In 2002 DP Imagining started life as pre-press company with one Avantra imagesetter. Six months later the company installed its first CTP system, an 8 up ESKO PlateDrive followed by a 4 up Agfa Palladio to supply digital plates to printers in the Dublin area. Based in the Ballymount Industrial estate DP Imaging’s three directors, Paul Brierton, Patrick Brierton and Jason Cassidy all come from a pre-press background and initially formed the company to offer a competitive and fast turn around plate making service to printers who did not have this facility.

However about 4 years ago DP Imaging began to notice a downturn in the pre-press area and decided to start looking at various other options which would generate additional revenue for the company.

Paul Brierton said; “All three of us decided that digital large format print was probably the best sector for us to invest in going forward,” he said. “We held discussions with many suppliers, including the Reprocentre and as in the past they came up with the best entry level machine for us in the Agfa range. This was a hybrid UV cured flatbed and roll to roll printer which was competitively priced and which allowed us to print on a wide variety of substances.”

Initially DP Imaging used the Anapurna for trade work such as posters, boards and also as a learning curve in large format printing. After about a year DP Imaging decided to develop and expand its sales in this sector because up till then it was still very much an add on to the companies existing pre-press business. The result was that in January 2008 the company moved up another gear with the purchase of a HP 9000 64 inch solvent machine from the Reprocentre to expand capacity to print short run posters, vinyl and billboards.

“We have always found the Reprocentre to be on top of their game”, said Paul. “The range and depth of machinery they can supply is second to none which means that they can always show us two or three similar devices when we are looking to invest in new machinery. As with all suppliers we have had one or two technical issues with machines supplied by them but in every case these have been sorted out to our satisfaction because of the expertise of Reprocentre’s engineers which is a very major ‘plus’ in my book.”

In January 2009 DP Imaging expanded further with the purchase of a 3.2 meter HP XP2750 hybrid UV device, again from the Reprocentre including a Fotoba XL320 XY slicer to automatically finish posters with minimum operator intervention required.

“This gave us 110 m2/hr output roll to roll and a flatbed capability up to 2.5 m wide and up to 50 mm thickness,” explained Paul. “This meant that we could now produce very high quality outdoor and POS applications including a dual roll facility to print simultaneously two different jobs or the same job side by side to increase production. “

DP Imagining has come a long way from its early beginnings as a pre-press house and to-day 75% of its business is wide format print. Brierton commented; “A lot of our success down through the years is a direct result of the equipment, advice and back up service which we have received from the Reprocentre.”

As one of Irelands leading “Pre-Media” companies Typeform has established itself over the last twenty seven years as a high quality supplier of digital colour for print and publishing. Located in the Portside Business Centre, East Wall Road, Dublin 3 the company specializes in Pre-Media services for Print and Web. Alan O’Reilly, systems director at Typeform explained a little about what the company does. “One of our key services is advertising campaign deliveries and by that I mean we colour manage and deliver artwork to magazines, newspapers and outdoor advertising directly for clients or agencies. Various print sites such as newspapers and magazines will have different colour requirements with regard to total ink weight in order to print a job so we have to colour manage individual files so that they are accepted by the various print processes. For example you can’t take a magazine ad that’s nice and punchy at 320 total ink weight and put it into a newspaper. It has to be transformed and colour managed down to about 240 simply so that it won’t seep through the back of the newsprint and break the web when it’s printing.”

Typeform to-day delivers to all the national and regional newspapers and magazines here and in the UK as well as other countries including the USA. The company offers five primary services, Ad campaign delivery, artwork services for typesetting and layout, Image manipulation of digital images, high end drum and archive scanning and pre-press computer to plate making.

“Some of Irelands largest print companies outsource their pre-press to us” continued O’Reilly. “Because a considerable amount of printers in Ireland to-day find it difficult to invest in multiple plate making devices as well as upgrading software because it’s so expensive we offer this service twenty four hours a day and take away a major headache for them. All our pre-press kit is supplied by the Reprocentre where we have invested heavily in Agfa equipment from them. We have two Agfa Avalon VLF (very large format) plate making devices and one Agfa X 45 which means that Typeform has three plate making devices, two of which are the largest in the country. The company is now probably one of the largest suppliers of plates to the printing industry in Ireland and accounts for about one third of our business to-day.”

Typeform has been dealing with the Reprocentre since the company was founded and O’Reilly is very open about his dealings with them. “They are very reliable and have a very good portfolio of products, particularly Agfa which is why over the years we have invested so much with them. We only use Agfa consumables, Agfa equipment and Agfa Apogee workflow supplied by the Reprocentre.”

Horizon

Horizon Graphics was formed in 1995 to offer the marketplace colour reproduction and a full screen printing service. Over the years it has invested heavily in a range of new technology and today is one of the countries leading suppliers of digital, screen and litho print solutions in Ireland. Recently it added to its already formidable digital division by installing a HP Scitex Turbojet TJ8350 wide format printer supplied by the Reprocentre to increase productivity and free up additional capacity on its other digital and screen presses. The company has two production plants based in north Dublin and the new machine will be primarily used for outdoor media and point of sale posters. This new investment considerably increases Horizons digital output capabilities to the point where 60% of its printing will now be run digitally.

Derek Gillen, sales director explained why the HP Scitex Turbojet TJ8350 was so badly needed.

“Horizon already has a HP XP5300, a NUR Fresco III, a Nur Tempo II, as well as two Esko Kongsberg cutting tables, an i-XL 44 and an XP 44,as well as a Roland Pro III and two Canon IPF 9000’s on the LFP side” said Derek. “And on the small format side we have the Xeikon 500 which has been very successful for us. Since a lot of our work is billboard and outdoor posters we needed a fast machine for this business so that we could free up some of our other machines including our screen presses to further develop new markets and increase Horizons presence in sectors where we currently are not that strong. On a typical outdoor billboard campaign it’s worked on what’s called a two week cycle. So every two weeks there is a change of advertisement on these sites and we have to deliver one week in advance of each new campaign which places considerable pressure on our production. Using our screen presses if we had to produce a forty eight sheet poster run we would have to make all the individual screens, print, and then the sheets would have to be cut down on a guillotine and collated by hand. With the new HP Scitex Turbojet TJ8350 all the colours are printed in one pass and digitally collated. This means that they are printed in the order which the billposter company requires them and because we also purchased a Fotoba cutting unit as part of the overall package the output from the printer is trimmed and stacked in line as well.”

Ken Kavanagh, managing director of Horizon added, “If you look at the bigger picture to-day, in store point of sale corrugated units are printed either digitally or screen. The HP Scitex Turbojet TJ8350 will free up production time on our flatbed Tempo and screen presses to expand and significantly increase our presence in this market sector because we also now have the finishing capability of the Esko Kongsberg cutting tables which we purchased from the Reprocentre. In November of last year Horizon received a green accreditation and the ISO and what this does is make us more environmentally friendly because there is no waste with digital print. When you print a poster on a screen press you have to allow for at least 10% over’s whereas with the new HP Scitex Turbojet TJ8350 for example if someone orders 200 posters that’s what they get and we don’t have any over’s to throw out at the end of the run. The other great bonus with this printer is that because it also has variable data we can now service 100 different sites around the country for a client and be specific to each individual one in terms of localized print needs.The Turbojet is a machine that really takes traditional screen printing on, in terms of production, going forward I reckon Horizon will not produce a 48 sheet poster ever again using the screen process”.

Derek Gillen explained some of the other advantages that large format printing offered Horizon.

“We are getting a very good reaction from clients in particular because there will be no cutting box required for floor units or cut to shape point of sale items which can be a significant cost especially when doing a floor unit,” he said.

Horizon has also developed in partnership with another company an eco-friendly PE material with plastic eyelets for banners which is 100% recyclable.

Ken continued; “Horizon now has all the print and finishing equipment it needs to finish a job from start to finish including welding machines. To-day we can produce everything from a business card, brochure, all the way to banners and billboards and most importantly we don’t outsource anything at all! In fairness, a lot of our growth down through the years has been the result of sound investments in state of the art machinery and the Reprocentre has played a large part in that process.”

With a customer base that encompasses retail, banking, food, clothing, motor and the alcoholic beverage industry Horizon’s clients now span the complete spectrum of Irish business.

Contact:

Horizon Graphics, 00353 (0) 1 8681257, www.horizongraphics.ie

When Bandon Office supplies was nearly washed out of business during last Novembers severe flooding, it’s a testament to the fortitude of the company that it is now back trading, after re-investing heavily in its pre-press and litho area as well as expanding its wide format sign division with the recent purchase of a Agfa Anapurna M 64 inch UV printer. Bandon Office Supplies was founded in 1977 by Brian Merrick and today is a leading supplier of signs, general print, and office products in the Munster region as Print Manager, Robert Merrick explained.

“It’s no lie to say that on the 19th of November last year we lost virtually everything here except for one Roland DG VersaCAMM VP-540 large format print machine. We suffered severe flood damage, in places eight foot deep but it was a case of “all hands on deck” and since then we have managed to get back up and running again. Because we had to replace virtually everything that was destroyed, particularly our litho press, in a peculiar sort of way it forced us to evaluate exactly what type of printing equipment and software we needed going forward. One of the areas which we wanted to automate was the pre-press litho section so we purchased an Agfa Palladio B2 Ctp with an Apogee upgraded workflow from the Reprocentre.”

Bandon has three full time designers and prints for a cross section of clients in Cork as well as some trade work for smaller printers in West Cork.

Robert commented that the company already had a sign department and it was just a natural progression for them to open a digital division.

“A lot of people were asking us for posters and we were not able to facilitate them with the machinery we had which was a Gerber edge and a plotter for cutting out vinyl letters,” he said. “However the requirement for that type of business is much less now because everything to-day is really printed wide format which is why we initially bought a Roland DG VersaCAMM VP-540. Bandon Office Supplies has been dealing with the Reprocentre for many years on imagesetters, film, plates, and an Agfa CTP system. We knew Reprocentre’s track record and at the end of the day it all boils down to service because there’s no point in having the best machine in the world if you cant get good backup to keep it running. What I also like about them is the fact is that I can phone at anytime even outside working hours and they will give me the information to get us up and running again which is worth more to me than anything else.”

Bandon Office Supplies already had plans in place to upgrade its signs division so as part of the necessary re-investment after the flooding it decided to purchase an Agfa Anapurna M 64 inch UV hybrid printer from the Reprocentre.

“This new investment gives us the flexibility to print onto roll or uncoated rigid substrates such as aluminium for indoor and outdoor sign & displays it also eliminates a lot of time and costs associated with mounting and laminating on Corrieboard etc. Although its impossible to print everything on just one wide format printer the Anapurna is about three times faster than the Roland.”

Bandon is situated at the gateway to West Cork and with a population of nearly 12,000 Bandon Office Supplies believes it now has the capability to provide an excellent service level for signage, general print, and office products to the area and indeed most of Munster.

The Freeney name is legendary in the sign business. Generations of highly skilled signwriters and artists have earned a reputation for providing quality work. High standards have kept Freeney’s at the forefront of the sign business in Ireland for almost 100 years.

In 1988 Freeney’s first invested in computer driven technology, which has since revolutionised the sign industry. Year on year growth has been repeated by continued investment in the most up to date technology. Tom Freeney states, “Installing the new HP Designjet L65500 is consistent with our strategy to remain leaders in our chosen market”

HP Designjet L65500 Printers use Latex Inks and can produce signs and graphics on a wide selection of flexible media for a diverse range of outdoor and indoor applications. The outstanding image quality and wide color gamut help to create eye-catching graphics with rich hues and vibrant tones. The prints offer excellent durability and display permanence. Prints produced with HP Latex Inks are odorless. At least they have no odor beyond whatever smell is inherent to the substrate. This is especially valuable if the graphics are going to be used in food stores, restaurants, fitness centers, medical facilities or anywhere else where print odors might be a concern.

HP Latex Inks are water-based. They are free of Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) and require no special ventilation. An expanding range of recyclable media is available for the printer and most of these can be returned for free recycling through the HP Large-format Media take-back program.