Chime Communications has become the first company in the UK to install a VUTEk HS100 Pro high speed digital press boosting the company’s wide format capabilities.
The installation follows a move that finalises McKenzie Clark’s integration with Icon, following their acquisition by Chime Communications. As a first time purchaser of EFI technology, the company’s new flat bed and roll fed UV curable 3.2 m platform is complemented by the Fiery proServer digital front end, enabling both throughput and quality to be addressed on the same device.
The amalgamation into a single site for the former McKenzie Clark and Icon brings together two diverse areas of wide format display requirements as precision photographic quality output combines resources with sport and event brand management in one production area.
Managing directors Graham Clark and Keith Goodwin believe that the variance in print criteria is easily addressed with the HS100 Pro press, which features the latest greyscale print heads plus innovative pin and cure technology that allows for greater droplet control and different finishes across a variety of materials.
For Icon, the key necessity was to supersede its existing output with newer, more sustainable technology without compromising the superlative quality. ‘It is vital that we maintain consistency across colours with the option for matte, satin and gloss finishes so that we can easily meet the results expected by our clients, many of whom specialise in the beauty and fashion sectors,’ stated Mr Clark. ‘Our prior experience of wide format printing technology has increased our expectations of what we can expect from the right platform. Although this is our first ever purchase from EFI, we are confident that the VUTEk HS100 Pro is the right machine for all of our requirements.’
‘The contrast in print needs created by the complementary markets in which Icon specialises means that our newest wide format printer must give us the best of both worlds,’ explained Mr Goodwin. ‘It is essential that it addresses very fine standards of print with precision colour matching for close viewing, yet accommodates extremely high throughput speeds for jobs which are going to be observed from a distance.’
