MacroArt has invested over £500,000 in a raft of new hardware and software at its production hub in St. Neots, Cambridgeshire.
The company has added several key pieces of equipment to their plant list, including the UK’s first Durst P5 TEX iSUB dye-sublimation production press, a Mimaki UCJV300 and a 1.6 metre wide Canon 1650 UV gel.
Linking directly into the recently acquired Durst Lift ERP system, the new Enfocus Switch Pitstop server, and Tillia Labs Phoenix AI software systems delivers instant artwork checking/resolution and accurate proofing.
The new software programmes are tied together using visual flows, allowing for the processing of artwork files directly from MacroArt’s ERP system via an API set up through to the RIP stage of the production process, all without the need for manual intervention.
MacroArt claims it is seeing significant reductions in material, energy and ink wastage through the efficient ganging and collating of multiple projects, and in turn, this efficiency is reducing lead times for clients, with increases in output by as much as 150 percent being regularly achieved, on top of the reduced wastage.
Mark Rose, MacroArt’s operations director, said, ‘At MacroArt, our forward planning is as much about delivering a truly sustainable result, as it is about enhancing productivity, and with these considerable technical additions in both our hardware and software capabilities, we are achieving both. We know that there are two sides to the delivery of an effective sustainable project – minimising waste in production and maximising recycling and reuse of the graphics we produce. With our in-house efficiency improvements, and the ground breaking initiative at the Ice exhibition, we are addressing both, with the passion and technical expertise for which we are known.’
