The Bradford-based business began installing the curing system, which is from US-based Air Motion Systems (AMS), at the beginning of June onto its six-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 102 with coater and it has now been up and running for two weeks. Total spend was around £105,000.
Managing director Justin McFarlin said he was looking to "establish a new USP" for the commercial printer when he decided to invest around 18 months ago but didn’t want to overhaul his litho department with an investment of £1m-plus.
McFarlin said: “We started getting involved with packaging for the beauty industry and sending everything out for spot-UV is an expensive process, so I started looking at UV presses. Druckfarben became aware of my interest and Flint had partnered with AMS, so Druckfarben and Flint introduced us to AMS, took us over to Germany to see the technology and it’s gone from there.”
The Print Academy is using newly launched Xcura Evo LED-UV inks and coatings from Flint, which acquired UK-based ink and blanket manufacturer Druckfarben last year. The newly fitted UV lamps have 17,000 hours’ worth of life and McFarlin said that sheets come off the press “bone dry”. Flint has been product-testing a number of its new product ranges during installation.
“The downtime has been minimal, I really couldn’t sing the praises of the technology enough, how it fits to the press and what it does is phenomenal. It begs the question of how long a life span conventional presses have got now,” added McFarlin.
“I’d love a brand new KBA with this fitted but spending £1m is quite a scary prospect for me. We’ve only been in business for 10 years, we started in a recession, have never had the good happy times of print and I think over the years that has made us quite humble; we only have the money we have to play with.”
The Print Academy is one of a small number of UK printers recognised as a Carbon Balanced Publication Printer and McFarlin said the environmental aspects of LED-UV was a factor in the purchase.
The circa-20 staff business is now in the process of partnering with POS metallic board supplier Mirri, the substrates division of Celloglas, which is looking for a print partner in the West Yorkshire region.
Along with its litho press, £2m-turnover The Print Academy also runs a variety of finishing equipment, including for die-cutting, foiling and embossing. McFarlin bought the business, which was previously called Academy Print Solutions, out of administration in 2008 with fellow managing director Garry Burrows.
