Replacing a 12-year-old HP Scitex, the Matan – which will also be dedicated purely to mesh applications – was located and installed in just five weeks by supplier CMYUK.
Anthony Byrne, operations director at CoverUp, told Printweek: “We needed it in a panic, and we got it on the floor walking within two months – so we weren’t waiting on a brand-new build, it was refurbished. Obviously we looked into it, and we knew it was a good machine.”
Installed in September 2023, the machine is CoverUp’s third EFI, and follows a 2022 installation of a Q5r, also from CMYUK, which is now one of the firm’s workhorse machines.
“We’ve been investing regularly: we always upgrade every couple of years,” Byrne said.
“The Q5r is fine for doing all the rest of the work, really, the PVC, dye-sub material, polyester, and vinyl, we have quality on that. This [Matan] was literally just to have another printer on standby, so we can leave mesh up on the roll, and if someone wants some in a hurry we can just pick it up and press print.”
The Matan 5, dedicated to mesh because of the substrate’s “challenging” nature, can print up to 353sqm/hr at 600dpi – effectively tripling the speed of CoverUp’s mesh production.
The machine has joined a floor of EFI, Mimaki and and Agfa flatbed presses, with kit spread across the firm’s two Republic of Ireland locations.
CoverUp employs 16 at its two sites near Dublin.
