IQ-PFS has spent a lot of time in China, working with manufacturers such as HUPU to make sure that their low cost finishing equipment properly conforms to the correct CE directives for equipment from outside the EU – and Digital Printer readers can benefit through a new range of high quality, low cost machines.
Much has been said and written about Chinese printing equipment over the years, but IQ-PFS believes it has gone a step further than any European distributor has gone before in making sure that the latest lines in digital print finishing kit which it is importing from China meet the requirements of the European CE mark; no less importantly, it needs to meet those of the UK printing companies that it hopes will buy the guillotines, folders, creasers, perfect binders, laminators, business card cutters and UV laminators/embossers it has sourced, some of it from HUPU.
That name may not be familiar, but HUPU Group is China’s number one producer of digital print finishing equipment, and also one of the largest such manufacturers in the world. Nevertheless, IQ-PFS (formerly known as Welltec Systems, and best known as a supplier of pressure sealing equipment) has been thorough.
For a start, it employed Marc Barnes, previously of Touchstone Productions, and a CE expert who has been dealing with Chinese manufacturers for more than 20 years (and those in print finishing for eight years) to run the rule over available options and source the best equipment for the European market.
He spent six months in China with HUPU’s engineers, going through European regulations and ensuring that the machines being produced for IQ-PFS would comply.
These are not simply the manufacturer’s standard models, transposed into Europe. IQ-PFS has specified upgraded components on many machines, and all the equipment will be extensively inspected and tested, both in China before leaving the factory and in the UK before reaching customers. The entire product range will have a one-year warranty and will be supported by fully trained engineers and spare parts around the UK and Europe.
Mr Barnes explained: ‘Our focus will be on high quality, lower cost alternatives to the products currently available in the marketplace. Proper CE conformity will be a part of this process. Just because a piece of equipment has a CE certificate doesn’t mean that it is legal or conforms to the correct CE directives. Always check that there is a European issued Declaration of Conformity when looking at equipment from outside the EU, and that it covers the relevant directives.
‘Product from China can have a bad reputation within the industry and a lot of it rightly so. We have sourced products that we feel are a huge step forward from previous equipment, from quality suppliers. We feel all our machines are equivalent to European quality products, at a fraction of the cost.’
The distributor has grown so close to its Chinese partner through this process, and through Marc Barnes’ six year relationship working with the manufacturer to improve quality and safety, that when HUPU were recently appointed as official advisors to the Chinese Print Equipment Boardand the Chinese government for safety requirements for Chinese manufacturers of small print finishing equipment, Mr Barnes was asked if he could help in an official advisory role. These safety requirements will eventually become compulsory, like the European CE, and they are based largely around current European CE standards.
There are around 45 new products in total, from simple to more sophisticated systems, including HUPU’s Fullar brand of guillotines and perfect binders. IQ-PFS will brand the machinery its own way, and every model will bear a Digi- prefix.
‘Nothing is above the £10,000 mark, but each range has entry level up to high end,’ Mr Barnes revealed. ‘It is aimed at digital printers, copy shops, in-plants and offices. We’ve tried to make a range that meets most people’s needs. If you’re looking for some digital print finishing equipment, we should have something here for you which is competitively priced.’
Some highlights of the range include a small, very reliable table top perfect binder for less than £3000, the Fullar A480 guillotine, priced at £4500 yet similar in specification to £8000 models on the market, a 1600 mm wide single hot roller laminator for less than £4000, and a fully programmable SRA3 business card cutter which also does post cards for less than £5000.
UK printers will have the opportunity to see the new finishing equipment at two open house events, one at IQ-PFS’ facility in New Alresford, Hampshire starting in September for two weeks, then immediately after, at its Midlands site in Caswell, Northants. IQ-PFS has also nabbed a very handy URL (www.digitalprintfinishing.co.uk) through which the equipment will be sold.
*If anyone wishes to go and see for themselves the quality of these new products they can contact Marc Barnes at marc.barnes@iq-pfs.com or call 01962 734433.