Based in Limonest in the Rhone region of France, the Locamail System printing unit took delivery of a new UV led machine, an Agfa Anapurna H1650i. This hybrid printer in a 4-color plus white version with a width of 1.65 cm was installed three weeks ago on its large-format website Visuel.com.
Located in Aix-Les-Bains in Savoie, France, Visuel.com is specialized in covering, signage and display and offers a wide range of materials. Bertrand Bak, the leader of the group of eight people wanted to replace the old HP hybrid printer with mercury lamp technology.
"This machine was coming to the end of its life and we wanted a machine with higher production speed and better print quality, explains the company director who has a turnover of 1.2 million euros. And we were looking for a very modular tool, because we don't work on a specific market on a specific material: we respond to our customers' requests. We therefore change supports very often during the day. We can start by printing on tarpaulin, then in the mid-morning we can switch to printing on aluminium, in the afternoon on Plexiglas, then back to flexible..."
He goes on to say: "Today, we are increasingly on one-to-one communication, i.e. large, uniform communication operations of a major brand are becoming increasingly rare. We're working more and more with large clients, but for customized, store-wide requests." Prints are shorter and requests are varied.
After more than 15 days in production, the printer fulfils the main criterion of the company manager: speed of implementation. "It's exactly what we've been looking for."
In addition to white, which can be applied in many different ways and very simply, he also appreciates the fact that no more ozone is released in the workshop thanks to the UV led drying.
"And especially the quality with the printing speed is impressive. As a standard, the rendering is already of very good quality. And we still have some spare underfoot!"
