PJ Print, Ipswich, has switched a 15 year old Komori Lithrone 426 for the latest Lithrone S29 H-UV, the key part of an expansion plan at the £1 million company.
“We were looking to buy a five-colour machine and went for a demo at a company where there was also an H-UV machine,” says managing director Ben Perkins. “The H-UV machine sold itself. For short runs it’s spot on.”
The company prepared for the installation of the machine with investment in a new automated platesetter at the end of last year. This is imaging Kodak Sonora plates which are performing impeccably with the UV set up. “Kodak has tended to play down the performance of the plates, we are very pleased with the run lengths we are getting.”
The boost to capacity will next impinge on the bindery. PJ installed a Horizon folder and StitchLiner little more than a year ago, but says Perkins “the next investment is going to be in finishing”.
Along with the new Komori, the company has installed a Konica Minolta C7000 digital press and an Accura MIS. “You have to keep investing or you will be left behind,” he adds. It has retained a second 15 year old five-colour Lithrone 26 to handle jobs that require a spot colour: “The print quality is still superb.”
The company has worked as a trade supplier for smaller printers in the area or for direct clients, a broad spread of work and papers all of which the H-UV has swallowed up. Perkins says: “The press has only been in a couple of weeks and we have already seen that whatever the material type or thickness we can move printed sheets immediately through to finishing and onwards to customers faster than ever. On four colour work printed both sides, the ability to return instantly dry sheets immediately to the feeder to print the second side is especially important to us.
“To date, most of our business has been trade print or for direct clients. Now, we’re also going to promote H-UV drying benefits to design agencies as we believe the versatility of the process opens the door for print designers to create new ideas including the use of more unconventional substrates.”
This already includes carbon offset paper with the World Land Trust and Woodland Trust. “We feel these are better in terms of environmental credentials than FSC paper,” he says. “The H-UV adds further credentials on our side – with its lower CO2 emission levels, reduced energy usage and complete elimination of spray powder.”
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PJ Print has installed a four-colour Lithrone S29 with H-UV, with managing director Ben Perkins saying the machine “sold itself”. It replaces a 15 year old Lithrone and will run alongside a similar five-colour press.
