LFP - Large-Format-Printing
Illustrated Stationery adds an Acuity-shaped string to its bow
Friday 23. October 2009 - Founded in 1984, South Wales-based Illustrated Stationery prides itself on fulfilling customer orders, whatever the request. Its 30,000 ft² of production space houses a wide variety of print technologies including flexography, rotary letterpress, silk screen, lithography, thermography, hot foil, embossing, die cutting, laser cutting and digital.
With a staff of 50, Illustrated Stationery is well known for its wedding stationery, printing virtually all of the invitations and wedding favours for one of the most well-known suppliers of wedding stationery, Confetti. Alongside this, Illustrated Stationery runs a successful label printing business, with contracts for many of the UKs leading supermarkets.
Despite housing all these diverse technologies under one roof, Illustrated Stationery felt that it was still missing some capability in the way of a wide-format device. As Paolo Scaglioni, managing director of Illustrated Stationery, explains: “More and more of our customers were requesting unique jobs printed on more exotic materials. And, with jobs such as wedding stationery, youre talking about relatively short runs of usually about 100. Add to this, the growing requirement for one-offs such as themed table plans and we knew that there must be a technology out there to provide cost-effective but high quality print to meet these requirements.”
Searching far and wide
The first step for Illustrated Stationery was to assess the market thoroughly. As Paolo Scaglioni explains: “We looked at several wide-format inkjet devices on the market with a view to assessing which provided the best quality output. For us, the quality of the print produced was at the top of the list as we wanted to maintain the high standards we currently provide in all other areas of the business. We also wanted a machine we felt comfortable with, from a supplier we trusted.”
One of the devices Illustrated Stationery looked at was the Acuity Advance from Fujifilm, a wide-format printer with a white ink option capable of printing onto substrates as thick as 48mm. Paolo continues: “We arranged a demo of the machine at Fujifilms HQ in Bedford and were very impressed. The quality of the output was excellent and it provided the option of printing with white ink, something that none of the competitor devices did. We sent some black substrate up to Bedford before our arrival and asked the demo team to print on it in white which they duly did, ready for our arrival, and we were very impressed with the results.”
He continues: “For us, its all about offering something extra to our customers. Lots of printers have roll-to-roll devices but not many have a device capable of printing onto thicker substrates, particularly with the option of printing with a white ink.”
The Acuity Advance series of wide-format devices print directly on to a wide variety of rigid or flexible media at printing resolutions of 1440 dpi or higher with a true production speed of 22.2 m²/hr. Using FUJIFILM Sericols Uvijet series inks, the Acuity Advance has a flatbed measuring 2.5 x 1.25m, with the Acuity Advance X2 providing a double-sized print bed of 3.05 x 2.5m. The imaging technology of the Acuity Advance allows each print head to produce variable size droplets, producing sharp and crisp images when jetting fine droplets (as fine as 6 picolitres), and delivering denser, more uniform solid areas when jetting larger droplets (up to 42 picolitres).
Pain-free installation
After deciding on the Acuity Advance, the next step was for it to be installed at Illustrated Stationerys South Wales facility. Lino explains: “The installation went very smoothly indeed. We had a room constructed to house the Acuity, which sits beside our small-format digital press, to keep it away from any dust that might be generated from our other machines. It took a day to install and the engineers from Fujifilm couldnt have been any more helpful – nothing was too much trouble and they were extremely proactive and enthusiastic. We were up and running with the machine the next day and its ease of use means that we already have three people who are able to operate the device.”
The next challenge for Illustrated Stationery was to drum up business to ensure maximum value from the Acuity. As Paolo explains: “We obviously already had some work that we wanted to produce on the Acuity, mostly jobs that we would have printed using silk screen before, but we wanted to make sure customers knew that we had this new string to our bow in the shape of the Acuity.
“We produced a flier which demonstrated all of our print capabilities, in particular that of the Acuity, which we sent out to 70 design agencies. The response we had was phenomenal as people could see for themselves the high quality print effect the Acuity produced.”
A success from day one
Lino continues: “As with any new investment, we predicted that we would make a loss for the first few months of having the machine while we drummed up work for the Acuity. However, we made a profit on the machine from month one, exceeding all our expectations and again proving that the quality of the Acuity output speaks for itself. Jobs that would have previously involved making several silk screens can now be done in minutes, with no make-ready time. Were 100% satisfied with the Acuity; it does exactly what we were promised and more besides.”
Paolo concludes: “We pride ourselves on innovation. If a customer requests something unique, we always make sure we explore all avenues to find the right solution, however bespoke, and class ourselves as advisers as well as printers. We realise the importance of diversifying our offering to meet and exceed customer demands and the addition of the Acuity to our portfolio has allowed us to do this, providing our customers with more choice than ever before.”