BD&H, Norwich, UK, has expanded its multi format print facility with the addition of a wide format Screen Truepress Jet2500UV printer.
True to its slogan 'The complete print and design service - under one roof' BD&H packs a huge amount of printing technology into its premises. It's a long established firm and provides a direct and trade service all over the country - and all with only 25 staff.
The secret of its success is the clever combination of print technologies linked with versatile working practices. Smart investment in the right machinery has allowed them to link both their litho and screen printing capabilities by being the first to install the revolutionary 5-colour KBA Genius 52 UV waterless press in the UK - litho printing onto vinyls, pvcs, polyprops etc up to 800mic. Large format products are printed using a powerful selection of digital UV, digital and screen printers. With an on-site design studio and finishing facilities, BD&H truly offers a fast 360 degree service. While many companies focus on a particular specialization, BD&H prefers to be as flexible as possible and this has proved to be a successful strategy.
The variety of materials the company can print on has opened up many commercial opportunities, explains director James Fox: "That's why we choose the Screen Truepress Jet 2500UV wide format printer. We needed a hybrid printer that could handle roll-fed and rigid substrates and deliver outstanding quality and this ticked all the boxes. Every piece of machinery we buy has to be as flexible as possible and this printer is ideal for many applications on a variety of substrates. Alongside our conventional plastic printing, with up to 2.5m print width by any length, we can digitally print in production mode up to fine art quality in CMYK plus white ink option onto virtually any substrate up to 40mm thick using outdoor durable UV inks to offer a genuinely flexible service."
The Truepress Jet2500UV is an extremely versatile large format UV inkjet printer with 5 and 7 layer printing and is able to produce outstanding grayscale quality work on a range of materials including the challenging corrugated cardboard and polypropylene for POP applications. It has the perfect balance of high quality and high productivity for the wide format market with near-photo quality printing and short turnaround times. The ability to print multiple layers enables the production of sophisticated graphics such as images that can be viewed from both sides on transparent material.
"We are excited by the potential of the Truepress Jet2500UV," says James. "It offers us everything we need in one machine and prints everything we throw at it - roll to roll and flatbed and all at great quality. In addition to adding new levels of flexibility and quality, the printer has to be very reliable. Our customers are operating in time-sensitive environments and it's important we can meet strict deadlines. We often have to run 24 hours non-stop. Once we loaded up a roll on a Friday night and set it off and when we came in on Sunday morning it was printed perfectly."
Every machinery investment is undertaken with great care by James and his co-directors. "Each new piece of kit not only has to earn its place it has to drive the business forward," he explains. "Now we have the Truepress Jet we are expanding strongly into the specialist window graphics market and the accuracy allows us to produce two-way ContraVision graphics - not an easy thing to do."
The energy of the BD&H directors and staff has certainly been an important ingredient. They constantly review new products, materials and techniques to see how they will fit into the business. "We are careful about investment, but we have found that the secret to our success is to be as flexible as possible," says James. "If a customer wants a printed product - however challenging - we want to be in the position to say 'yes'."
