Total Signs and Graphics has invested in an Agfa Anapurna H2500i LED UV printer and a Blackman and White Genesis V digital cutting system.
The Grimsby-based company had planned to expand production with a new Agfa Anapurna printer in around five years, but when additional floorspace became available at the same time as one of its major customers expanded, the plans were brought forward.
‘We’ve always had a strong relationship with the customer and when it went national there was potential for us to grow with them,’ said operations director James Cody. ‘However, there was no way we could do it without new a printer – it simply wasn’t possible to complete the work in the required time scale.’
Mr Cody attended the Sign and Digital UK show in April 2019 to receive a tailored demonstration of the Agfa Anapurna H2500i LED UV printer from i-Sub, a specialist supplier of wide format digital printing systems and consumables.
Following a successful application for grant funding, Total Signs took delivery of the press in August 2019, giving it the ability to print onto a wide range of uncoated rigid and roll media for indoor and outdoor applications at high speeds. The new Agfa is the first UV printer for the business, which had formerly used only solvent systems.
In turn, however, the faster turnaround enabled by adding the Agfa Anapurna to the newly expanded premises created a bottleneck in the finishing department. The company then doubled its investment with the purchase of a Blackman & White Genesis-V digital cutting system.
‘From mid-July until late November we had a team of two installing internal and external signs and graphics, all printed on the Agfa, at branches all around the country,’ continued Mr Cody. ‘We then a won a further POS job ahead of Christmas: producing shelf strips for tens of thousands of products. There was no way we could have done that by hand – it was all done on the Blackman & White Genesis-V.’
