The machines, installed around three weeks ago, joined a Versant 2100, which A1 installed last year following a major pressroom overhaul, and replaced a Xerox 700 production printer. Both were supplied by Xerox reseller Zerographic Systems.
Managing director Jim Richardson said that after six months of searching the market, the machines “ticked a lot of boxes” for the 68-staff outfit, which also installed a Nipson DigiFlex web-fed digital printer at the start of this year.
“Almost immediately the Nuvera has taken work from other pieces of equipment and that’s pretty much the next stage, moving solidly onto seven-hour shifts and then looking to move to double-day shifts as well,” said Richardson.
“We were used to the 2100 and have an inline bookletmaker with it as a lot of products we do are print-on-demand question papers for awarding bodies. The 180 does a lot of what the 2100 does but it’s a smaller version, the colour controls are excellent, the inline bookletmaker works well for short-run question papers and the software we use to drive the 180 is consistent with the 2100.”
Launched earlier this year, the 180 runs at a top speed of 80ppm, taking paper weights from 52gsm to 350gsm at a maximum sheet size of 330x660mm. Suitable for a wide range of media types, it runs off a Fiery EX 180 digital front-end (DFE) and comes with an inline spectrophotometer for increased colour automation. The Nuvera runs at 144ipm, taking a variety of coated and uncoated stocks and running off Xerox’s FreeFlow Print Server.
Richardson was full of praise for Zerographic, who he had previously worked with.
“They were very good at looking at the requirements that we had and they worked with us to specify the right machines,” he added.
With spending over for 2017, A1 is now turning its attention to inkjet technology, and may again look towards Xerox, which is soon to initiate the commercial rollout of its High Fusion Inks for its Trivor 2400 digital inkjet press.
Richardson added: “Because we’re a security printer there are peculiarities on the things we do with specialist inks that have meant to date we haven’t found the right inkjet solution. But technology is moving so fast that I’ll be having a long, hard look and I think any future investment wouldn’t be a litho press it would be more likely in inkjet or toner-based equipment.”
£7m-turnover A1 also runs two Ryobi litho presses and a Muller Martini Grapha web press. It rebranded from A1 Trade Print in mid-2015 to better reflect its security printing credentials.
