Finishing Solutions
Wembley, North London based Apprintable has announced details of its latest equipment purchase with the addition of a Morgana Laminator Pro 450.
Apprintable offers a same day print service for London based clients, and runs a web to print service for customers nationwide. The company is following a clear growth strategy centred around its previously announced Ricoh digital print engine. With regard to this latest post press addition, Peter Haddad, managing director of Apprintable, said: ‘We were spending a fair bit on outsourcing lamination. It made good business sense to keep that money in-house, and bring control of job back into our own hands. Because of the investment in the Ricoh press last year, we have been able to bring a lot more production in-house and bringing laminating back here was the obvious next step.
‘We had a small Chinese manufactured machine most recently that we were using for very urgent jobs, but that was a very manual process, and the unit was also difficult to use. It got the job done for the very short run work, but the quality does isn’t even close to that from the Morgana unit.’
Designed for easy operation, the Laminator Pro 450 is a high pile automatic feed laminator. It features an integrated compressor and pneumatic system for high quality print lamination up to 450 mm working width. This compact machine combines speed and ease of operation with quality.
The deep pile, automatic suction feed system can achieve speeds of up to 1875 of SRA3 sheets per hour. A micro-perforation and scissor roller cutting system provides for perforation and separation of sheets.
The Laminator Pro 450 is ideal for the on-demand printer. It is both easy to set up and very versatile, being capable of foiling and spot gloss as well as straightforward laminating.
Commenting on why he selected Morgana equipment again, Peter added: ‘We bought our AeroCut Prime from Morgana just before Christmas. It was ordered and delivered within a week. I was so impressed by Morgana and its focus on what the client needs, as well as its ability to assist us so speedily. I can just trust those guys.
‘I was impressed by the fact that the company didn’t want to sell me something that I didn’t need, such as an higher spec version of the Prime. I felt that I could really trust them and that they cared about my business – the representative used to be a litho printer. We then bought a Canny P50 bander from Morgana following the Prime purchase. It made good business sense to go back to Morgana for this latest purchase.
‘I did look at other laminating products, just to confirm my selection. There was one with a separate feeding unit – but that gave me doubts because I have seen disconnected systems fail badly. It made sense to stick with Morgana as our finishing machine provider. The company gave a fantastic demo of the product, and that gave me a lot of confidence in the purchase.’
With the machine now installed and running, Peter added: ‘The speed, the ease of webbing it up, and the fact that we can just let it run almost completely unattended have been the obvious benefits for our productivity.’
With regard to the work that the new machine will be used for Peter said: ‘Laminated business cards, flyers, and point of sale work, as well as more unusual products such tent cards and coffee cup sleeves. We can use matt, gloss, and soft touch finishes, and will also be adding matt biodegradable material, in keeping with our sustainability focus.
‘The Laminator Pro 450 can also produce digital foiling, and this is something that we are currently experimenting with, and will be bringing that work in-house too. It was the foiling capability that really helped to clinch the deal for me. It costs so much to outsource foiling compared to the actual raw material costs involved, so we see this as another huge opportunity.’
Overall capital expenditure for products from Morgana in the past three months has totalled £48,000. ‘It is a great company to work with. It understands what we need because the team has worked with printers of our size for decades. The individuals that we have met know printing and can understand what we need.’
So, what does the next step look like for Apprintable? ‘We are now already looking at new premises for 2023. Our recent equipment purchases have filled our current factory!’
Commenting on the Laminator 450 Pro installation, Ray Hillhouse, vice president off line business at Morgana, said: ‘The Laminator 450 and 450 Pro offer a range of printers the ideal in-house laminating solution. Apprintable is a growing business that is looking to bring as many services in-house as they can. Peter and the team can appreciate that is where the margins for printers can lie. Using external suppliers just eats into your profits.’
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