Healeys upgrades Ricoh Pro ahead of Drupa drive

Healeys is set to take on a second Ricoh Pro C9200 in order to bring “commonality and quality” to its digital print services.

Set to arrive in the last week of August, it will join another C9200, which was installed at the Ipswich commercial operation a year ago. The machine is intended to improve the company's overall print quality by replacing a C9100 installed in 2017. It will be installed in standard CMYK configuration, while its double is equipped with a long-sheet feeder.

According to managing director Philip Dodd, the company is enjoying a step up in demand which already has it running ahead of last year. He is anticipating £4.3m in sales, up from £3.5m two years ago, at the end of the firm's financial year in October.

“We want everything to be of a high quality for our customers and this will help carry the main bulk of our CMYK work,” said Dodd.

“Recently, we began using the Color-Logic system for printing onto metallic substrates, which is what we will be pushing to clients. It won’t be run on the C9200 but by taking up the different, wonderful things from clients, we get shedloads of CMYK off the back of it.

“Digital continues to be a growing part of the business and we have been very busy during the summer, especially working on one high-profile project through August.”

Capabilities on the Ricoh Pro C9200 digital production system include taking a banner size of 1,030mm in duplex and 1,260mm in simplex on substrates up to 450gsm at speeds up to 115 A4 ppm.

Healeys runs a Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 75 in its litho department, which it is adding Inpress Control II onto in order to reduce sheet usage and speed up makeready times.

In terms of further investment, Dodd said that the firm would be quiet on that front until Drupa in June 2020 where he plans to send a “reasonable” team to scope out the new possibilities in technology.

He is currently leasing his Ricoh machines due to the fast pace of progress in digital print, which will allow him to move on quickly to more advanced technology. The new C9200 is the product of a contract established with Ricoh over the C9100 that had yet to expire.

Also running a Kodak Nexpress and two Polar guillotines; an N115 Plus and a N92 Plus installed in January, Healeys employs 40 members of staff.