Hickling & Squires has become the first company in the UK to install Konica Minolta’s new AccurioJet 30000 B2 inkjet press.

The Nottingham-based print and communications provider said the investment forms part of a wider strategy to modernise its production environment, expand its short-run capabilities and provide greater flexibility for customers.

The company has recently restructured its production workflow, retiring older lithographic equipment and introducing a mix of digital print technologies. The AccurioJet 30000 joins a production setup that includes wide-format inkjet, flatbed and reel-to-reel systems, alongside four Konica Minolta digital toner presses.

Production director Jamie Gilbert said the move to B2 inkjet had been under consideration for some time, but the opportunity to proceed came through the company’s ongoing relationship with Konica Minolta.

The new press is designed to handle work that falls between traditional litho and digital production, offering B2-format output across a wider range of substrates.

“Customers are getting a better-quality result, and we can now produce on a wider range of substrates, including plastics and fabrics, at a much bigger scale,” said Mr Gilbert.

To accommodate the installation, Hickling & Squires built a dedicated 9m x 16m climate-controlled production room with air conditioning and humidity management. The project was completed in five weeks.

According to Konica Minolta, the installation reflects a growing trend among print businesses seeking alternatives to replacing ageing litho equipment with direct equivalents.

“Jamie and the team needed to upgrade the litho equipment, but instead of simply replacing like-for-like, he recognised that a lot of his short-run work needed litho-level quality but with more flexibility,” said Mark Bladon, major accounts sales specialist – industrial printing at Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Ltd. “The AccurioJet 30000 delivers exactly that – a B2 inkjet platform that sits perfectly between litho and digital. It’s the first AccurioJet 30000 in the country, and it’s a fantastic showcase for what this technology can do,”

Hickling & Squires serves customers across sectors including education, hospitality and leisure, producing applications such as booklets, menus, letterheads and other short-run print work.

With the new press now fully operational, the company said it will continue to adapt its production capabilities in response to customer demand.

“We always follow the trend,” added Mr Gilbert. “If we’re doing something regularly and it makes sense to bring it in-house, we do it. Right now, the focus is on fine-tuning this new inkjet press and then we’ll keep building from there.”