The press was originally installed in 2009, but according to managing director Bill Hine the press was almost running at full capacity.

“We needed more capacity. For us, the typical overall run-length per order has not changed significantly, however, that one order now asks for a lot more label types than before. It might be broken down now into maybe a dozen or more different versions. This has been key to driving the growth for our digital production,” said Hine.

According to Xeikon, the “unique opportunity” to upgrade the speed or substrate width of the 3000 series in the field meant that Hine could upgrade his 9.6m/min five-year old machine to 19.2m/min.

“This upgrade moves us on to the next level of production for the most effective investment cost – we can now print at more than twice the speed of our 3030 press,” said Hine.

The field installation was largely centred on software upgrades and was completed in a single day, minimising the impact on the company’s production schedule.

“Developments in the technology now allow us to upgrade that machine to effectively turn it into a Xeikon 3300 which runs at 19.2 meters per minute. It has provided Hine Labels with a massive increase in production capability for an investment that was a fraction of the cost of a new machine, and without the undoubted upheaval that a new installation would cause,” said Duncan Sargeant, UK label sales manager for Xeikon.