The press, a new addition to the firm’s plant list that cost around £220,000, has been installed into one of its three Bristol production facilities in the past few months. The Bristol units have around 1,800sqm space between them and the company also has an office in London.
The six-colour plus white and primer machine has a 2.69m-wide by 3.2m deep flatbed and prints at speeds of up to 227sqm/hr. It includes a roll-to-roll option that enables it to print on a wide variety of flexible media.
Other features include a moving gantry for more precise printing on X and Y axes and ‘Print & Prepare’ technology, which enables new media to be loaded while the printer is still working.
Artworks is a design-led manufacturer of corporate branding products and services, digitally printed bespoke graphics and workplace environment decorations.
While printed graphics make up the bulk of its work, the business also offers a total decorative graphics service, which includes framing, metalwork, plastic fabrication and joinery, and a full installation service.
The company also operates an EFI Vutek GS3250 3.2m-wide flatbed and roll-to-roll UV printer as well as Mimaki and Canon machinery. When looking for the new machine the business also considered alternatives from a range of manufacturers, including SwissQprint.
“We wanted a true flatbed wide-format printer so we took our time to compare several options,” said Artworks Solutions managing director John Sulzmann.
“The machine is fantastic in terms of print quality and has increased our efficiency. We’ve had issues with some of the media it prints onto and keying of the ink on some substrates but Agfa have stepped up to the plate with our issues, taken it on the chin and been really good and responsive.”
The company prints onto a wide variety of material including glass, metal, wood, fabric, vinyl and board for clients including the BBC, Balfour Beatty, Jaguar, Liverpool Football Club, Imperial Tobacco and Regus, as well as major architects and developers.
“We’ve just finished the production of around 1,800 signs for the BBC for a wayfinding project and they were all individual 100x100mm or 200x200mm,” said Sulzmann.
“Historically we would have had to print that on vinyl and laid it up individually but you couldn’t put something that small through a hybrid machine so this flatbed was perfect for it.”
Artworks Solutions, which has 60 staff, has a turnover of £5m and plans to increase this to £10m over the next three years.
