Selectequip has turned to a pair of Mimaki printers to meet demand for Covid-related products and signage. The company, which has offices in Litchfield and Wakefield, went through CMYUK to purchase a Mimaki UCJV150-160UV roll-to-roll print and cut printer and a Mimaki JFX200-2513 EX flatbed.
The company, which employees 37 staff and expects to turn over £11 million this year, made the investment only two years after installing a Mimaki JFX 2531 and a Kongsberg X24 digital cutting table.
The UCJV150-160 offers UV-LED printing as well as cutting functionality. It has a maximum print resolution of 1200dpi and also features RasterLink6Plus upgraded RIP software. Meanwhile the JFX200-2513 EX flatbed is the new, faster version of the JFX200- 2531, with a third head that delivers a top speed of 35sqm/hr when printing white.
It was the upsurge in demand at the beginning of the pandemic that pushed the company to invest in the new technology, as owner Henry Spence explained. ‘In week one of lockdown I was making my furlough lists but by week three I was looking for more staff.
‘We had three shifts on at the time and we knew that the JFX200-2513 was at full capacity and the work was mounting up, the Kongsberg is really quick but we were experiencing bottlenecks with the printing. We just couldn’t cope with the amount of business we were bringing in.’
The addition of the two new printers has allowed the company to overhaul its working processes, ensuring greater workflow efficiency. ‘With help from the team at CMYUK, we have been able to completely re-engineer our production workflow,’ Mr Spence continued. ‘The business has become very efficient and because of recent demand, we’ve multiplied our output somewhere in the region of about eight times now. It has been an incredibly busy time.’
