The company, which is celebrating its 25th year in business, will take delivery of the 3.2m machine in April, some six months ahead of its original investment schedule, following continued growth and demand for its digital business.

According to Tim Hill, managing director at Speedscreen, the latest machine was "a natural progression" for the company.

He said: "I always had it in mind to augment our UV digital production capability with another machine, I just wasn't sure for a while what that machine would be.

"Our last major purchase was the Durst 800 hybrid machine; it prints flat rigid material and would also do rolls up to 2.5m wide."

Speedscreen will operate the older 800 model as a dedicated flatbed machine while the incoming 320R will produce roll-to-roll jobs.

Hill added that he was impressed with the machine's new Pass Overlap feature, despite the fact it has slowed the print speed by around 7%, as it has removed banding at all speeds.

"The ability to run truly unattended overnight really swung the deal for me, with the machine sending a text to say job is finished," he added.

The order for the 320R comes little more than six months since the digital and screen printer took delivery of Epson's 1.6m aqueous inkjet printer, the Stylus Pro 11880.

A planned investment in a second cutter/plotter in the coming months will take Speedscreen's total kit spend to nearly £1m over 18 months.