A new HP Latex 700W has helped German print service provider Plot.tec to expands its range of products and to produce colourfully printed spoke protectors for children’s wheelchairs.
The Dortmund-based company says that wheel covers are a matter close to its heart and that it can now produce the products more efficiently than ever before thanks to the white ink functionality of the Latex 700W, which has sped up the production process ‘whilst retaining the high quality and vibrancy of output that plot.tec is renowned for.’
The printer, which Plot.tec acquired via Igepa Systems, was installed in August of 2021 and has boosted the company’s environmental credentials as well as its production output. Co-founder Gerd Kroner says that the business opted for the Latex 700W after exploring all the wide-format options available on the market, but paying particular attention to white printing solutions.
As mentioned above has boosted the company’s ability to print spoke protectors for wheelchair wheels. These are needed so that children’s fingers don’t get caught in the spokes, and Plot.tec says that it has taken them to another level by adding creative printed graphics.
Prior to the installation of the HP Latex 700W, it was a time-consuming task to reverse-print the graphics onto transparent and white foils, plot them and apply them from behind. However, thanks to the new printer’s white latex ink capability, production has been reduced to one simple printing process.
Other applications that company has used its new printer for include acrylic glass signage, interior décor and privacy screens in medical practices.
Mr Kroner explained, ‘On glass décor and etched glass films, prints previously seemed too washed out. Now – with the white ink capability of the HP Latex 700W printer – the contours and motifs are reproduced really brilliantly.
‘It doesn’t get any whiter than this. If I hold up an HP Latex graphic printed in white ink next to a white sheet of paper, I can’t see any difference.’
