Blueorange initially opted for a different wide-format machine to replace a seven-year-old Mutoh ValueJet, which had reached the end of its life. It was installed in the middle of October, but “wasn’t up to the mark”, according to Blueorange general manager Laurie Randall, so the company returned it and invested in the ColorPainter. 

The M-64s was purchased from Whitchurch-based supplier Signmaster Systems and installed at the beginning of November. 

Randall said: “There’s not a lot we don’t like about this machine. This has a better quality than the previously purchased machine and prints at higher speeds.

“Speed is significantly better than the Mutoh and the service from Signmaster has been very good. It also has seven dedicated printheads, which means if you get a nozzle blocked you can switch it and put another nozzle back in. This gives us more flexibility in-house if something goes untoward in the future.”

The ColorPainter will primarily be used for trade printing of panels and trays.

The seven-colour machine (CMYK plus light cyan, light magenta and grey) prints at a maximum speed of 66.5sqm/hr in draft mode and 49.7sqm/hr in ‘fast production’ mode.

South Molton, Devon-based Blueorange is looking to complete jobs at a far quicker rate now that the machine has bedded in.

The 16-staff outfit also runs a Canon imagePrograf and a number of Summa cutters.

Last month, OKI expanded its ColorPainter range with the addition of the E-64S, which will be available from December from Signmaster Systems.

At Drupa, it showed its Next Generation wide-format printing technology.