With annual sales of ¥3.2bn (£23m), Shinwa Factory serves the packaging, display, marcomms and commercial sectors.
Shinwa Factory representative director Yasunari Yamazaki said: “I am extremely grateful that Komori chose us to conduct the field testing for the Impremia NS40. We had two specific requests, and Komori gave us assurances that the press would perform to our requests.
“One of our requests was the support for small lot production of packages. About 40% jobs of the total volume of packages that we manufacture are 2,000 sheets or less, and there is a limit to one day’s production in terms of setup and efficiency.
“The other request was to reduce manual steps and fail costs during the production of signs and displays, which is our main business. Although proofing is currently used as standard, the colours often do not line up during checking which wastes a lot of time.
“With the Impremia NS40, there is almost no blurring of the proof and mass production colours, so we can confidently provide printed items to our customers that they will be satisfied with without hands-on checking.”
He added: “Even when there is a longer-run production, we will perform colour matching of digital and offset colour tones as much as possible and aim for a situation in which hands-on print checking is not necessary.
“There are many other advantages such as only a small amount of extra printing is required, the press can be easily be operated, thin paper can also be printed in-house, and there are no changes in colour even with various surface treatments after printing.”
The Impremia NS40 has a printing speed of 6,500sph and a true resolution of 1,200dpi and can handle four to seven colours. Featuring a built-in coater, the press can handle paper sizes up to 750x1,050mm and a sheet thickness of 0.06mm to 0.8mm and it can print on a wide range of offset paper without any special pre-processing.
Powered by Landa Nanography in conjunction with Komori’s offset technology, the press is said to “bring to life” gloss and lustre as well as the texture that the printing paper possesses.
The Impremia NS40 was first shown as a concept at Drupa 2016 and its sales launch is planned for Drupa 2020.
Komori UK managing director Steve Turner added: “This is an exciting time in the long history of the Komori Corporation and delivery of the NS40 seven-colour press with coater to the Shinwa Factory fits well with our intention to show the NS40 at Drupa 2020, ready for market.
“The technology is eagerly anticipated and we are seeing strong interest from the UK market in the NS40 for a wide variety of applications, including short-run packaging.”
The Impremia NS40 was shown at a recent open house event at the Komori factory and is now on its way to Shinwa's site, with installation expected to commence in the next week or so. Production is expected around Christmas.
