Pip and Chip produces acrylic bobbins - small decorative thread holders - for cross-stitch hobbyists. 

The firm, headed up by husband and wife team Craig and Debbie Wanstall, had found that its previous printer - a Mimaki UJV-6042 A2 tabletop flatbed inkjet - could not keep up with its cutting capacity, and so decided to double up with another Mimaki from supplier CMYUK.

The JFX200, installed in late June 2022, has given the firm a massive boost to its productivity. Pip and Chip can now print 12 acrylic sheets - which produce 84 bobbins each - in a single pass.

The new Mimaki would not have ordinarily been an obvious choice for the firm, according to Craig Wanstall.

He said: “Traditionally, we wouldn't have looked at the JFX 200-2513 EX because it's really a signage printer. However, we’ve adapted it, turned all its quality settings up, and slowed it down. 

“It produces high definition and very accurate colours. We’ve fiddled with it to get it just how we want it, and it’s absolutely brilliant.”

Pip and Chip’s old UJV-6042 had given good service to the firm - particularly in terms of colour control - but had been struggling to keep up even with a robot loading it 24 hours a day.

“We got to the point with Robo (as we call it) that even that wasn't enough. Occasionally it goes wrong, and you’d arrive in the morning and find that no printing had been done overnight and then you can’t just play catch up in the day.”

Both Mimakis print colours and numbers directly onto the acrylic bobbins before thread is wound around them. Each bobbin holds around eight metres of thread.

Pip and Chip has been in business since 2018, and now employs Debbie Wanstall’s mother, and sister-in-law, who are both proficient cross-stitchers.