Irish corporate branding and signage provider, Prestige Signs, has installed a Mimaki JFX500-2131 grand format flatbed UV printer. The machine was supplied and supported by Spectrum Digital in Dublin.
Following an upturn in the demand for work, production director of Prestige Signs, John Nolan, decided it was time to upgrade the company’s existing equipment. “We were running an older Mimaki flatbed, which we’d been happy with in terms of quality,” he explained. “But we had a lot of work coming in, and knew we needed something faster. We took our time to evaluate the options.”
Following live demonstrations and samples from Spectrum to prove performance, which Mr Nolan said was considerably quicker than what the company had at the time, Prestige purchased the Mimaki JFX500-2131. “We placed the order, and it’s been going extremely well since,” stated Mr Nolan.
The company’s new JFX500 has delivered many benefits. These include reduced printing time with no sacrifice on quality, a reduction in energy usage, and the production of large quantities of polycarbonate panels efficiently. The 3 x 2m panels had previously been printed overnight due to long cycle times, taking up to eight hours each. With the new flatbed, Prestige Signs saw an instant transformation in productivity.
“Printing takes a fraction of the time we’d previously required,” Mr Nolan stated. “Those big panels used to take up to eight hours and this time has now been dramatically reduced. It’s a colossal difference. We now have the capacity to run all our jobs during the normal working day, which is a game changer.”
The ability of the JFX500 to efficiently handle white ink was another performance highlight. “It’s perfect for what we do,” Mr Nolan said. “The speed and quality of Mimaki’s opaque white are both spot on and make a big difference to our overall productivity.”
He concluded: “The printer has already served us very well. It’s the right machine for the work we’re doing.”
