Robert Stone, managing director of the eight-year-old print business said the company's old system had started leaking and become unreliable, prompting the new investment.

"The system we had treated and filtered the water and put it into a container before it went into the press but it was old and reaching its end of life," he explained. "We went to Ipex specifically to see the system running on the Komori press."

Stone added that Technotrans had secured the order on the speed of the system and the fact it involves no waste water down the drain. "It is a tidier unit and performing well," he said. "We noticed an increase in print quality as soon as we started using the basic.r system."

"It can fill the alpha.d tank in just a few minutes, which is a real time saving on the old system," he added.

Stone also won an iPad on the back of the order after his name came up in the on-stand prize draw.

Print Projects (Northampton) was founded in 2006 and initially ran an SRA2 machine before upgrading to B2 and adding digital and wide-format equipment.

"We started out with a budget and looked at what we could afford," said Stone. "Our first press was an SRA2 Komori and we're on our third Komori press now, albeit all of them have been secondhand. Both our second and third presses were B2 five–colours-plus-coat, with our latest one featuring more automation."