Print Solutions
Healey’s Print Group, Ipswich, has announced details of the purchase and installation of an RMGT 524 LED-UV B3 format litho press. The machine, sold under the ‘DigitalXtra’ banner by UK RMGT distributor MPL, was purchased to boost the busy print company’s litho capacity.
Philip Dodd, managing director of Healey’s, said: ‘We have been seeing increasingly buoyant volumes of litho work coming in. Whilst our digital workload is still very strong, we were beginning to experience some difficulties in keeping up with litho demand during certain busy periods with our Heidelberg 75 XL B2 press.
‘Historically we came from a B3 litho background, so when we spoke to the team at RMGT we could appreciate the potential of the B3 product, which combines the high productivity of litho with the instant drying of LED-UV – a technology that we had already been assessing.’
The B3 format RMGT 524 LED-UV sheet-ed litho press offers printing speeds of up to 11,000 sheets per hour. Developments such as LED-UV and low cost CTP have made litho even more attractive against digital alternatives in this sector.
‘The DigitalXtra positioning of this technology by MPL makes great sense – it fills that gap between true digital work and the long run printing that requires a B2 or B1 format litho press for cost effective production. The new press will ensure that we keep up to date with our litho work, but also provide us with back up for the B2 press on the rare occasion when it might be needed,’ said Philip.
Healey’s removed a digital product to make way for the B3 litho press.
‘The RMGT 524 LED-UV gives us that extra litho capacity that we need right now,’ added Andy Clarke, production manager at Healey’s. ‘And a back up for our Heidelberg. Although it is a smaller device, there would be no problem in producing B2 work on a B3 machine just as an emergency.
‘We started to look at just how much of the work produced on that particular digital machine could be produced on a B3 litho press, and what the cost effectiveness of each machine would be. There was very little personalised work being produced, and there were quite a number of jobs that exceeded 500 copies.
‘Our Ricoh machines are handing a good quantity of manuals and similar work, and would be quite capable of producing the personalized work that we did have. The rest of it – 500 runs and above was really litho work, especially when you add the RMGT feature of instant drying with LED-UV.
‘The LED-UV gives us dry to the touch production on a variety of stocks, including uncoated. It is a bit of a game changer.’
