Due to the machine's high quality, the move has opened up new opportunities for direct-to-substrate printing, according to managing director Richard Gardner.

"It does produce very good quality that we couldn't previously run on our flatbeds, which has allowed us to shift some work that we would previously have produced on our eco-solvent machines," he said. "That means that we no longer have to laminate those jobs."

Gardner described the machine's three-quarter automated loading as very effective and added : "Now it is installed, it's proving to be far more impressive than it was in the demos."

The FB7500 joins the firms flatbed fleet, which includes and Inca and two NUR Tempos. The firm has also upgraded its pre-press and post-press departments.

Gardners installation follows the announcement in May that Spenaprint had ordered one of the first FB7500 machines in the UK.