Central Colour will replace a six-year-old Mitsubishi V3000 six-colour plus coater with an almost identical press, gaining extra scope on the substrates handled, improvements on colour control and make ready.
This is the company’s fourth consecutive Mitsubishi, this time produced by Ryobi Mitsubishi following the merger between the two Japanese press suppliers. And key to decision was the absolute reliability of the ‘no break down’ press. Richard Limer, one of three joint managing directors of the Nottingham business, says: “Our existing machine has clocked up some 140 million impressions since installation six years ago and has not let us down once in that time.”
Fellow managing director Andy Baxter adds: “I can barely remember an issue we have had since switching to Mitsubishi. It’s the best thing we ever did – and it looks great was well.”
The reliability is confirmed by the presentation of an award to Glossop Cartons at Packaging Innovations to mark 1,500 days since a service visit to its V3000.
Central is building a mezzanine floor and reorganising the factory ahead of the arrival of the press. This will increase floor space and put the press centre stage, particularly for clients coming for a press pass. The distinctive LEDs on the V3000 press units which change colour to indicate production status and styling of the machine have been a head turner since the introduction of the press in 2008.
Central’s customer base is drawn from the highest level of quality demanding clients, producing work for eight automative manufacturers among them Bentley and Range Rover. This is where the Mitsubishi closed loop colour control system will improve makeready times, calculating the optimum settings in order to match target values after taking measurements from the first pull. In additional Colour Navigator is used to ensure colour consistency for spot colours or crucial areas of the sheet.
As well as precise colour printing, at fine resolutions, Central Colour has gained experience of running with different high impact coatings, either as a single coating or by using the final printing unit for a dual coating for additional creativity.
M Partners is European distributor for Ryobi Mitsubishi’s B1 presses. It majors on the reliability of the machines which means that users do not face ongoing maintenance contracts nor need to allocate space for spare parts held on consignment for when they are needed.
Mark Stribley, joint managing director of M Partners, explains: “The consistent performance offered by Ryobi Mitsubishi equipment not only reduces the amount of year-on-year spend on both service visits and spares to a mere trickle, it also gives the user added confidence in the performance of their equipment. There is no time lost in production, which means what has been scheduled gets produced. Machine breakdowns can be a significant problem for some print producers – especially when the demands from management are for fewer machines on the floor, as we are currently witnessing. Equipment that is purchased simply has to be productive and hassle free.”
Central Colour’s team line up to mark the order of a new Ryobi Mitsubishi. Richard Limer, managing director, general manager James Haggerwood, David Fortune, managing director and Andy Baxter, manager director are joined in the back row by Mark Stribley, joint managing director of M Partners and head of sales Gary Doman. The machine ordered is a six-colour plus coater and will go into the factory in July once extensive modification work to enhance the factory is completed.
About the V3000 series Mitsubishi and Ryobi reach deal in cooperation
