Mirri, the substrate division of trade finisher Celloglas installed a large-format Lamina Blackline 5,000sph board-to-board machine at its Reading site last week, said marketing manager Jennifer Deacon.

She said that the “six-figure investment” would widen the Mirri POS service, offering a fast turnaround service of boards that had been laminated to thicker substrates for use in point-of-sale projects.

Large-format Mirri can now be supplied laminated to materials such as Foamex, corrugated and display board so they could be made into 3D structures, FSDU’s and other POS items.

The growth of large-format digital printing in the POS sector had increased demand for thicker Mirri substrates that could be printed on digital flatbed presses.

“We've been thinking of this purchase for some time; it allows us to apply thicker substrates such as corrugated board,” said Deacon.

“A lot of POS printers use flatbed digital presses and if they want to print to a thicker display board, they can now work with us and we can supply it ready to go.”

Maximum sheet size on the new automatic laminator is 1.6x2m and it can laminate boards up to 10mm thick.

Mirri general manager Andy Kirby said: “We will work with clients on their project needs, which could mean supplying substrate laminated to a specification provided.

“Or we could laminate Mirri products to a thicker board from the client's stock and in some cases laminate a printed material to a thicker substrate”.

Kirby added: “These are exciting times at Mirri, the large-format board-to-board laminator will complement a new ultra-large-format laminator, due to be installed within the next few weeks”.

Earlier this year Mirri launched Mirri Blanco, a board with a holographic shimmer and high-quality white board base.