Allprint installs first Epson SurePress in Ireland

Allprint Design & Print Ltd has become the first company in Ireland to install an Epson SurePress L-4033AW seven colour digital label press with white ink and variable data option. The investment, alongside an Omega Digicon digital finishing machine, is key to the company’s expansion into the short-run digital label printing operation and also allows it to maximise output on existing flexo presses.

Allprint Design & Print is a company specialising mainly in self-adhesive label manufacture, supplying a diverse market with a wide range of customers from small start-ups to well-established multinationals. The company offers its clients the complete package, from initial concept to label design, and manufacture of finished product.

“With on-site control we are able to provide what is required by our clientele – a fast, efficient and reliable service,” says Norman Malcomson, MD, Allprint Design & Print. “To maintain this service we needed an answer to short-run label production and if possible, free production capacity on our larger presses. Having tried a few small-run printers for some time and not progressing, it was a visit to IPEX that started the ball rolling in the right direction.”

With the increasing demand for short-run jobs, on first inspection at the exhibition the Epson SurePress L-4033AW inkjet digital label press seemed to be the best solution for Allprint. Delivering exceptional print quality and a wide gamut colour reproduction on a large variety of standard and specialised label substrates, without the need for pre-treatments and coatings.

With further trials and a site visit to see the press in a working environment, Allprint’s investment in the SurePress L-4033AW label press was agreed and it was installed along with an Omega Digicon digital finishing machine. Both fitted nicely into the company’s existing premises with a surprisingly small footprint.

Now installed for six months, the Surepress L-4033AW press has integrated nicely into Allprint’s existing set-up and lived up to expectations – and more. It has improved lead times on short-run jobs, with no plates required, and has enabled same day production using existing tooling on the Digicon for those emergencies. The SurePress has also had a major impact on production capacity of Allprint’s other presses, leaving more room for what these presses are made for – larger runs.

Epson’s SurePress AQ inkset including white ink for solid opaque white printing, offering the flexibility of printing white first or last on a range of Allprint’s standard and specialised materials (without any coating requirements) has opened up new markets. Also, with the variable data as an addition to the press Allprint is able to enter a whole new personalisation market which offers enormous potential.

Norman says: “With the increasing demand for more complex and shorter-run jobs, the Epson SurePress L-4033AW has been the right solution for our short-run label printing, increasing our capacity, improving our lead times and opening new markets for ourselves.”

Guy Martin, business development manager, Epson Europe, says: “We’re delighted to have our first SurePress installed in Ireland and to be working with a successful print company like Allprint. They have proved that the combination of outstanding print quality, production efficiency and substrate flexibility make the SurePress L-4033AW the perfect solution for short-run label print operations wishing to expand their services.”