The firm, based in Huddersfield, is a long-standing Durst customer.
“We’re buying it to support growth in our large-format graphic lightbox business, where we’ve developed our own range of LED illuminated lightboxes,” said managing director Richard Leach.
The new Rho 512R roll-to-roll UV printer has a list price of around £550,000. It uses Durst’s Variodrop technology, and prints at 800dpi at up to 350sqm/hour. It will join three existing Durst UV printers at Leach’s 2,800sqm facility, a Rho 320R, a 312R, and a P10 250.
“In terms of print quality at this size format it’s astounding what can be achieved,” Leach added. “We’ll use it to bring back in-house 5m work that we currently outsource. We can run it as 5m or as a mix of other formats.”
He also praised the Durst roll-to-roll devices for their unattended operation. “We operate 16 hours a day and often our most productive shift is our unmanned night shift,” he added.
The firm supplies lightboxes to major brands in the fashion, electrical, and motor industries.
“A 1mx1m lightbox is nice, but something that’s 9mx4.5m is totally different in terms of impact,” he said.
Leach’s product range includes ‘dynamic’ lightboxes where areas of the image change or animate through the use of different lights.
“It’s spanning the gap between large-format fabric lightboxes and video walls,” Leach explained. “Video walls are expensive and use huge amounts of power. The images aren’t colour correct and they don’t look good close-up. Whereas this is superb quality and there are no viewing angle issues.”
It will show its product range at this week’s Retail Interiors exhibition in London.
The new Rho 512R is due to be installed at the end of May. Durst UK managing director Peter Bray said: “For Richard to continue putting his faith in our business is very encouraging. This is his 7th Durst roll-to-roll purchase and we’re very pleased about it.”
Leach celebrates its 125th anniversary this year. The firm employs 80 staff and has turnover of around £11m.
