The first UK installation of the recently-launched hybrid AXYZ Trident integrated digital print finishing system has taken place at Hampshire-based Key2 Group.
Established in 2002, the company is a leading provider of plastic fabrication, signage, acrylic point-of-sale and large-format digital printing solutions for retail, commercial and industrial companies. Managing Director of Key2 Group, Mike Keating commented: “As a direct manufacturer, we can handle anything, from one-off projects and prototypes through to large-scale production runs and anything in between.”
AXYZ International Vice President (Market Development), Robert Marshall commented: “Sign manufacturers are now venturing into new markets and digital print finishing specialists are being asked to work with a much wider range of both rigid and flexible materials. These invariably require longer, wider and deeper routing/cutting capabilities that traditional routers would find difficult to provide. The AXYZ Trident is one of the most advanced and highly innovative combined routing, cutting and finishing systems currently available.”
The Trident incorporates a triple-head configuration featuring a CNC routing spindle with oscillating and tangential knife-cutting units. These are interchangeable to enable the processing of frequently problematical thin materials like vinyl, cardboard and paper and thicker and heavier materials such as aluminium and other non-ferrous metals, aluminium composites (ACM), acrylic and foamed boards.
By comparison with other AXYZ routers, The Trident, which is available in a range of different sizes, can increase manufacturing output by as much as 50 per cent. It also features a narrower carriage that contributes to a 12 per cent smaller footprint. Most significantly, however, it obviates the need to invest in two separate machines to carry out all of the routing, creasing and cutting requirements of digital print finishing. The six-inch gantry clearance on the machine enables more efficient processing of thicker materials like foamed board, while the interchangeable cutting blades can be as long as 120mm to enable, harder, heavier and thicker materials to be processed. The machine can handle any length of material via the Trident’s ability to increase the length of the standard processing bed by increments of 600mm.
The machine installed at Key2 Group is a Trident 6010 model with a width of 2154 and a length of 3048mm. To explain why the company chose this particular machine, Mike Keating added: “As an existing customer of AXYZ International, we were well aware of the versatility and scope of AXYZ routers. We chose the AXYZ Trident 6010 machine because it was quicker, cleaner and quieter than any previous generation of machine and could handle a much wider range of rigid and flexible materials. Due to the versatility of Trident, we are also able to venture into new markets like packaging.”
