Delivered on Tuesday 19 March, the Eagle 30 and its Falcon counterpart represent an investment of around £100,000 for Birmingham-based Bakergoodchild. They will work alongside a clutch of Astrojet systems that will now move into more supportive roles.
The Falcon, which uses HP thermal inkjet heads that offers drop sizes between 26 and 38pl, is set to work on a mixture of envelope applications as well as polythene wraps (although Bakergoodchild is also in the process of transitioning to a potato starch replacement material). The Kyocera-based Eagle 30, which features 5, 7 and 12pl drop sizes, will work solely on envelopes.
Both systems have been configured to offer a print width of 4.25in (108mm), although the firm can expand the width on the Eagle, if required, by adding one of the positionable heads from the highly flexible Falcon.
Sales director Adam Stafford said: “Our AMS machines are great workhorses but we were getting to a point where we wanted to go to the next level and make that step up in terms of speed and quality.
“I have honestly never been this excited about a piece of kit as I am with the MCS machines because the speed must be seen to be believed. Often, when buying a printing system, you have to divide the promised speed in two for what it will realistically turnover. With these, though, we have had them plugging straight through around the 30,000pph mark.
“We buy a lot of pre-printed envelopes from flexo and litho houses because that is the sharpness our clients are after, but the quality of these imaging systems means you really cannot tell the difference. I have a lot of confidence in our new machines.”
MCS’s Eagle 30 system supports a wide range of barcodes for printing at a maximum resolution of 600dpi, with speeds going up to 49,000pph. The Falcon runs at speeds up to 24,000pph. Both machines were supplied by ProMail in Brackley, Northamptonshire.
Bakergoodchild has continued apace with its investment drive in the MCS buy, having installed a Xerox Iridesse with white capabilities in October. Stafford said more investment was on the cards in the future as his firm turned to its enclosing capabilities to find what might need upgrading or improving.
The £9m-turnover company employs 60 members of staff.
