Austin Macauley Publishers increases its In-House print capacity by purchasing a 2nd Ricoh Pro 8100SE digital printer.

The company has opened a new facility for that they needed a new machine. Ricoh Pro 8100SE digital printer will be installed this week.

Ricoh Pro 8100SE digital printer

“At the moment we can’t print quickly enough,” said print manager Wesley Urban.

“With two printers we can print double what we’ve been doing. There are also sometimes jobs that can take 10 to 14 hours to print so we can now leave a job like that running and do all the smaller jobs on the other printer.”

The company has almost invested £150,000 recently and is buying altogether new equipment for the new facility.

“By bringing the printing and finishing in-house we have total control of a job from design to finish. This is very important because our production standards are very high. Added to this, we have strict timelines and have been let down on occasions,” said Urban.

By bringing the new machine, the company has the capacity to have 400 runs now in-house and has completed 1000 books of 150 pages each at the moment. Moreover, the company is also looking to have more outsourcing work from other printers.

“The last few months have been crazy, it’s the busiest they’ve ever been,” said Urban.

“When I started I was told I was going to be doing about 2,000 books and 500 hardbacks a month and I’m doing about 10,000.”

Ricoh Pro 8100SE digital printer comes with 1-drum dry electrostatic transfer system having internal transfer belt. Also, it has a newly formulated pulverised toner and can produce up to 1,000K prints monthly. Also, it comes with Oil-less belt-fusing method. The product is highly suitable for the company and hence it will improve the overall printing efficiency.

The London based company Park Communication has almost invested £200,000 for in house lay-flat binding and die-cutting.

The company contains 130 staff members and is growing rapidly. It has purchased a Kisun Digi Binder DB-440 and a Heidelberg SBD Zenith and they are installed in the company premises.

Kisun digi binder db440

Heidelberg SBD Zenith

Alison Branch, the managing director of Park Communication explained that besides outsourcing these operations, they have brought in their own machine to increase the efficiency and reduce the cost. The firm said that they have rigorously tested these machines before bringing these in house.

Branch said: “A lot of our customers are in the property and fashion markets, and particularly in property they love to use double-page spreads because this really maximises the impact of the imagery.

“So property developers, builders and design agencies love lay-flat binding and we were finding there was an increased customer requirement and it’s much easier for us to keep the process in-house; it’s faster, more cost-effective, we reduce carbon emission and it’s just much easier to control the process.”

The lay-flat binder provides strength to binding as the binder sandwiches the two sheets and performs its tasks perfectly.

“The Zenith was brought in as we were finding volumes building up, so we said, ‘Right, this is the chance to internalise’,” added Branch.

“The BBC rang me and said there was good news on unemployment figures and they wanted to present those against the backdrop of a busy, efficient manufacturing facility,” said Branch.

“Their research team had identified companies that might be appropriate and through that they had identified Park.”

It is a good notion to have further investment in bringing up-to-dated machines in-house. It saves time and considerable cost for the company.

Mimaki is planning to present its UV flatbed UJF-3042 MkII and UJF-6042 MkII printers at the InPrint event.

Stuart Cole who is the national sales manager, industrial products, at Hybrid Services, which is the UK and Irish distributor of Mimaki kit, commented: “There is no doubt in my mind that the new models from Mimaki are perfectly placed to build on the incredible success of the previous generation UJF 3042 and 6042 machines.

“The additional development of even more sophisticated inks is set to expand the capability of these machines into areas of production that we could never have imagined a few years ago.

There is no doubt in my mind that the new models from Mimaki are perfectly placed to build on the incredible success of the previous generation UJF 3042 and 6042 machines”

UV flatbed UJF-3042 MkII

UJF-6042 MkII

“The ability to produce an amazing range of bespoke products in an incredibly compact and user-friendly package provides sign and graphics companies, as well as manufacturing and sampling companies with a perfect opportunity to diversify their services with greater flexibility, short-run production and ever more creative applications, which is certain to attract new and more profitable customers.”

Visitors will also see Mimaki UJF-7151plus at the event and machine is set to run with LUS-350 thermoforming ink all through the show. This is a great opportunity for the company to present its products at the major event. Through this, more of the customers will get to know about the company’s offerings and it would help potential increase in their sales.

These machines provide reliable adhesion to acrylics services. These are suitable for glass, metal, smart phone cases and membrane cases. All of these products require folding or pressing during the production process and Mimaki latest machine can perform these jobs very well.

Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C71hc has a great impact on Grayson Design and Print to increase their business.

This machine has a capacity to produce 71 colour page per minute and its high Chroma toner technology can generate “vivid and natural colour” as described by the manufacturer, for its users.

Ashley Rogers, the general manager of Grayson, commented: “With the C5501, we got outstanding results and we needed to ensure that with this new press we were able to hit the corporate orange.

Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C71hc

“The C71hc did not disappoint, the build quality, colour reproduction, clarity and precision of images, are unparalleled.”

Roger has appraised the new machine a great deal and also explained that earlier the company has to outsource its Foiler/Lamination work, that is never cost effective and with this new machine, they can save a considerable cost.

He explains: “In addition, quality control is integral to all we do, by laminating jobs in-house we have better control and are better equipped to remove any potential issues, which ensures high levels of customer satisfaction.”

Rogers comments: “The new Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C71hc, delivers outstanding colour quality and this, along with the investments we have made in other areas of the business, will enable us to offer a first class digital colour printing service to customers who use us for signage projects or workwear for example, as well as securing new customers who we can then offer other services to.”

The company has also included some other machines from renowned manufacturers’ as well that ensures a high growth for the company.

Walsh Colour Print has adopted Technocrats peripherals to have more control while they are switching to H-UV technology.

“We have used Technotrans from day one and have always found the equipment reliable,” says managing director, Tony Walsh.

Technotrans Beta f.

He continues: “With the move to H-UV the process control must be spot on so, although we have no issues with our water, we want to ensure the hardness and pH is exactly right.

“Filtration of the dampening will help in this respect, too, but the primary reason behind this purchase is the saving in chemistry costs. We believe we will cut our chemistry bill by 60% with the beta.f.”

The company has been using Technotrans’ temperature control technology from the beginning. Now the company is being installing water treatment, filtration systems and dampening solution filtration. It has been a great addition to the company’s resources and also it shows company’s great reliance on Technotrans’ peripherals.

Lipthgo has procured Horizon StitchLiner 5500. It will help to create a more flexible bindery and help improve the efficiency of its operations. Horizon StitchLiner 5500 is a fully automated solution and it comes in 03 VAC-1000 tower collators. Also the product comes with icon based colour touch screen establishing quick setup, an ACF-30 Accumulator having scoring along with, plow-folding feature and a heavy-duty HTS-30S 3-Knife Trimmer.

Horizon StitchLiner 5500

The managing director of Lithgo, Mike Atkinson, said: “We also have a Heidelberg ST300 but with both systems we can now choose quite late in the day which one to use. As the StitchLiner is quick and easy to set up it is perfect for short runs but its quality and robustness means it can also handle longer runs too.

“We liked the StitchLiner because it takes sheets that were planned in a such a way that they could be traditionally folded. That means we can plan work with traditionally folded sections. We looked at other solutions but they didn’t do that.”

Agfa Graphics and Electronics For Imaging (EFI) has an integration on Agfa’s latest Apogee 10 system and EFI Fiery digital front ends.

Both Afga Graphics and EFI are renowned companies in digital printing. Their integration is good news for customers as both the companies’ masters in their specified areas. Customers can benefit from both companies now with this integration. The integration provides the most advanced hybrid print workflows all over the commercial market.  The below diagram shows the work flow of data between the technologies;

Agfa And EFI Integration

Apogee is working as a hybrid production hub having connections with CTP and EFI’s Fiery DFE platforms.

Andy Grant, head of software at Agfa said “With this integration, existing Agfa Apogee users, including users of the latest Apogee 10 system, will be able to take advantage of hybrid offset/digital workflows”.

He further added He continues: “Through certified, industry standard JDF connectivity, Apogee users can select from the wide choice of Fiery Driven digital presses to establish easy and quick ways to direct jobs to the most appropriate print devices for the best production scenario.”

One company already taking advantage of the Fiery/Apogee integration is Hakan Walhed, general manager of Malmö at Sweden-based printing company Skånetryck, saying: “We save up to two hours on busy days.

“Plus, the consistent prepress workflow between offset and digital presses with Apogee and Fiery integration helps Skånetryck’s operators achieve a close match in colour quality with minimum training.”

“Within Agfa’s large Apogee installed base, there are also a large number of Fiery Driven digital presses from all of the leading digital press manufacturers,” said Toby Weiss, senior vice president and general manager, EFI Fiery. “This integration will enable those organizations to streamline their workflow even more, taking time and touches out of the process for a more cost-efficient operation, critical in today’s fast-paced and highly competitive printing environment.”

Xerox is the biggest technology distributor throughout the UK. Xeretec, the strategic partner of Xerox production technology announced before the trade show event that it would show how the kit from the manufacturer could be used for the efficient production in the personalized print industry.

What is new in Xerox kit for web-to-print and personalised variable data printing, the world has come to know.  Such trends in the large format printing industry have a greater demand. Xeretec’s managing director, Steve Hawkins said in an interview, “The Print Show is one of the most important events in the industry’s calendar; that’s why we have committed so much energy and investment in it.”

At print show event Xerox Versant 80, Xerox Versant 2100 digital colour printer and KIP 860 wide were at the Xeretec’s stand. They are meant for large format business and technical black and white and colour printings.

Xerox Versant 80

Xerox Versant 2100 digital colour printer

Xerox strategic partner also presented Infigo’s Web-2-Print solution personalised and customisable Software. Also EFI’s Digital Front End Workflow Technology were showed off.

Also, Hawkins commented “We are also using the show to explain how our new partnership with Infigo will benefit our customers and why they fit so well with Xeretec’s ethos.

“It is very important to us when we choose a partner, that it has a synergy with our goals and aspirations and our desire to provide excellence in service delivery to our clients.

“With its shared mindset and UK support team, we believe that Infigo ticks all the boxes. Come and experience this chemistry at our stand at The Print Show.”

From 11th October to 13th October, Print Show was organised at NEC in Birmingham. The print show event remained very successful and there was a lot of appreciation for Xerox and Xeretec’s offerings. A lot of printing businesses and technology distributors may opt these offerings.