The printer, the new LED configuration of the Rho 512R, was installed at the beginning of December and replaces an eight-year-old EFI Vutek GS at Icon’s Milton Keynes headquarters.
It will be used to produce applications including banners, posters, lightboxes, exhibition stands and textiles, while bringing 5m work in-house that had previously been outsourced.
Director Neville Tosar said: “If you do not have a 5m machine then you simply do not do that sort of work, but now we have taken on this Rho 512R it is something we can grow into.
“It offers much better quality, quicker turnaround and simply overall better print for our customers. The 512R is tech that has been around for a while so we knew that it would be technically sound, especially with the new addition of LED. Once we tested the inks, we knew we would be happy.
“Through this installation we have enhanced our capacity and so now the plan is just to bring in even more work and probably look at new hires to accommodate demand.”
Durst’s 5m-wide roll-to-roll Rho 512R LED prints four-colour jobs at speeds up to 360sqm/hr at resolutions up to 1,200dpi. Its LED curing allows Icon to turn around jobs in times as low as two hours.
It is the second Durst to be taken on by Icon, which installed the UK’s first Rho P10 250HS Plus in December 2017 alongside an HP Latex 335. The new machine was selected after a visit to Durst’s facilities in Lienz, Austria, and Brixen, Italy.
With eight members of staff working on 1,300sqm floorspace, Icon Graphics is likely to see new hires across 2019 as Tosar aims to see his company grow 50% larger over the year.
