never having produced this type of product before, needed some advice. "I gave Nigel a ring and he sent over some samples of Dreamtex FR. The customer liked it and it worked well on the machine," says Elsley. "We've been offering wide-format for three years now, but there's a learning curve and you really need the support of your suppliers to offer a professional finish."

Another example of Fuji being very willing to lend support, was where Artisan was having problems with pop-up banners. "One of the things we were getting on our printer was bit of stretch, only by a mil or so and with most pop-ups you maybe wouldn't notice it. But on a pop-up with very busy graphics and split over a couple of panels, you'd get some fit issues where you could see the graphics didn't match up," says Elsley. "Nigel told us that this was because we were using a PVC product, which will stretch where there's a heated element, and that we really needed to switch to a polyester product."

Impressive quality

This, along with all other issues Fuji has lent support on, was not a matter of anything being at fault with the Euromedia substrates, adds Elsley. In fact, he says, he can't think of an instance where Artisan has encountered an issue where the actual quality of the substrate - rather than the way it was being used or its suitability for a certain job - was at fault. "In all honesty we haven't had any problems," he says.

In fact, the quality of the substrates has really impressed Artisan, and, along with the helpful support given by Fuji, this has been a key reason for sticking with the brand. "Because we're getting a quality product, we don't have to reprint, we're not having problems with the finishing," reports Elsley. "It has allowed us to be more efficient and customers are happy with the product - that's obviously what you're aiming for."

So impressed has it been with the quality of each substrate, Artisan is using more and more of the Euromedia materials on a regular basis. The company now regularly uses Satin Photo paper, RollUp Film Premium, Pop Up Film Premium, Project Banner White banner material and, as of pretty recently, 2D Smart-Apply Vinyl, for the range of posters, roller banners, pop-ups, mount graphics, flags, and vehicle wraps it now offers. And the printer has plans to switch supply of laminates to Euromedia soon too.

There is, however, one product the company feels is missing from the range: "It would be nice if they offered coloured vinyl as we are starting to use that for decals," says Elsley.

He qualifies that by saying that, tempting as it might be to get all wide-format substrates from one trusted source, businesses ought to keep their options open. "It's not always a good idea to get all your supplies from one company," he says. "If you do, you can sometimes get a better price, but if there's a problem with the delivery, for some reason, then it can backfire. It's a balance."

Premium price

And Elsley does concede that Euromedia products are "not the cheapest" on the market, and that, while most customers are willing to pay a slight premium for good quality, the company needs to be able to cater for slimmer budgets as well.

"We do have to remember what we're up against - when you look on the web, people are doing roller banners at ridiculous prices and it's because they're probably printing on low-quality materials," he says. "Some customers just treat it as a commodity so we try and offer a full spectrum if we can. If a customer just wants a cheap product tomorrow that's going to be chucked in the bin after one day's use, we need to be able to offer them that, using a cheaper substrate. But if a customer is really focused on the integrity of their branding and colour, then we can offer them the higher-end stuff."

And apparently most customers are more than happy to pay slightly more for high-quality products. "The products are still competitively priced and they pay dividends in the quality we can produce," reports Elsley. So with this in mind, he would certainly recommend other printers use this product, particularly as, offering materials to work with water-based, solvent and UV printers, the range has something to "suit any wide-format printer".

Certainly the range will feature more and more heavily in Artisan's operations, reflecting, reports Elsley, the company's shift away from conventional litho work to focus more on growth areas, such as wide-format digital.

One thing that will remain the same as Artisan's business model continues to evolve, however, is the kind of focus on being approachable and down to earth that can perhaps only grow out of once being based in a chicken shed. And Artisan is confident Euromedia suppliers Fujifilm will continue to reciprocate this friendly, down-to-earth ethos too.

SPECIFICATIONS

Satin Photo paper
Price £1.58/m2

RollUp Film Premium
Price £7.40/m2

Pop Film Premium
Price £9.50/m2

Project Banner White
Price £ 1.45/m2

2D Smart Apply Vinyl
Price £ 4.07/m2

Dreamtex
Price £ 7.88/m2

Contact
Fujifilm 01234 245245 www.euromedia.eu.com

Company profile

Artisan Print Solutions was a very different company when it started life 18 years ago. For one, it was called Artisan Litho. But, more noticeably, it was based in an old aircraft hangar. The business then moved into a converted chicken shed and then a purpose-built 650m2-plus premises to become the £1m-turnover, 12-strong company it is today. Artisan has also now branched out into wide-format, web-to-print and cross-media, serving a range of SMEs, charities, schools and colleges.

Why it uses these products...

The company started working with Euromedia substrates three years ago when it started branched into wide-format printing with a Roland XC540. Artisan was attracted to the range not only because the firm felt its quality to be superior to other manufacturers' products, but also because it was impressed by Fujifilm's helpful, hands-on approach.

How they have performed...

Managing director Daren Elsley has been very impressed with the range. "Because we're getting a quality product we don't have to reprint, we're not having problems with the finishing," he says. "It's allowed us to be more efficient and customers are happy with the product - that's obviously what you're aiming for."

The Xerox Color J75 and C75 combine duplex printing, copying and scanning and are capable of printing and copying at 2,400dpi on a range of coated and uncoated stocks from 64-300gsm at speeds of up to 75 pages per minute (ppm). Both devices are laser printers, utilising Xerox EA Dry Ink. They were officially launched in March 2013.

Who are they aimed at?
Ian Mitchell, high-volume product manager, Xerox UK, says that the presses are aimed roughly at the same markets: the C75 is aimed at in-plants, design agencies and existing or emerging digital print businesses; the J75, meanwhile, is aimed at similar markets but also commercial print shops and printers producing high-volume, high-value applications.

How do these products differ from previous models?
Mitchell is keen to counter criticism that these two presses are in fact very similar to the manufacturer's C700/C7002 models and stresses that these new products are significant improvements on those models.

"Xerox has improved on the hugely successful 700i and 770 platforms, introducing a number of new technologies to complement the existing rich set of features," he explains. "The new features are all designed to make the machines as productive and reliable as possible, as well as making colour management and profiling simple and effective."

He explains that along with the J75 now being able to run all stocks at rated speeds and providing "industry-leading colour management via the Xerox Automated Colour Quality Suite", there is also the new Simple Image Quality Adjustment (SIQA).

"SIQA is software that enables the operator to automatically adjust front to back registration and the uniformity of colour density across the page, by printing sheets and scanning them back using the integrated scanner. SIQA then makes the necessary adjustments to ensure your print is optimised," he reveals. "Previously, and on some competitor equipment, this would mean a lengthy delay and in some cases would require a site visit from an engineer."

What are the products' USPs?
Mitchell says that the above new features are, in Xerox's view, unique to the marketplace.

What is the speed and quality of the machines?
"The machines have increased in speed to 75ppm from the previous 71ppm. The C75 is positioned at the higher end of our Office Range, while the J75 is an entry-level unit in our Production Range," says Mitchell.

As mentioned earlier, both printers are capable of printing and copying at 2,400dpi on a range of coated and uncoated stocks from 64-300gsm at speeds of up to 75ppm. However, while the production-level J75 can handle all paper stocks at its top-rated speed, output on the C75 drops from 75ppm for uncoated stocks to 51ppm for coated.

How easy is it to use?
"They have a very straightforward progressive operator screen and all jam areas are clearly indicated by colour," states Mitchell. He adds that both presses are available with Xerox FreeFlow or EFI Fiery EX print server.

What support is on offer?
As with all Xerox products, a full and extensive on-site training programme is available to new users. The devices are backed by the Xerox Customer Service Support Operation.

How much do they cost?
The presses will cost £30,000-£60,000 depending on configuration.

SPECIFICATIONS

Max speed 75 A4 ppm
Max resolution 2,400dpi
Max sheet size 320x450mm
Max stock weight 300gsm
Average monthly page volumes 20,000-75,000
Price £30,000-£60,000 depending on configuration
Contact Xerox 0870 873 4519 / www.xerox.com

ALTERNATIVES

Ricoh Pro C751
There's not much in it in terms of speed, but this machine boasts a higher resolution.
Max speed 75 A4 ppm
Max resolution 4,800dpi
Max sheet size 330.2x487.7mm
Max stock weight 300gsm
Price £40,000-£60,000 depending on configuration
Contact Ricoh 0800 904090 / www.ricoh.co.uk

Heidelberg Linoprint C751
As an OEM version of the Ricoh, the Linoprint's resolution is also higher than the Xerox and its top speed is identical.
Max speed 75 A4 ppm
Max resolution 4,800dpi
Max sheet size 330x487.7mm (330x630mm with bypass unit for banner printing)
Max stock weight 300gsm (some 350gsm stocks also supported)
Price £48,000-£85,000 depending on configuration
Contact Heidelberg 0844 892 2010 / www.uk.heidelberg.com

Canon imageRunner Advance C9280 Pro/C9070 Pro
A slightly slower top speed but that is reflected in the slightly lower price.
Max speed 70 A4 ppm
Max resolution 1,200dpi
Max sheet size 330.2x487.7mm
Max stock weight 300gsm
Price 9280: from £45,930 / 9070: from £59,050
Contact Canon 01737 220000 / www.canon.co.uk

Konica Minolta Bizhub C7000
The same copy, scan and print applications as on the Xerox, but with a slightly lower top speed and resolution.
Max speed 71 A4 ppm
Max resolution 1,200dpi
Max sheet size 330x487mm
Max stock weight 300gsm
Price £55,000-£80,000 depending on configuration
Contact Konica Minolta 0800 83 38 64 / www.konicaminolta.co.uk

"I was impressed with the Xerox Color J75 at first site. It offers many high-end press features in a smaller footprint with very impressive print quality"

Carsten Gaarde Printshop manager, Jyske Bank

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Switching from bombs to brochures is perhaps not the most obvious move for a company to make, in terms of the kinds of products it handles, but this is exactly the trade-in made by brothers George and Lesley Sleight in the 1950s. They decided to pack in the haulage business they'd been running successfully during the war - transporting munitions and bomb-making components, among other things, up and down the country - to take on a family print business in Hull.

Other options

While impressed with the Ryobi technology, Sleight doesn't feel that his machine is necessarily unrivalled by similar kit from other manufacturers. "I don't think there's demonstrably that much difference between the manufacturers, I really don't," he says, adding that the company also looked at machines from Sakurai and Komori when shopping for the new press. "I hear people say that one press is just so much better than another, but I don't believe that - we've had Heidelbergs, Komoris and Rolands and in terms of print quality, there's really not a lot in it."

This conviction is borne out by the fact that the press has proved very reliable ever since. "The machine hasn't really stopped turning, we haven't had much downtime at all," says Sleight.

With the ability to process more four-colour work and turnaround times slashed, Sleight is, then, one very happy customer. Faster turnarounds have also allowed the company to offer more competitive prices, something Sleight feels is ever-more important in today's tough trading conditions.

"Colour has to be competitive and affordable," he says. "It's allowing us to keep up with and ahead of the times. In this sort of environment, companies that aren't investing in the latest equipment, as we're doing, are going to find themselves slipping quite far behind in the long term."

"This is a great press for printers looking to take one or two steps up the ladder and move into serious colour work," adds Sleight of the justification for investing in this particular piece of kit to keep up with the crowd.

Sleight does concede though that ensuring Pilling Printers remains at the cutting edge of technology will soon involve embracing digital. "Digital is possibly the next stage that might start to play an increasing role for us and possibly supersede certain areas where we print litho," he says.

For now though, Sleight is confident that the Ryobi is speedy enough on long and mid-length runs to keep lucrative work coming through Pilling Printers' doors. Investing in the very latest, quickest technology will always be the company's first rule of thumb, says the director, in ensuring this continues to be the case.

So while the company may not deal in delivering bombs and munitions around the country anymore, it is, in the face of still-tough economic times, still putting up a good fight.

SPECIFICATIONS

Number of units 2, 4, 5

Max sheet size 520x375mm

Min sheet size 100x105mm

Max printing area 505x350mm

Max printing speed 11,000sph

Plate size 510x400mm

Feeding system Rotary stream feeder

Feeder pile capacity 600mm

Delivery pile capacity 400mm

Power consumption 13.5kW

Footprint 4.1x2m

Price £260,000

Contact Apex Digital Graphics, 01442 235236?www.apexdigital.co.uk

Pilling Printers was born out of a haulage company operating before and during the Second World War. Brothers George and Lesley Sleight decided they'd had enough of this particular sector when it was nationalised in the 1950s, and teamed up with elder brother Raymond to buy Hull printer H Pilling and Co. The firm is today called Pilling Printers and is run by George's grandsons: director Chris Sleight and his brother David, who is production manager. With its range of stationery, POS and commercial print products, the business services a whole range of public and private sectors, from pet food retailers to the NHS.

Why it was bought...

The firm decided to replace a two-colour Heidelberg GTO with a Ryobi 524GE B3 four-colour press in response to increased demand for colour work. The Ryobi was brought in, then, to complement the firm's existing kit: another Ryobi, a Heidelberg four-colour GTO, a B2 Komori and single-colour GTO.

How it was performed...

The 524GE did experience a few teething problems just after install, but Sleight puts this down to the fact that vibrations from significant demolition work next door were occurring at the time. Praising supplier Apex Digital Graphics' support with these issues, Sleight reports that the machine has been reliable ever since. "The three things that have most impressed us have been the print quality, speed of make-ready and the press running speed- it runs consistently well at high speed," he summarises.

In fact, Mastercolour also still processes much the same sort of work it did back in the days when leg warmers and coq au vin were still the height of sophistication. "We still do the same kind of work now as we were doing then," reports managing director Philip Exall. "We do a lot of work for insurance companies, building societies and banks, a lot of corporate literature, and work for the retail and charity sector. That's their brochures, leaflets, posters, all that sort of thing."

Of course Mastercolour, now a £6.4m company, couldn't have survived and prospered as well as it has without also moving with the times. The KBA line-up, now joined by a whole plethora of other pre- and post-press kit, such as a Horizon VAC-60Ha collator and a Vacumatic Viscount counting machine purchased last year, looks rather different to how it did back in 1982. Starting with two four-colour B2 KBA SROs, the company has gradually upgraded its presses and today boasts one six-colour Rapida 74, one six-colour Rapida 74 perfector, a five-colour Rapida 105 coater and, the jewel in the crown, a six-colour Rapida 75 installed last July.

Client pressure

The reasons for bringing in this latest model were simple. At the time, the company had two five-colour Rapida 72s that had provided faithful service for 14 years, but were starting to slow down and become more temperamental.

"We've got clients who are demanding things in two or three days when it used to be five or six, and to be honest it was becoming a struggle," explains Exall. "The 72s were taking 40-odd minutes to make-ready on a colour sheet and were unable to run quickly enough. There was increased overtime and weekend working. On occasions, we had to literally beg people to work overnight."

It was time, then, for another upgrade. Though self-confessed KBA nuts, the Mastercolour team do apparently occasionally consider other manufacturers. But KBA apparently offered such a good deal on the purchase of the two aging 72s and the sale of the 75, that Exall didn't feel the need to look elsewhere.

"When we've looked at replacing presses in the past, we have looked at other machines, but always end up buying a KBA," reports Exall. "I'm sure Heidelbergs are very good machines, but we've just got such a good relationship with KBA."

Keeping Mastercolour a KBA-only house also makes maintenance and operation easier, adds Exall. "If one guy's off, another can move on to that machine," he says. "The nuts and bolts of these presses are very similar so it doesn't take that long for our guys to train and work on the new machines."

Another KBA it was then. Mastercolour's fourteenth, in fact. So has the manufacturer once again lived up to Exall's expectations? In a word, yes. But Exall inevitably has more than one word of praise for the company and its products.

"Now we're able to makeready on the new machine for some jobs in less than five minutes, so you can imagine the difference there," he says. "The quick makereadies and faster running speed have more than made up for the fact that we replaced two machines with one. We're actually running the 75 for 24 hours a day along with our B1 presses, and we're getting more out of 24 hours than we were getting out of 38 hours previously."

This boost in productivity has enabled the company to take on new business, and to be generally more confident in agreeing to very tight turnarounds.

"The machine's not allowing us to actually offer any tighter turnarounds -we've always been able to offer those because we had five presses and so could be pretty flexible - but it's helping us to achieve those turnarounds," says Exall.

"We are continually being asked for last-minute jobs," he continues. "We do some work for a bank where we get the artwork for 250,000 leaflets on Wednesday and are told this work needs to be in branches by Friday morning, and we have to produce, trim, fold and deliver them to the distribution network in 36 hours. It's enabled us to do that without any fear whatsoever, whereas previously we were terrified, because with bank rate changes, these things can't be late; it's legislation, so if they miss the bank networks, then we've had it."

The new KBA has helped Exall achieve peace of mind on the environmental front as well. The Rapida 75 features environmentally friendly washing systems for its rollers, blankets and impression cylinders and an Ergotronic control console, which enables users to preset ink metering for specific jobs. The inbuilt Techkon Spectrodrive colour measurement scanner also uses 50% less energy than comparable presses, says KBA.

Greener performance

Exall adds that the quick makeready time of the press also has the added bonus of reducing the firm's environmental footprint.

"We were making ready on 300 sheets of four-colour section previously, and now we're looking at fewer than 100," he reports.

He continues that, not only do the Rapida 75's environmental credentials help the company achieve its targets as one of only a few UK printers with an EMAS environmental certification, but that these are also improving Mastercolour's bottom line. "We're looking forward to comparing last year's energy against this year's," he says. "We'll probably save in the region of £8,000 or £9,000 on energy use. With the alcohol and water reduction factored in, you're probably looking at savings of £15,000 to £20,000."

The training and service support lent by KBA has also been characteristically strong, reports Exall. "Though the machine's been running really well, there were a few teething problems," he says. "There was a problem with the grippers, a very minor thing where the machine just needed to settle down a bit. It wasn't picking up the sheets properly. But the service with that was excellent. We had the problem at 9pm and, because we have remote service support, by 8am the next day the KBA engineer was here sorting it out."

Exall does though have just one minor gripe with his new machine. Due to this model's compact size, the ink storage ducts are a little smaller than he would like. "That means when we have a very long run we're up there all the time putting the ink in," he says. "That's not too much of a problem. We haven't thought about an ink pumping system yet, but we might in time. At the moment we're coping okay though."

"The Rapida 75 and 76 do have slightly smaller ink fountains compared with the 74, but the issue of size of ink ducts on longer runs tends to be addressed with automatic ink pumping systems which are widely available," confirms KBA UK technical support manager Craig Bretherton.

Cost savings

And Exall is nonetheless justifiably very pleased with his purchase. The new press hasn't necessarily boosted the company's turnover as such, but has rather helped insulate Mastercolour from falling print prices. With the bottom line boosted by the cost savings made on energy and consumables, the press, says Exall, puts Mastercolour in a very comfortable place going forwards.

With the printer soon to host an open day for other prospective KBA customers, it looks very much, then, like the long-established Mastercolour-KBA relationship will blossom well into the future. While the pressroom technology and haircuts may well go through many iterations over the coming decades, it seems the KBA badge, for Mastercolour, is here to stay.

SPECIFICATIONS

Max sheet size 530x750mm (standard), 605x750mm (optional)

Min sheet size 330x330mm

Number of colours two to eight, plus coating unit

Substrate weight range 0.04-0.6mm (standard), 0.04-0.8mm (optional)

Mastercolour was established in 1982 and is still processing much the same sorts of commercial work - brochures, leaflets, posters and flyers for customers in the banking, publishing, retail and charity sectors - today as it did then. Although the kit line-up has evolved as the company has grown, the company has stayed a very loyal KBA house throughout its 30-year existence. This 60-staff, £6.4m-turnover company's plant list today includes four KBA machines, Screen platesetters, Wohlenberg guillotines, a Heidelberg Cylinder creaser, cutter and perforator, and a Heidelberg Prosetter 562 saddle stitcher.

Why it was bought...

The latest addition to the KBA line-up, a B2 six-colour Rapida 75 press, replaced two 14-year-old, five-colour Rapida 72s. The idea was to bring in a machine with print and makeready speeds that would not only match the output of its two predecessors, but outstrip it.

How it has performed...

Managing director Philip Exall reports that the machine has delivered just the boost to production the firm anticipated it would. Its reliability has also made the company feel more secure in offering quick turnarounds. "The machine's been running really well, it's been performing just as we wanted it to," he says. "We're very, very pleased with the machine, and very, very pleased with KBA.

What does the product do?
Ilford's Omnijet Display Media Kit is a system for producing backlit transparencies using inkjet printing, which has been developed in association with Epson and has been optimised for the popular Epson Stylus Pro 11880. It includes display film, laminates and dedicated RIP profiles. It is designed to equal the highest quality RA4 silver-halide print, like Kodak Duratrans, produced using laser exposure devices, such as the Durst Lambda, but with less fuss and at lower cost.

When was it launched and what market is it aimed at?
The Kit was launched at the end of 2012. While backlit inkjet media isn't new, Ilford and Epson claim that output comparable to the best photographic media in terms of density, resolution and subtle gradation is. Applications include close-viewed cosmetic point-of-sale displays.

How does it work?
To produce a backlit poster, the file is printed on an Epson machine onto a coated film and then enclosed between the two laminate films. This product consists of the photo-quality translucent display film and two rolls of laminates for front and back hot lamination. The rolls are available in 1,270mm and 1,520mm widths to match traditional silver halide widths and come in 40m lengths for optimal productivity. All the films are polyester - so theoretically recyclable. Two RIP developers - Caldera and Onyx - are involved as well and, as part of the Media Kit, offer optimised colour profiles to get the best quality.

How does it differ from previous products?
While backlit inkjet films themselves aren't new, the level of quality is a different class, according to Ilford global business development manager for commercial wide-format Mark Sanderson. In side-by-side comparisons with RA4 prints, big brands, including Clarins and Aveda, have accepted the results as on a par with a Lambda, a promising sign considering Lambda jobs often fetch three times the £15/m² other inkjet backlits sell for.

How productive is it to use?
Print speed is not the fastest, but according to Ilford, overall productivity is higher since there is no need to wait for an RA4 processor to warm up, no metres of waste getting the processor stable; and the laminates mean it is more robust than RA4, making installation simpler.

Printing is carried out at the highest resolution of the Epson machines (2,880x 1,440dpi), although Ilford expects to be able to offer a 1,440x720dpi production mode that is almost equal in quality, but much faster.

What is the USP of the product?
The key selling points are Duratrans/Lambda quality at inkjet media pricing and ease of use, according to the company. Sanderson says that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Ilford's expertise in coating makes the most of the Epson printer and ink, he adds.

How easy is it to use?
Compared to a photographic system, it's a breeze, says Sanderson. There's no need to maintain and run a processor, to keep colour accurate, and no dealing with chemicals and silver recovery.

How much does it cost?
An Epson Stylus Pro 11880 costs £10,194, while the inks cost £240 per 700ml pack. Ilford argues the cost of the printer, RIP and laminator is less than the annual support contract on a photographic printer and processor. If you have any of the kit already, the cost is reduced. Running costs comprise the coated film, the laminates and the inks. Compared to silver halide films, the substrate is 20% cheaper, according to the firm, although it was unwilling to provide precise pricing.

What is the sales target, how many are installed in the UK?
UK users include Colouration in London and Ipos Design in Manchester. With the popularity of Epson printers there is a wide base to target.

SPECIFICATIONS

You may be wondering how someone can unexpectedly come to own a very expensive press; well, TG Print secured the machine - along with an operator who had already been working on Indigos for 10 years - through the acquisition of a company that had gone into administration and owed TG Print money.

Duhig admits that TG Print had not been considering digital at the time, but is very grateful to have been pushed in this direction. "Up to that point, we'd been shying away from digital, and all of a sudden we could do it because we had a really good machine," he says. "And we found our customer base linked quite nicely with it."

While being in the right place at the right time certainly heralded the start of a successful digital operation for TG, it was careful analysis of the market and a shrewd investment strategy that have ensured this offering has prospered.

TG Print, in fact, started life 20 years ago as a repro house, but expanded into a commercial print operation as the traditional repro work diminished, adding a line-up of Heidelberg presses. And once the new Indigo was bedded in, it decided to fully embrace digital, acquiring a Xerox 1000, a Zünd digital cutting table and a laminator.

The latest addition to this digital line-up has been an MGI Meteor DP8700 XL, installed December 2011 to support the Xerox, in the event of the firm's aging Indigo 3050 "beginning to creak".

Love at first sight
It was apparently a case of love at first sight when Duhig first clapped eyes on the Meteor at Ipex. "I just looked at it and thought that it was a great machine," he reports. "The fact that it did large-format, which means it can do the big six- or eight-page A4 jobs, and the fact it does envelopes and plastics, is just very impressive."

Expanding the range of short-run products was the main reason for investing in the new press. Adding digital technology complemented TG Print's client base nicely, back when it first branched into this in 2008, because much of the firm's business was trade work from other printers outsourcing short-run jobs. But three years down the line, Duhig found he needed to bring something new to the table.

"The trade work was starting to dry up as other printers were getting their own little digital presses and didn't need us anymore," reports Duhig. "But now we're back with their six-page A4s, their roll folds, their belly wraps - so it's generating a nice amount of trade work. Because everybody's running SRA3 these days, everyone's charging the same price. But because there are so few Meteors around, you can virtually name your price."

No click charge
Duhig was also very attracted to the fact that the MGI Meteor, unlike most other digital machines, isn't paid for on a click-charge basis.

"You buy the consumables and there's a recommendation that you replace certain consumables once you have printed a certain number of sheets, and the toner just runs out when it runs out," reports Duhig. "So you can run on a bit longer if your work hasn't got quite so much coverage on it. It gives you much more flexibility."

"A click charge can also preclude you from running envelopes because they're so much smaller and use so little ink," he adds.

It was these factors that persuaded TG Print to opt for the Meteor in favour of the other digital machine it was considering, a Xerox iGen.

"You can't do envelopes on a Xerox, because, at four or five pence per click, once you go over a couple of hundred units, you're not viable price-wise anymore," says Duhig. "Also, plastic films that might cause a problem for a Xerox or Indigo - the MGI just runs them."

Duhig does concede, however, that, depending on what's wanted from a digital machine, the Xerox might suit some companies better. "Any Xerox machine is a good shout," he says, "for those wanting more of a photocopier-type set-up."

The MGI machine, meanwhile, is more flexible, as Duhig explains: "The reason the Meteor can process envelopes and plastics, is because it's a kind of hybrid machine. It has some of the technology you'd expect from the photocopying boxes, but also incorporates some Indigo-type technology, where you've got charged ions going onto a blanket and then dropping onto the sheet when you discharge the electrics."

"But that does mean the operator needs to be on the ball," he warns. "You can't just stick it in a corner and abuse it, you need to be a little bit gentle with it like you would with a conventional press. We do the same kind of maintenance on it as we would on our Heidelbergs, otherwise it would soon stop producing jobs at the quality we want."

That said, the Meteor has performed very well for the company, reports Duhig, with only a few service issues at the start of its life, which Duhig puts down to his original operator not being as conscientious as he'd have liked.

In terms of the service support offered, there are both pluses and minuses to MGI being a relatively small manufacturer, he says. "Because there are only a few MGI machines installed in the country, to start with MGI were also finding their feet a bit," he says. "There were some teething problems in terms of them deciding who was going to respond to what."

David Evans, managing director at MGI Technology, concurs. "TG Print were one of the first companies to install a Meteor DP8700 XL and we have been very fortunate that they have been a true partner in working with us on our service delivery model and infrastructure," he says. "We have deliberately made sure that we have not pushed ahead on sales before we have built up our own experience and ability to support anything we put in to the market. We have established a core team of engineers and consultants based in the UK, supported by our colleagues in France."

Quick learners
The company has indeed been a quick learner and eager to please, qualifies Duhig. And the beauty of MGI being relatively small is that the team can make up for lack of experience with flexibility and a close working relationship with clients. "The infrastructure of the company is on the money now," says Duhig. "They're very receptive to batting ideas around with us- for example we've suggested that a few more preventative maintenance visits would help us."

MGI was also very helpful when it came to training. "Initially, we had one operator given three days' training at MGI's UK base in Hemel Hempstead," says Duhig. "But when we said we needed to train someone else, MGI gave us another three days of training for free."

In analysing the success of any installation, the key metric for TG Print is the impact the investment has had on the bottom line, and, along with the other new kit, the Meteor has helped TG Print double its size over the past four years, to become a £3m-turnover business.

And testament to the success of the TG Print-MGI relationship, is the fact that key to the printer's future growth plan is the purchase, in a few months' time, of an MGI JETvarnish coater for spot UV work. "That will allow us to carry out spot varnish work to a totally different level," enthuses Duhig. "It's very thick and rich looking. If you were to compare the MGI result and that from a conventional silk screen device as a customer, you'd think ‘I want the MGI next time'."

"We know with MGI that the back-up is good and that the service is excellent, so we trust buying another machine from them even though it's just been released and there's only a few hundred in the world," he adds. "We're just very happy with what we've seen of MGI and very confident with the technology."