Full house as Cowells Arrow doubles up with Screen

Cowells Arrow team with the new Screen setup
Cowells Arrow team with the new Screen setup

Cowells Arrow has more than doubled its digital printing capacity with the installation of a duplex Screen inkjet web presses.

The Ipswich firm is the UK’s largest manufacturer of bingo tickets. The company is owned by American giant Arrow International.

Cowells Arrow installed a twin-engine Screen Truepress Jet520 line eight years ago, and has now bolstered its setup with a £1m-plus investment in a further two Jet520Z presses forming a second duplex line, as well as additional finishing equipment.

Managing director Tony Lister described the Screen presses as “top quality” with the new capacity set to meet growing demand from customers for personalisation.

“We’ve had our original two Screen presses for eight years and have had no problems with them. The new Jet520Zs give us increased capacity and failover,” he explained.

All the firm’s output is digitally printed reel-to-reel, and it works on a print-on-demand model with no warehousing.

There was already sufficient space in the climate-controlled print room at its 1,860sqm site for the Jet520Zs, which print in CMYK at 128m/min or 64m/min.

The revamp also included a Hunkeler DP8 dynamic perforator that has been fitted inline with the firm’s Hunkeler finishing system.

“We now have the ability to dynamically perforate some or all of the tickets so we can include items such as tear-off vouchers,” Lister added.

Bui Burke, Screen Europe senior vice president sales, said he was delighted at the vote of confidence in the firm’s technology: “We are thrilled that Cowell’s Arrow, a prestigious market leader, uses our technology in increasingly interesting ways and remains such a valued customer.

“One of the reasons why the Truepress Jet520 has been so popular is because it’s a really solid machine.”

Cowells Arrow had sales of £4.7m in its most recent accounts. The firm employs 33 staff and operates 24/5.