The machine, which cost £125,000, was delivered to SAS’ Hove, Sussex premises on 28 September and commissioned a few days later. It joins a two-year-old Acuity LED 1600 roll-to-roll.

The Acuity is additional to the existing kit line-up but has reduced demand on the firm's two Seal laminators and led to the relocation of a member of the finishing team.

Managing director Steve White also highlighted the Acuity’s eight-colour configuration (CMYK plus light cyan, light magenta, white and clear) as a big factor in the decision behind the investment. He said he had been looking around the market for a couple of years before settling.

He considered hybrid machines from a number of different manufacturers but settled on the Acuity as it is “specifically engineered for flatbed and does that beautifully”.

“What we were trying to do is find a machine that would allow us to print direct to a rigid substrate producing a similar quality to what we would get from fine art printing processes; we basically wanted to move to printing direct-to-substrate without our clients noticing,” said White.

“What changed things for us was when Fuji and Océ announced they would produce a new version of their printers that would support light cyan and light magenta inks, which has enabled us to improve the quality over anything we were getting before and create panels and graphics that are almost photographic.

“Apart from the fact that it is high quality, it is also saving us on labour time and on materials involving lamination and sticking prints onto panels.”

White said the £500,000-turnover outfit is now producing 1x1.5m completed panels in around 10 minutes, when previously these jobs would have taken more than 10 minutes before finishing. SAS has been taking on jobs requiring a variety of materials, including wood, foamex and board.

Launched at Fespa Digital as part of the Acuity Select 20 series, the machine takes a range of substrates up to 50.8mm thick at a maximum size of 2.5x3.05m. It prints at maximum resolution of 1,200dpi at a maximum speed of 33.6sqm/h.

SAS also runs an eco-solvent Roland Soljet Pro XR-640 and a Zünd G3 digital cutter.

The four-staff printer is currently looking to develop its trade services so it can become more attractive to local signmakers and print companies looking to outsource.