Leading label, plastics and digital printing specialist Print-Leeds has cemented its position as one of the UK’s most technologically-advanced printing houses with the arrival of a Screen Truepress Jet W3200UV ST wide-format flat-bed printer.
The new machine replaces the Screen Truepress Jet 1600UV printer that Print-Leeds installed in 2010 to meet increasing demand for high-quality short-run and one-off work. “Since then not only have runs got shorter and deadlines tighter,” says Print-Leeds managing director Rod Fisher, “but clients are much more aware of the potential of digital for POS applications. So it’s time to upgrade.”
Print-Leeds’s Truepress Jet W3200UV prints CMYK plus light cyan and light magenta for photo-quality reproduction of wide-format graphics. The company also specified a white ink capability to ensure colour saturation whatever the substrate being printed, including coloured and transparent media. Like its Truepress Jet 1600UV predecessor, the Truepress Jet W3200UV outputs a wide variety of backlit graphics, wide-format posters, POP displays and signage and can handle media up to 50mm thick.
Productivity is significantly greater, thanks to advanced UV curing and high-precision flat printhead transfer systems that give the Truepress Jet 3200UV ST the ability to print at 85 sqm/hr – ten times faster than the Truepress Jet 1600UV (the Truepress Jet 3200UV HS model prints at up to 150sqm/hr). Says Rod: “Because we also wanted to up our productivity, the faster output speed was a big factor, plus other features that improve throughput — for example, the retractable lay pins, which guarantee accurate, repeatable substrate registration,
and the zoned vacuum bed, which reduces masking.”
The new printer also incorporates Screen’s versatile multilayer print capability, which enables printing of up to eight superimposed layers to create high-impact products. For example, lower layers can be built up in high-speed mode before printing the top layer in high-quality mode to produce embossed products with striking 3D effects.
Rod founded Print-Leeds in 2002 and quickly developed a reputation for high-quality litho and digital printing on plastics. The 2012 acquisition of S&C Labels, Huddersfield, added wet-glue label printing. Today Print-Leeds employs over 30 people at its 19,000 square-foot site in Stanningley and is on target to turn over £4 million this year, a 10% year-on-year rise. The company also prints labels for most of the UK’s drinks companies.
Print-Leeds has a tradition of staying abreast, and often ahead, of technology; its Truepress Jet 1600UV-F was the UK’s first, and in 2013 it installed the first Heidelberg Speedmaster CD102-7+L in the UK label industry. “We’ve worked hard to build our reputation for producing high-quality work consistently and on time, and we assess any investment on those criteria,” says Rod. “The first Truepress has been excellent, and we had no hesitation in choosing Screen again for the latest printer.”