Installation of a Dantex PicoJet inkjet label press last year is already having a major impact at Swindon printer Advanced Print Systems.
And the label press was not the only investment the business has made in the last 12 months. It has moved to new premises, installed Ricoh flatbed printer, C9500 toner press and guillotine.
Demand for labels has been growing strongly, putting a strain on existing facilities, making the step to a more productive press a natural step.
Managing director Simon Evers says: “We have a Konica Minolta 230 label press next to the PicoJet, but this wasn’t fast enough and had limitations to the colour, being only a four-colour toner machine.”
The PicoJet offers white as well as CMYK. The white opens the door to printing on clear and metallised papers. The new machine is much faster and where the Konica Minolta is on a click rate, the company pays for consumables used with the inkjet press. This translates to lower running costs as well as an expanded colour gamut.
“The colour gamut of inkjet is also superior to toner; for example oranges and lime greens are very punchy – unlike on toner devices,” he says.
Currently the company has been able to cope with its existing finishing set up, though Evers recognises that this might change. “Our current finishing equipment is coping for now, but finishing will be our next investment in the not too distant future.”
Before then attention turns to its commercial print side. It installed a Ricoh Pro C9500 alongside an existing Konica Minolta 6085 along with the Dantex last year. A PUR perfect binder is due on site by the end of next month with the additional label finishing line to follow.
It adds up to increasing sales across each of the sextors the business is active in which is on target for sales of £2 million by the end of the year.
