The South Shields-based business took delivery of the four-colour SRA1 machine in December. It was installed by UK and Ireland RMGT distributor MPL, a subsidiary company of M Partners.

Harlow Printing also runs B2 and SRA3 litho machinery, mini webs, and a raft of digital kit.

It produces a large amount of work for several NHS Trusts and last year won a place on the Crown Commercial Services framework. It has a particular specialism in work for maternity and early years development, alongside general commercial work.

The business said the expanded format offered by the new press will enable it to handle the wide variety of work covered by these customers.

Managing director Richard Walker said: “I’d been tracking the development of the RMGT SRA1-format press for some years. We could certainly see a lot of benefits in moving up to a larger sheet size than B2, but the leap to B1-format could be too big for us.

“An SRA1-format press, however, with a B2-sized footprint, certainly made a lot of sense for us. The potential of eight-up printing, without the B1-format overheads.”

The RMGT 920 includes the manufacturer’s Smart FPC simultaneous plate change with simultaneous blanket wash, ink pre-setting and pre-damping settings running automatically. It also has inline density control and a dual LED UV drying system in an extended delivery.

Walker visited Japan in 2020 to see the RMGT factory in operation and said he was impressed by the company.

He said: “The visiting party included a number of UK printers who were already RMGT 920 press users. The comments and information that they were able to offer me during the visit suggested it could well be a good investment for Harlow.

“We were especially taken with the potential for the LED UV curing element of the press and its capabilities. Dry-to-the-touch sheets coming off the press would mean that they were available for immediate back-up, or swift delivery to the finishing department.

“All of that would mean shorter turnaround times for the customer and a more efficient production system for us – some of the advantages that we were already able to offer with short-run digital work.”

He added: “Whilst we have only been printing for a few weeks since the installation, and our operators are still getting used to the differences on the press compared to the previous machine, our team are certainly beginning to see the benefits of many of the machine’s outstanding capabilities.

“The automated plate loading, the swift makeready, getting into saleable sheets and accurate colour quickly, and, of course, the LED UV curing, are already making a difference to us.

“One cost saving immediately apparent is the low number of sheets needed to get to good copy. The fast and accurate makeready on the RMGT press means very few waste sheets – and that mounts up over the course of a year. The automatic plate loading helps to reduce job changeover times still further.”

Harlow Printing offers design, print, finishing, direct mail and distribution services, and has also diversified into other areas including print management, fulfilment, healthcare products, software, and web design.