The company has been looking for a replacement for its Linoprint C751 and agreed the deal for the versafire after visiting Heidelberg UK’s open house event in Brentford last week. Managing director John Easby said he was drawn to the EV due to the similarities in their base technologies.
The new press, which cost Adverset around £70,000, will be delivered in November. It makes Adverset one of the earliest UK adopters of the Versafire EV, which was introduced in March this year as an advance on its CV predecessor.
“We have been so pleased with Heidelberg in the past that we did not really consider any alternatives to replace our C751,” said Easby. “Our operators are familiar with how their machines work and this is essentially an upgrade with plenty of exciting add-ons, so it is a natural progression.
“I have no qualms at all being one of the first to take it on – you might worry with some other providers, but Heidelberg develop things very carefully.
“The Versafire EV will be used for a very wide variety of commercial print such as labels, posters and business cards, but its ability to take a thicker substrate and the added possibilities of the spot colours and special effects such as metallics open us up to bespoke short-run packaging, too.”
Scarborough-based Adverset will also replace its current Fiery RIP with Heidelberg’s own Prinect digital front-end, allowing work to be easily sent either to the new EV, or to the Speedmaster XL 75 that the firm also runs onsite.
Heidelberg’s Versafire EV prints at a speed of 85-95ppm at A4 on all stock up to 360gsm with a resolution of 4,800x2,400dpi. The five-colour machine boasts a 'floating' fifth colour capability that enables white ink to be printed onto a substrate before the standard CMYK in a single pass.
Slough-based Dynamic Print Media signed on for the UK’s first EV in March, while Dunfermline-based Pandaprint were the first Scottish installers in May and Hull-based Jadan Press took one on in early August.
Adverset will push ahead with the “challenge” of adapting to the Versafire EV’s more advanced capabilities, using them to push ahead in its shorter-run markets, according to Easby.
The commercial printer also runs a two-colour Speedmaster 52, largely for die-cutting, as well as having a dedicated signage and display wing, which runs 1.6m machines from both HP and Mimaki and a variety of finishing equipment. The firm employs 22 members of staff.
