Investing £1.1m in its new litho press, alongside the LithoFlash Inline colour managment system from Lithec and Ink.line automated ink supply system from Technotrans, London-based Fontain took delivery of the Ryobi in February.
What followed was a six-week installation and commissioning period and four weeks of staff training. The Lithec was added on Friday (25 May) and the full system went into production on Tuesday (29 May).
Replacing a five-colour Speedmaster XL75 from Heidelberg, the Apex Digital Graphics supplied SRA1 Ryobi is now Fontain’s only litho press working alongside a portfolio of digital printers and presses from HP, Ricoh, Canon and Océ.
Director Huw Harcombe said: “While shopping around to replace the XL75, we spoke to Heidelberg, Komori and Roland – however, none of them could offer anything comparable to the Ryobi. If we had gone for an eight-colour version of the XL75 it would have cost around £2m and would be so much bigger that it might as well go in the car park.
“The Ryobi is only a metre larger than the machine it replaces; its print quality and reliability are superb, and Ryobi are pioneers of LED-UV technology.
“It has been supporting a lot of booklet jobs and the double-CMYK gamut allows us to run SRA1 four-colour on both sides in a single pass which has made us unbelievably more productive. We are probably more than four times more productive now.”
RMGT’s Ryobi 928 press can take a maximum paper size of 920x640mm and can print 16-page sections when perfecting, as well as A1-size posters. Its LED curing system means print is dry the moment it comes off the press.
Following a string of installations in Europe, Fontain's new machine is the first time Apex has configured an RMGT press with the Lithec system in the UK.
Designed to measure and control density of process inks and special colours, and to monitor tone value increase, print contrast and trapping parameters, the LithoFlash system operates on sheetfed and web offset presses from 520mm to 2m wide.
It has been integrated with RMGT’s own PDS-E SpectroDrive inline quality controller to allow for the monitoring and maintenance of quality throughout a run.
According to Harcombe, the increased productivity of the press has allowed for a lot of breathing space at Fontain – “it can do a month’s work in a matter of days,” he said – allowing the commercial printer to explore potential new markets and take on more work.
Currently turning over just more than £5m, the firm is aiming to achieve £6-7m in the next few years.
A “steady” increase in turnover would still represent higher profitability for Fontain, according to Harcombe, as the firm’s overheads have been reduced by the efficiency of the Ryobi and a reduction of its 58-strong team since the firm was created in a merger between London-based Kube Print and SPM Print last year.
Fontain now employs a team of 34 staff on its 1,300sqm premises.
