Ainsley Signs has invested in a Canon Colorado 1650 UVgel roll printer from CMYUK.
The printer was purchased to boost the throughput times of its banner production. It follows close on the heels of a Kongsberg X24 digital cutting table installation, also purchased from CMYUK last year. The business specialises in signage for the house building and construction industry including building sites, high-rise branding and fence panels.
Josh Ainsley, commercial director, said, ‘We do lots of banner work using 50 and 100m rolls and we chose the Canon Colorado 1650 purely for its speed. We can literally print a 50m banner in 30 minutes now, it’s absolutely phenomenal.’
Increased speeds mean that jobs can be started later in the morning and regular weekend working is a distant memory. It features continual nozzle monitoring, automatic printhead maintenance, automated media feed, and a winding roll option.
Mr Ainsley added, ‘The guys in our studio were absolutely fine with the printer, getting cracking on it after a day’s training, and since we’ve installed it, we’ve just run it day in, day out with no problems whatsoever. You can literally tip white spirit over them and rub them, and it doesn’t even touch them, they are amazing.’
The Colorado 1650 is a large format UVgel, dedicated roll-to-roll printer that has won plaudits across the sign and display industry. It outputs a wide variety of materials such as SAV, heat sensitive and polyester-based textiles, making it suitable for numerous applications such as window graphics, wallcoverings, soft signage, posters, banners, floor graphics, fleet graphics, POS, canvas reproductions, backlit, and frontlit display graphics.
The Colorado also allows users to print matt and gloss finishes without the need to change inks or media as the switch is done automatically.
Ainsley Signs has two production sites next to each other in Middleton, Manchester. The arrival of the Colorado prompted a new layout and refurbishment of the facilities. A mezzanine has been added to the unit that houses the old print room, effectively doubling space capacity to house 1 x flatbed, 3 x solvent printers, and the Colorado. The Kongsberg which was originally sited in the second unit has been moved into the print room to enable a workflow that is faster and convenient.
The business is currently designing wallcoverings for its meeting room area and will be utilising the FLX feature on the Colorado that allows users to print matt and gloss on the same print in a single pass.
