The kit, which was installed at the Sheffield-based company’s 1,858sqm site in early July, has replaced two outgoing Ricoh devices – a Pro C9110 and a Pro C7110.
Northend production director Richard Green told Printweek the business had also considered options from a range of other digital press manufacturers but was won over by Canon – who it had never bought from before – upon visiting the manufacturer earlier this year.
“We saw the [April/May issue] Printweek inkjet A3 cover that Canon did – I phoned up Canon just to see what the inkjet was like and they [subsequently went on to] put us in touch with their toner department.”
The company visited Canon and was impressed with its showroom and the demo of the kit, using some of its own files.
“We then got round the negotiation table and we were very impressed in where the angle fits. The level of support that you felt after having a meeting with them was good as well,” Green added.
Northend also gained third-party feedback prior to the investment when seeing one of the machines running at Sheffield Hallam University, whose operator praised the kit and Canon’s service.
Green said the new machines have been “fantastic” and are “running really well”, and that the kit has more or less doubled capacity at the business and increased its quality.
The 100ppm imagePress C10010VP prints at resolutions up to 2,400dpi and can handle media weights ranging from 60-400gsm. Automation features include ultrasonic multi-sheet feed detection, active front-to-back registration, and an inline spectrometric sensor for on-the-fly colour adjustments.
Green said one of the company’s two machines is a long-sheet version, while the other is standard SRA3, “so we’ve been able to configure it to how we want”.
In December Northend replaced an ageing Cron UV CTP system with a new Cron 36G+ thermal system. It also operates an RMGT (Ryobi) LED litho press and a raft of finishing kit to support in-house services including stitching, laminating, folding, drilling, and picking and packing.
The 35-staff company serves end users, print management companies, B2B and B2C customers, among others, nationwide.
