‘We decided to buy the Mimaki model because it broadens the range of work that we can provide to existing and potential clients,’ says managing director Glenn Trout. ‘We also have a Mutoh wide format digital printer, which we purchased from Digital Solutions in 2004. It has worked and continues to work very well for us but it has a print facility only whereas the Mimaki is a print and cut device so it widens our options and allows us to do short to medium quantity runs of labels which we couldn’t do before. In addition, we can do outlying features and other specific features on graphics.This type of work was possible before we installed the Mimaki but it had to be done by hand.A lot of signage that we are now doing is more visual whereas before it was often just a case of putting text on a sign. Because signage is more visual the quality of the print is more important than ever. The Mimaki CJV30-130 also has a higher resolution print at a higher speed than the Mutoh device and provides a sharper print finish.We are printing mostly display graphics for vehicle wraps on the new Mimaki, along with interior wall mounted display graphics and internal and external banners.’
Apart from the quality of the device, Glenn says he was persuaded to go with Mimaki because of the relationship he had built up with Dave Rainsford of Hybrid Services and with Bernard Hoey from Reprocentre. ‘I have been dealing with Dave and Bernard for a number of years now,’ he says.‘Dave used to supply Roland machines to me and Bernard is in the media supply and equip- ment end of things with Reprocentre.Apart from the Mutoh and Mimaki devices, we also operate a laminator which we bought off Bernard a few years ago, and a 48 inch and 24 inch plotter.’
Mulhuddart-based Glenn Trout Signs has been in the signage business since 1957 and provides a wide range of signage solutions, including vehicle display and shop front signage, 3D raised letters, stainless steel letters, PVC and mesh banners, canvas display print, window graphics, full colour digital printing, health and safety signage and POS. ‘We can supply any kind of signage that the customer wants, except for neon signs,’ says Glenn.

www.irishprinter.ie

Adventure Branding Limited, based in Knockmitten Lane, Dublin 12 has recently installed a Mimaki CJV30-130 printer as part of an upgrade programme to enhance the company’s production capabilities in order to match their increase in business.

Established over twelve years ago by Roy Tucker, Adventure Branding specialises in branding of all shapes and sizes, from vehicle branding and wrapping to extensive building or shopping centre wrapping. The company was established with one goal in mind: to provide a highly visual, quality-driven service from day one. Key to this was Adventure Branding’s determination to ensure that it was distinctive among other wrapping and signage companies by ensuring that all elements were produced within its custom-built premises including logistics, project management, design, print and fit. A full team of experts, including professional designers and fitters, who have over 20 years of experience in wrapping vehicles and buildings, as well as fitting signage was also critical in eliminating the potential problems and headaches that can sometimes be a part of the branding process.

Alex Tucker joined the company in 2005 to drive the business forward using his sales and marketing experience gained from 15 years working in the printing trade and FMCG.

The company has a very high profile and distinctive branding presence of its own, with many vehicles in the Dublin area wrapped in its corporate leopard-print design.

Recently the brothers decided that they needed to upgrade one of their wide format printers which they feared was holding back the company’s progress, so they looked to the market to see what the latest printing technologies had to offer to their business.   Although they considered remaining with their existing supplier, they were open to other options and engaged experienced Mimaki reseller Reprocentre for advice.

Production features on the award-winning Mimaki CJV30 such as the single handed clutch loading of the media, in-built cleaning and maintenance and a first-class speed / quality ratio made the decision making process easy, according to Alex, who commented: “We’ve had the Mimaki for two months now and it’s been running 24/7 without missing a beat. We’re delighted with the move to a Mimaki printer and it’s transformed the way Adventure Branding work.”

The uninterrupted ink supply system on the Mimaki is another feature that Alex focuses on as making a difference to how his company operates, allowing overnight printing during the increasingly busy spells that he’s experiencing. “We’ve had a number of large jobs in of late and it’s helped us meet some short delivery times. With the powered take-up unit it’s been satisfying to know the Mimaki’s working away for us, producing high quality work into the night. The company has gone from strength to strength and currently employs up to 11 people.”

Further information on Adventure Branding’s full range of services can be found by visiting www.adventurebranding.ie

Reprocentre offer the full range of Mimaki printers and cutters and their website is www.reprocentre.ie

http://www.dpnlive.com

DP Imaging  (DPI) has installed a HP Scitex LX600 Printer and Esko Kongsberg i-XL 24 table at its production facility located in Baldoyle, Dublin 13. The company which specialises in vehicle graphics, shop and retail signage, banner and truck advertising to general print made the investment to offer clients improved print quality levels and turnaround times. Both pieces of equipment were supplied by the Reprocentre.

Paul Brierton, a Director of DPI commented:

“We base ourselves on offering quality,” said Brierton. “The quality and speed of the HP Scitex LX600 I can honestly say is superb. It’s currently the best on the market. There are a whole range of applications it can do and because the production speed is so good it’s very cost effective unlike some of the other machines we have. The turnaround times are now getting to a stage where clients are literally giving us virtually impossible deadlines to meet.”

Brierton says that while the DPI covers a lot of sectors particularly retail, the company would be widely known for its bespoke work due to its approach to service and quality. He also said that was one of the reasons they also purchased the Esko Kongsberg i-XL 24.

“It’s designed for 24/7 production and some of the work we were getting in needed a machine that could handle cut-outs and various shapes. At present we are putting a lot of work through it that we couldn’t take on previously. DPI does a fair amount of retail work such as POS and vehicle graphics, so the addition of these two new machines alongside our other printers, a 3.2 metre HP Scitex XP2750 UV and a NUR Tempo II UV flatbed certainly gives us a significant amount of production capacity now.”

Brierton pointed out one further advantage of the HP Scitex LX600.

“Because it’s a Latex printer and not solvent we can laminate straight away,” he added. “This also has had a huge effect on reducing our lead times. So for clients who want very high quality work with a fast turnaround then the HP Scitex LX600 is the perfect machine for handling this type of demand.”

DPI

Tel: 000353 (0) 1 440 6666

W: www.dpi.ie

Digital Print News
www.dpnlive.com

The Esko Kongsberg i-XP24C, which was purchased from the Reprocentre, also came with automatic feeding to allow it to be a true production machine.

Ronan Conway, MD of Print & Display said:

“This table will dramatically increase P&D’s finishing capability while at the same time eliminating the requirement for cutting forms. Apart from its corrugated applications, the Kongsberg i-XP24C has the capability to rout and/or cut acrylics, reboard type materials and aluminium signs.”

The Kongsberg i-XP provides the ability to run jobs from a single unit to a full scale production with up to a 1000 units in a day. Esko maintain that the throughput delivered by its Kongsberg i-XP represents a new standard for digital finishing by highlighting the fact that no other cutting table on the market can even compete particularly for corrugated short run digital finishing where it says the Kongsberg i-XP24C now challenges the throughput on manual clam shell die cutters.

Tel: 00353 (0) 1 4131400

W: www.printanddisplay.ie

Digital Print News
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“If you go back to the bad old days some three years ago we were a signage and label company,” said Williams. “The signage end catered for new shopping centres which were opening nearly on a monthly basis and these were very large scale projects. Most of the work was outdoors but there was a fair contingent that was indoors such as window graphics, wall vinyls etc. However as we all know now, that came to a sudden and painful end. This also had serious implications on the company’s cash flow.”

In light of this development Cuspal made a conscious decision to diversify away from the building industry and instead target the retail sector which it believed would be the first market sector to come out of the recession.

“The label side of our business continued to be strong, so the first thing we did was to look at that customer base to see what more could we sell to these clients,” added Williams. “Most were international technology manufacturing companies and whilst we were providing a very high specification label there were other components – such as manuals – which went with these products.”

The upshot was that Cuspal invested in small format print in the shape of a Xerox 700i Digital Color Press. This allowed it to produce not only the screen printed face panels, membranes, but also the printed leaflet and manual which went into every box.

“In effect we were now able to offer the full solution to customers and could demonstrate significant cost savings to them as well,” he continued.

Although Cuspal’s main customer pulled out its manufacturing base from Ireland last year, it retained the business and now supplies product into North America, Mexico and central Europe.

Williams said that this then gave the company the idea to look at other new business opportunities and they decided to enter the retail sector.

“Our first investment last year was in a HP Scitex FB700 Flatbed Printer which proved to be an instant success,” said Williams. “Because we also have a light engineering section it was the combination of both print and finishing in-house that allowed us to provide retail solutions which our competitors could not. One example of this was for An POST which wanted to replace all of its outside projecting signs in the organizations 1161 sites nationwide. Each sign consisted of a metal bracket and a printed board. Normally speaking one company would have manufactured the signs and another would install them. What we were able to do was take the design, produce a prototype and prove to AN POST that Cuspal could do everything. In addition because we employ professional project managers, we were also able to inform them every day that we were keeping to the time scale agreed.”

As turnaround times became shorter and shorter alongside demands for higher quality graphics, Cuspal then made a decision to go one step further by investing again. This time they installed a HP Scitex LX600 Latex printer at the end of October.

“The quality of the LX600 is stunning,” continued Williams. “So the difference between what we can now offer and what we offered a year ago is substantial. For example we have just completed a roll-out for O2 with a print management company for the Christmas period and that has all been done on the HP Scitex LX600.We would not have been able to provide such a service within the short time scale allowed if we did not have that printer. The work involved inside and outside fixed vinyls to windows, white printing on clear vinyl, as well as complete internal store displays including the installation of Christmas trees and lights. I can honestly say that for quality, speed and reliability there is nothing to beat the HP Scitex LX600 Latex printer.”

Tel: 00353 (0) 1 463 4400

W: www.cuspal.com

Digital Print News
www.dpnlive.com

MD of duprint Martin Dunne explained.

“The Summa is the next thing to a screen print regarding quality,” said Dunne. “It’s a very good machine but unfortunately you can only purchase a specific colour ribbon for it which is a limitation in itself, so it’s fine for spot colours. But the Mimaki allows us to do full colour work and also offer new solutions to clients. Although it’s complementing the Summa, it can also produce POP-Ups, vechicle wraps etc, all at a very high quality level.”

Dune said that although duprint also had a Roland AJ-740i, he felt that the Mimaki JV33-130 was superior for prints that require very fine detail.

“The AJ-740i is fine for larger applications,” added Dunne. “When you get down to very fine detail then the Mimaki wins out. One of the areas that we are very strong in is retail. Typically this would involve producing window graphics and other items such as counter graphics. We also have the capability to produce full vehicle wraps.”

To-day duprint’s business is evenly split between screen printing and digital large format printing although as Dunne remarked, it seems that with clients demanding shorter run lengths and more on-demand product he is beginning to notice a distinct shift in his business across to digital large format.

Tel: 00353 (0) 42 9329144

W: www.duprint.ie

Digital Print News
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Sureprint (Clonmel) Ltd, based in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary has just invested in a Mimaki CJV30-130 integrated printer / cutter to beef up its digital print production capabilities and expand its print offering to other market sectors. The company operates as a general printer from its main production hub in the town as well as from a Quick Print Service centre on O’Connell Street, Clonmel.

P.J. O’Neill, Managing Director of Sureprint explained the reason for the purchase.

“I have had a Canon iP9000 for a number of years but that’s water based,” said O’Neill. “Now although we bought a new large laminator six months ago which allows us to produce outdoor work, it has its limitations particularly on tee shirts. We also used our Xerox machines but they are oil based and when you transfer an image to a tee shirt they lose some colour and the end result is that the finished product is really not up to scratch. I needed a machine that would print a tee shirt, cut them at the same time and deliver a quality result. I looked at a number of options and at a recent exhibition in Cork I saw the integrated print & cut machine in action hosted by the Document Binding Company (DBC). Immediately I could see that it would give me a massive amount of potential over other similar printers. So a decision was made to purchase the printer from Dublin based Mimaki reseller, Reprocentre, which they installed the following week“.

The Mimaki CJV30 series boasts a fully automated print & cut workflow which means that no user intervention is required. It also has a choice of inks, including metallic, white, eco and low solvent.

“Although we only have the machine a very short time now we have produced a number of POP–UP banners on it and I’ve noticed that the material for those banners is very sturdy unlike the equivalent for the Canon which was quite flimsy,” said O’Neill. “There is also a much larger choice of substrate available to us now which means that we can expand our offering to customers – particularly labels. Most of our clients want these on outdoor material with at least one year’s life guarantee. Before the arrival of the Mimaki we could only cut labels in either a square or rectangle shape. Now I can offer many different “kiss cut” shapes which open up exciting new opportunities for Sureprint.

As the largest printer in Clonmel boasting significant litho, digital and finishing equipment, the addition of the Mimaki CJV30-130 integrated printer / cutter certainly appears to have given Sureprint many new options going forward.

Sureprint Ltd

P: 00353 (0) 52 6122839

W: www.sureprint.ie

Reprocentre

www.reprocentre.ie

Designed to inspire and show how incorporating HP Latex printers, inks and compatible HP substrates into their operations can deliver business enhancing opportunities to PSPs, the events will feature informative presentations, customer testimonials, hands-on workshops and live product demonstrations on a 152.4cm (60in) HP Designjet L25500 Printer.

Central to the tour is a 16.5m-long customised truck and trailer, which will embark on a roadshow across the UK, having already visited a host of European countries over recent months.

The Irish tour dates are as follows:

Monday 28th November, Ramada Plaza, Belfast
Wednesday 30th November, AVIVA Stadium, Dublin
Friday 2nd December, Curvaheen Park Stadium, Cork

The HP Latex Applications Tour will focus on how users can expand their creative applications offering and undertake a host of innovative graphic arts projects by maximising the multi-substrate printing capability of latex printers. As well as the HP Designjet L25500 Printer, these also include other print solutions, such as the new HP Scitex LX820 and LX850 Printers.

Additionally, the road show will explain the environmental benefits offered by HP Latex Printing solutions and how these technologies allow PSPs to limit the impact of their operations on the environment, while also fulfilling certain stipulations required of their own customers.

HP Latex Inks provide print durability and display permanence comparable to eco-solvent inks and low-solvent inks, and their water-based formulation helps reduce the impact of printing on the environment. From durable outdoor signage to odourless prints for indoor displays, HP Latex Inks provide high productivity printing and broad media versatility across both coated and uncoated substrates.

Sessions will showcase the new market opportunities enabled by the versatility of latex ink including non-traditional signage applications, such as wallpaper; indoor decorative textiles, printing on uncoated fabrics and fine art canvas reproductions. Previously impossible applications, such as printing for enclosed spaces, such as lifts, or places were strict regulations are in place, like in hospitals and restaurants are also possible using HP Latex Ink printers.

Catalent Pharma Solutions (now part of the Clondalkin Group), one of the leading providers of advanced technologies and outsourced services to the global pharmaceutical, biotechnology and consumer health industries, announces the purchase of a next-generation 10-colour plus drying tower and coating unit, KBA Rapida 106 printing press at its printed components facility in Dublin, Ireland, to support expansion in the UK and European market.   

The KBA Rapida 106 10-colour press for Catalent Pharma Solutions in Dublin has been ordered in an unusual 2-over-8 configuration plus drying tower and coating tower at the end of the press. Equipped with KBA DriveTronic SPC direct drive technology for each plate cylinder, the high performance B1 press will be enabling for the first time the concurrent production and make ready of alternate jobs reducing downtime to a minimum

Due to be installed in June 2009, the KBA Rapida 106 is part of an ongoing investment in the Dublin plant to support the growth of its European Printed Component business. The press is capable of printing 15,000 sheets per hour and features a unique combination of advanced systems that provide transparent assurance of print quality and product integrity throughout the print run.

Fitted with the unique QualiTronic Professional full-sheet scanning system, which KBA developed for its currency printing presses, the QualiTronic camera scans each sheet (front and back) at over three million pixels of resolution in full production speed. The image is then inspected and compared to an approved master sheet for any inconsistencies or deviations. If any deviations are found, the sheet is marked for removal downstream. The system can also detect any minute colour changes and automatically adjust the press in a closed-loop sequence, without the need for operator intervention.

The press also has a simultaneous plate changing (SPC) system for rapid makereadies and Plate-Ident to reduce run-up waste and ensure correct sequencing. Its innovative 2-over-8 configuration offers the ultimate in efficiency, enabling for the first time the concurrent production and make ready of alternate jobs on a single press reducing downtime to a minimum. This establishes the flexibility needed to effectively service both high- and low-volume jobs without sacrificing the superb quality, resolution and colour of true offset printing. The press also runs at low energy consumption levels, which supports Catalent’s efficiency goals and benefits its customers through improved carbon footprint audits.

“The KBA press brings a variety of innovative capabilities specifically tailored to meet the changing needs of our customer base,” said Victor Dixon, vice president and general manager of Printed Components business. “It introduces a higher standard in pharmaceutical carton supply and follows our investment in similar technology upgrades at our plants in the US and Puerto Rico. Our Dublin plant, which has served the pharmaceutical and healthcare market since it opened in 1989, has continually raised the bar for others to follow, and again leads its competitors with this investment.”

KBA (UK) Ltd sales director Mark Nixon comments: “KBA has shown that its commitment is to ensuring that printers don’t just get the job done, but that they get the job done right. Yes, we have the high production speeds and yes we have the instant makereadies, but unless you have the on-board quality controls that can react in real time you are only printing more waste. Catalent has recognised that these new technologies will bring a significant advantage to their production processes and deliver unique benefits to their customers.”

“KBA is defined by the highest standards of excellence that it sets itself; the advanced control and performance systems available at every stage on the new 106, end-to-end, represent the pinnacle of technological innovation, developed by our specialists across the range of our larger format machines. The result is the most versatile specialist press ever in the medium format.”

About Catalent

Headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey, Catalent is one of the leading providers of advanced dose form and packaging technologies, and development, manufacturing, packaging and printing services for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and consumer healthcare companies in nearly 100 countries. There are three UK sites at Corby, Bolton, Swindon, as well as the Dublin plant, which are supporting its expansion in the UK and European market.

With $1.8bn sales in 2008, Catalent employs approximately 9,100 at more than 30 facilities worldwide. For more information, visit  www.catalent.com

The HP LX850 has been bought to enhance the company’s production capabilities, particularly in the high-end retail POS market. Allied to this the investment is the Eskoartworks Kongsberg i-XP24C table, designed to significantly increase Print and Display’s finishing capability at its plant in Tallaght, Dublin 24.
MD Ronan Conway commented: “The LX850 was bought with a view to high image quality, low volume digital work, primarily for the high-end retail POS market and the vehicle graphics market. With a print resolution of 1200 x 1200dpi, the print quality is leaps and bounds ahead of any other wide-format machine in its class. The high quality of the print also opens up new markets for Print and Display such as flags, wall papers, canvas prints and much more. There are also a number of environmental benefits to this printer as well since the ink is water based and solvent free which means that there are no hazardous air pollutants.”
Ronan said that the Eskoartworks Kongsberg i-XP24C cutting table has been purchased with automatic feeding to allow it to be a true production machine.
“The machine will significantly increase our finishing capability and also removes the requirement for cutting forms,” he added. “Apart from its corrugated applications, the Eskoartworks Kongsberg table will open up significant new markets for the company, as it will have the capability to cut acrylics, reboard/falcon board type materials”

www.printanddisplay.ie