According to its supplier RGB UK, Fine is the second printer in the UK to install the machine, which was first shown at Fespa Digital 2016 in Amsterdam.
Fine paid around £4,500 for the machine, which its managing director Marce Colucci said would be great value if it was to get the same amount of use as its eight-year-old 12-colour IPF8100.
The machine was installed at its Reading site in the first week of September.
Colucci said: “We had been looking around for a while as we wanted another printer to help us do architectural plans. We wanted something that could print plans faster and more cost-effectively than the 12-colour Canon.
“We looked at scanning facilities and other options but didn’t make a decision. And then in August we decided we really needed something to back up the 8100 as it was starting to show a few signs of age and we thought it would be Sod’s law that we would get a big order from an architectural company and the 8100 would go.
“Ben Randall (RGB managing director) came to us and said he had this new machine in and we went and had a look. It is a step up from anything we have had before.”
The 1.1m-wide imagePrograf also prints in 12-colours. It has a multi-functional roll unit, which allows the printer to have two different roll types loaded into it simultaneously.
Colucci said that even though the printer has a smaller footprint than the 8100, it is printing at speeds 20 to 30% faster. It prints at a maximum speed of up to one coated A0 page in less than three minutes and one glossy A0 page in just over six minutes.
He was impressed with its ability to have files loaded directly into it through a USB port and also its function that places a barcode on a roll of paper to remember how much paper it has left and alert the user whether the next job will fit.
Almost immediately after its installation, the imagePrograf was critical in assisting with a contract for 150 architectural plans of varying sizes, to be turned around for a client in 48 hours.
The imagePrograf is now used for colour plans as well as banners and display items, while the 8100 is used for black-and-white plans.
Five-staff Fine operates from a 200sqm premises. It turned over £150,000 last year and also runs an HP Designjet 8000 and Xerox digital machine for business cards and leaflets, along with a variety of finishing equipment.
