Urban Print and Design, a commercial printer with both litho and digital production capability based in Southend, has installed a new Gibson 3200 hybrid roll/flatbed printer from UK distributor RSR. The new machine replaces an Agfa Anapurna, which according to managing director Jeff Chaplin, had reached the end of its working life.
‘The Agfa had got to the point where it needed a lot of maintenance, and the desired quality output was hard to achieve. We decided we needed to upgrade to a modern, state-of-the-art machine and when we looked at the market, the Gibson machine from RSR stood out,’ Mr Chaplin commented. ‘The Gibson had very similar specs and features to machines offered by more well-known manufacturers, but at around half the price. It seemed too good to be true, but we did some tests with RSR and were convinced.’
The company has strong ties to the leisure industry and lists a number of theatres as regular clients, though Urban Print’s sign work comes from a wide range of customers. ‘The Gibson needs to be versatile,’ said Mr Chaplin. ‘Correx, foam, Foamex, solid plastic board, acrylic, banners, posters, roller banners are the usual jobs, but it will print on almost anything up to 40mm thick. This machine increases the maximum output size from 2m to 3.2m, which expands our product range.’
The Gibson 3200 uses LED UV inks suitable for indoor and outdoor applications and uses Ricoh Gen 6 printheads. Urban’s machine has a CMYK plus white configuration. ‘Now we have a truly modern machine with the latest technology, we can produce great work more reliably, and much faster. The bottom line is, we can quote more competitively, and it has definitely attracted new work for us,’ added Mr Chaplin.
