The B2 inkjet digital press, launched in 2014, is being installed at Warwickshire-based digital and litho printer Emmerson Press today. There are around 70 in operation worldwide.
Emmerson Press considered buying another HP Indigo to go with its existing seven-colour Indigo press but decided to switch to Fujifilm with this investment. The list price on launch was £995,000.
Sales director John Emmerson said: “We believe the quality is far superior and the reliability is far superior. We like what we see with the machine.
"We went out to a couple of printers in Germany and the Netherlands to see the machine in operation and we went to Fujifilm’s demo centre for a personal demo. We also took our machine minder to Belgium.
“It’s seemingly the most reliable in its field and its size. General reliability is key for us because you can have these machines and if they are not running they're losing money.”
The press prints at 2,700sph simplex at a resolution of up to 1,200dpi using Fujifilm Dimatix Samba piezos printheads in arrays of seven per bar. These can produce four droplet sizes which gives an improved resolution.
It also prints on standard litho papers because of an inline coating that reacts with the ink, on sheets up to 750x532mm and from 127-400gsm
The Jet Press 720S, the second generation of a press originally unveiled at Drupa 2008, is Emmerson Press’s first big investment since a similar spend on a five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 75 with coater in 2011.
The company expects the Jet Press to generate new business from existing clients who are looking for bigger format digital work, thus growing its £4m-plus annual turnover.
Emmerson said moving up from SRA3 to B2 size would help the business and he also expects some of the business’s shorter run litho jobs could be switched over, saving money on makereadies.
“We always plan to say ahead of the game,“ Emmerson added. “The XL energised the business with the Jet Press we have got a lot of good equipment. The Jet Press re-energises everyone and everything."
His brother, operations director, Jamie Emmerson, said the quality the Emmerson team saw on when on those visits convinced of the “unrivalled” quality of the Jet Press 720S.
“Without that quality standard we would never have been able to make this investment,” he said.
The 35-year-old business was started by the Emmersons’ father and is run by them and co-director Nick Fincher.
In 1997 it was among the earliest UK companies to install an Indigo digital press.
Emmerson Press has just under 30 staff working at one 1,115sqm site, where its focus is on promotional material for high-end retail customers. It also runs a five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 74 LX, a two-colour B2 Heidelberg Speedmaster and an Epson Stylus Pro 9900 wide-format machine.
Director at Fujifilm UK, Keith Dalton, said: “The quality produced by the Jet Press 720S is a match for the best offset can deliver. Add to this its flexibility and efficiency, adaptability to existing production environments and its ability to print on most standard offset papers, and it’s not hard to see why the Jet Press 720S is the leading inkjet press in this field.”
