Berkshire-based Glendining Signs is replacing its three HP FB500 printers with an EFI Vutek h3 hybrid LED printer as part of a £500,000 spend with CMYUK that includes an Esko Kongsberg X24 digital cutting table installed earlier in the year.
“The h3 was described by our technical print co-ordinator Andrei Laurentiu as ‘the Lamborghini of the print world’,” said Glendining operations director Chris Lake. “It was clear that this would be a real step up enabling us to offer print on a different level. It is truly impressive in form and function. The hybrid printer model has always suited our operation and the h3 seemed to address all the issues that we had previously experienced. The wrinkle sensors and crash bars to protect the heads, larger ink reservoirs and more affordable inks along with LED ink curing sealed the deal.”
Lake said that while the h3 offered everything the company wanted, the price was a key consideration. “We were motivated to find a way to make this work and did some serious number crunching to analyse the true cost of this potential purchase. What was really surprising was that once we took into consideration the multiple maintenance contracts and ink costs on our old printers, we found that running the h3 in comparison was much cheaper. This saving over time could be offset against the depreciation of the investment making it much more attractive. This swung the balance and convinced us that investing in an h3 was investing in a successful future for our business and so we took the plunge.”
The h3 directly replaces Glendining’s three HP FB500 printers, and will also take some of the workload from its HP Latex printers, traditionally used at the company for the output of banners.
“There are other features too like multiple layer printing and the ability to print white,” added Lake. “We have always been able to do these things, but the hassle of changing over to white printing or layering up prints made it unattractive. Now these are standard features so we can increase our offering to the market to include products that use these processes.
