The machine cost around £120,000 and went in last month. It is the second part of a £150,000-plus total investment including an Agfa Asanti workflow and StoreFront installation last year.
The Anapurna LED high-speed hybrid UV LED-curable inkjet system has a printing width of 2.5m for indoor and outdoor applications.
It uses less ink to help keep the cost of consumables down, increase the speed of print and be kinder to the environment.
Managing director David Hutchins said the kit is faster than his older printers, all of which are still in use at BD&H, which has 30 staff and a turnover of £2.5m.
“We did a job on it recently that would have taken us seven days on another piece of equipment, but on the Anapurna it took only four days.”
The kit is in addition to a Screen Truepress, a Canon Océ Arizona and Zünd technology. The company also runs a KBA Genius for printing onto plastic.
“Demand for faster, cheaper print with increased quality has been a key driver within our industry for many years and this continues at speed,” said Hutchins.
“In the early days we used to do screen-printed bus POS where 65dpi used to be acceptable.
“Now the quality has to be high resolution, 300dpi equivalent, and the demands just continue to increase. The completion of our investment with Agfa will help keep us ahead in our market.”
Hutchins added that his Norwich-based business wanted to enable one of its larger customers to order POS material online, calling it off directly for display.
Agfa’s Asanti StoreFront cloud-based software system and Asanti workflow did the job. BD&H now aims to roll out the service to other customers, with the Anapurna backing up the service.
The Agfa Asanti workflow product was installed late last year and is a sign and display production system with colour management, automatic pre-flighting and ordering 24/7.
BD&H was originally two separate businesses, BD Studios that specialised in screen printing, and W H Hutchins, a litho print business, both established in 1968.
They merged in the late 1980s and BD&H's 30 staff are based in a printroom and studio to support clients with concept visuals, prototypes, repro and print.
