ProPrint to take first Graphium press in the UK

On order is a 420mm-wide, 4-color + white press, combining workflow, digital and flexo technologies, and automated semi-rotary finishing.

The press integrates an Edale FL3 web transport with two flexo stations, an FFEI digital print engine using Xaar 1002 printheads, an inkjet Xaar Print Bar, followed by lamination and automated semi-rotary die-cutting. Graphium uses Fujifilm UVijet inkjet inks for printing on a range of coated and uncoated label and light cartonboard substrates from 40-600 micron in thickness. 

Supplied by Edale, the Graphium will be installed at ProPrint’s Wellingborough facility later this year and will add highly flexible digital label, packaging and light carton printing capabilities to the company’s production environment.  The press also features the UK’s first Xaar Print Bar for the application of in-line digital special effects.

Specializing in serving the fresh food retailer market, ProPrint is a BRC-accredited company offering a full in-house concept-design-production facility with a strong reputation for its fast-response, ‘no fail’ service. Since investing in its first Edale FL1 flexo press in 2011, ProPrint has expanded rapidly, investing in a new Edale flexo press approximately every 12 months, including a high-performance 7-color UV FL3 system, to meet demand and drive business growth.

The FFEI Graphium marks ProPrint’s first steps into digital, with company founder and director James Denny commenting that ‘the time is right for us to add digital printing’, describing the Graphium as a ‘very strategic investment’. ProPrint is also expanding its production space by 50 percent.

‘The label market is dynamic and changes rapidly and our philosophy is to change with it and meet the evolving needs of customers,’ said Denny. ‘My co-director Nigel Tollman and I looked at the digital technologies currently available but were most impressed by the Graphium and the FFEI, Edale and Xaar technologies it incorporates. The combination of conventional and digital printing capabilities gives us the power and flexibility to produce a wide range of products with the ability to add variable data and a variety of special and tactile effects all on the one press.’

James Boughton, Edale managing director, added: ‘We have always looked at the relationship between ProPrint and Edale as a partnership, and I look forward to working with, and supporting, the company with the Graphium and its long-term growth plans.’