Kingswood iOptus managing director Alan Rigglesford first saw the DuSense at the Duplo Summer Festival last year, but began looking at it seriously around four months ago, since when the Kingswood team has been talking to clients about the added-value opportunities the machine offers.
As result, the firm has a number of clients already committed to projects that utilise the DuSense’s ability to create high-build spot UV, including a blue-chip soft drinks brand.
Rigglesford said that when he started showing clients what the DuSense could do for their marketing, the response was universally positive and it made the ROI decision on the DuSense a “no brainer, especially with its £140,000 list price” for him and the Kingswood board.
Rigglesford also praised Duplo’s support in creating a “proof of concept” model to take to customers.
"I’ve already done thousands of pounds of work that Duplo has produced for our clients, they have been incredibly supportive all the way through from initial discussions,” he added.
The firm’s machine will be installed in calendar Q2 at its London site, which last year achieved ISO 27001, where it will run 24/7. Once the backlog of initial projects is cleared, the firm will also look to undertake trade work.
Kingswood iOptus contracts and tenders manager Luke Jennings said: “Spot UV has been around for years, and it’s a very impressive tool and adds a lot of marketability to a product and clients like it, but [in the past] for shorter runs they got put off because of the cost.
“So, to have a digital version, and we know there are others out there, we looked at the Meteor and the Scodix, but in terms of the cost of the machinery, the support from Duplo and just how good the product is, it ticked all the boxes for a business of our size.”
The first DuSense installed in the UK was at Flexpress in Leicester last May.
The DuSense runs at 1,080sph (SRA3/B3) and features three 600dpi inkjet heads that enable it to create raised image areas of between 20-80 micron thicknesses in a single pass. The machine has a footprint of around 3.5x1m.
The barcode reader enabled digital coater automatically detects the required image file enabling instant makeready for full variable spot coating.
It currently has two varnish options, DUV310 oil for HP Indigo and litho and DUV320 for Xerox machines, however it can also coat on the any other engine’s output, provided it’s been laminated.
Duplo is currently working with manufacturers, including Ricoh, to increase the range of direct oil compatibility and last September Fedrigoni launched a range of papers, Soho Touch Class, which it describes as the world's first uncoated paper for digital enhancement, which negates the need for laminating of digitally print prior to embellishment.
Rigglesford described the new Fedrigoni stock as offering the “holy grail” of a premium grade that enables any digitally printed job, produced on any device, to be embellished with DuSense type devices without the need for laminating.
Duplo UK managing director Andy Benson said: “Alan and the team have worked with us on testing the DuSense and making sure it’s right for their customers – which to be fair, was a great experience for us, in terms of learning even more about the substrate compatibility and possible effects, we even learned some new things it could do.”
