The new device was installed at the firm’s 93sqm Wembley facility at the beginning of March and is the latest in a string of new equipment spends.
“We were spending a fair bit on outsourcing lamination - it made good business sense to keep that money in-house and bring control back into our own hands,” said Apprintable managing director Peter Haddad.
“Because of the investment in the Ricoh press last year, we’ve been able to bring a lot more production in-house and bringing laminating back here was the obvious next step,” he added.
Haddad said the new laminator replaced an older device that was tricky to use and couldn’t produce the quality of the Morgana.
“The speed, the ease of webbing it up and the fact that we can just let it run almost completely unattended have been the obvious benefits for our productivity,” he said.
The business is using the machine to produce laminated business cards, flyers, and POS work, as well as more unusual products such as tent cards and coffee cup sleeves.
“We can use matt, gloss and soft touch finishes and will also be adding matt, biodegradable material, in keeping with our sustainability focus,” Haddad said.
The Pro 450 is a high-pile automatic feed laminator and features an integrated compressor and pneumatic system capable of laminating up to 450mm working width. It works at speeds up to 1,875 SRA3sph with micro-perforation and scissor roller cutting system integrated.
As well as standard laminating, the device offers foiling and spot gloss, new capabilities for the business, with which Haddad said it was currently experimenting with the aim of bringing the service in-house.
“It was the foiling capability that really helped to clinch the deal for me. It costs so much to outsource foiling compared to the actual raw material costs involved, so we see this as another huge opportunity,” he said.
The purchase from Morgana brings spend with the manufacturer to £48,000 in recent months, including an Aerocut Prime which arrived in December and a Canny P50 automatic strapping machine, in January.
Other investments at the start of the year included an Easycoat gluing system supplied by Vivid Laminating Technologies, an Oki Pro A3 white toner printer from Amaya UK and a Sawgrass SG1000 A3 printer that was supplied by The Magic Touch.
The business invested heavily throughout last year, moving into its new premises in June and installing a Ricoh Pro C5300s with Fiery RIP from X-Press OnDemand in August, replacing an Oki Pro9431DN as well as a Warrior Electric Round Corner Cutter from Chilvers Reprographics.
Haddad said the business would be looking for new premises again in 2023 as the Wembley facility was full with the new equipment.
The eight-staff business, which was established in 2015 and now has a turnover of more than £500,000, also runs a Graphtec F-Mark Plus digital die-cutter and an Epson SureColor SC-F2100 direct-to-garment printer with a heat press and pre-treatment machine, purchased at the start of 2021.
