A Summa cutting table and Inca Spyder V, which replaced an Inca Spyder 360, have also been installed.

The Anapurna M2050 was bought to replace a six-year-old Anapurna XL, and so boost the speed and quality of WAE Group’s output. It joins a second Agfa machine, a 3.2m wide Jeti printer.

“The XL was ready to move on but had been so reliable that we didn’t really look around at other models,” said managing director Paul Austin. “We do a lot of quite particular printing on plywood with PVC coating and when we first bought the XL that was the best machine for coping with plywood if it wasn’t 100% flat. And we’re just used to any quirks the Agfas might have.”

A real benefit of both the M2050 and Spyder V is that they feature white ink, said Austin. He said: “That means we can do more illuminated signage, polished edge POS and clear vinyl window graphics. There was a way of doing that before but we had to laminate white on before or use our silk screen printers.”

The addition of the Summa cutter has meant the company no longer has to outsource cutting.

With its more productive kit, WAE aims to boost turnover from around £2.3m now, to £2.8-£3m by the end of the year. 

“It’s just about keeping on offering the service people are demanding,” said Austin. “We’ve got a new business development manager starting next week who’s coming from a larger company and he will be bringing in new contracts. The last few years haven’t been very good for anyone in the industry but we’re hopefully moving forwards now.”

The Anapurna M2050 UV curable inkjet printer has a top speed of 53m²/hr, eight 12-picolitre heads and a print quality of 720x1,440dpi. It prints on media up to 45mm thick, as well as roll media such as film, paper, vinyl and canvas up to 2,050mm wide.