MX Display will install the new 3.2m wide-format UV printer next month as a replacement for its existing Vutek QS3200, tripling its production capacity in the process and clearing a bottleneck in the print department.
Adrian Rushton, general manager of the Derby firm, said that further investment was planned in the finishing department were MX was looking to upgrade its existing Zund cutting equipment with either Zund or Kongsberg.
Together with an investment in a Mimaki 320 JV5-DS dye sub printer and associated sewing, stitching and cutting equipment around 18 months ago, this will take the £3m turnover company's capex to around £600,000 in the past two years.
Rushton said that the company specialised in producing low-volume, high-quality interior graphics, including custom printed wallpaper, wall displays and window graphics, and that five-years of incremental growth since installing the QS3200 had led to the bottleneck in production.
"In the past 12 months we've been constantly busy; we looked at extra shifts and overtime but we'd also been keeping our eyes on the whole story of LED because things like lightbox graphics, which we used to do a lot of, have all gone to LED, so we spoke to Vutek and in February we went to Belgium to see the new machine," said Rushton.
"They showed us the LED curing compared to the standard QS with mercury lamps and to be fair we were sold on that together with the greyscale printing, but having the 7pL UltraDrop technology as well means we can take the quality another stage or two forward as well as increasing our production speed from between 10-20sqm/hr to 54sqm/hr.
"Also, because the greyscale uses the ink intelligently it means you're saving on your ink costs as well. We loved the quality, we loved the way it laid down the ink and we loved the curing lines and the fact that LED has significant eco-benefits."
Rushton added that the Vutek's ability to switch between flatbed and roll-to-roll production was another significant factor in the investment decision. "We do a lot of bespoke jobs. We're constantly going for roll to sheet and back to roll again; we're not one of these businesses that prints 150 foamex boards and then 300 banners," he said.
The company is also in the process of revamping its mxdisplay.co.uk website, with the new version set to launch in the next few days.
