The new machine can foil, laminate (matt, gloss and soft-touch) and produce holographic special effects. It is intended for short runs of products such as greetings cards, wedding stationery, business cards and packaging. It also has an easily installable premium finish flaring assembly, which Intec said has a mirror finish effect on foiling.
Intec product development director Mark Baker-Homes said that demand had been so high for the new ColorFlare, which was launched at the end of January and retails for £12,000, that waiting times for the machine on order are currently at around a month.
“Demand is so high that we can’t build them quick enough. We’re manufacturing them as fast as we can but demand has led to a lead time,” he said.
The second arm and roller station is the main improvement on the October-launched ColorFlare CF1000, as it allows an automated changeover between foiling and lamination without moving the laminate over.
Baker-Homes said: “The people that are printing today want to do something that the average customer’s office printer can’t do.
“By elevating their print with special decorative effects like gold, silver and copper or by putting holographic images on them they can start to do something that the customers can’t do normally. Putting foil onto these things creates a buzz.”
The machine laminates at up to 10m/min and foils at up to 6m/min depending on substrate thickness. It takes media weighing up to 400gsm and sized from A6 to 1.2mx340mm. It also has a loading table for up to 1.2m-long banners.
So far, 11 have been delivered, with a larger number sold but yet to be received. 42 ColorFlare CF1000s have been installed since October, of which 26 have already been upgraded to the CF1000LX. Upgrades require an Intec engineer to change a section of the laminator.
Baker-Homes said there are two types of target customer, smaller print shops specialising in “vertical market applications” and larger companies that run the likes of HP Indigos and are looking to add something extra to their offering.
