Harlow Printing adds RMGT 920 with LED-UV
Print Solutions
South Shields based Harlow Printing has become the latest UK print business to install an RMGT 920 offset litho press equipped with LED-UV curing system. The four colour press joins a line up that includes two mini webs, two B2 format litho presses, and several SRA3 machines, along with digital equipment from Xerox and Ricoh. The new press has been installed by UK and Ireland RMGT distributor MPL – a subsidiary company of M Partners.
Harlow Printing produces a significant amount of work for a number of NHS Trusts and last year won a place on the Crown Commercial Services framework. It has a particular specialism in work for maternity and early years development, alongside general commercial work. The expanded format offered by the new press will allow the company to handle the wide variety of the work covered by these customers.
Managing director Richard Walker explains the decision making process with regard to the latest addition: ‘I had been tracking the development of the RMGT SRA1 format press for some years. We could certainly see a lot of benefits in moving up to a larger sheet size than B2, but the leap to B1 format could be too big for us. An SRA1 format press, however, with a B2 sized footprint, certainly made a lot of sense for us. The potential of eight-up printing, without the B1 format overheads.
‘I took the chance back in 2020 to visit Japan to see the RMGT factory in operation. I was especially impressed by the focus the company has to build printing machines that just print – it was not there to produce spare parts! That is a pretty impressive mantra.
‘The visiting party included a number of UK printers who were already RMGT 920 press users. The comments and information that they were able to offer me during the visit suggested it could well be a good investment for Harlow.
‘We were especially taken with the potential for the LED-UV curing element of the press and its capabilities. Dry to the touch sheets coming off the press would mean that they were available for immediate back up, or swift delivery to the finishing department. All of that would mean shorter turnaround times for the customer and a more efficient production system for us – some of the advantages that we were already able to offer with short run digital work.
‘Whilst we have only been printing for a few weeks since the installation, and our operators are still getting used to the differences on the press compared to the previous machine, our team are certainly beginning to see the benefits of many of the machines outstanding capabilities. The automated plate loading, the swift make ready, getting into saleable sheets and accurate colour quickly, and, of course, the LED-UV curing, are already making a difference to us.
‘One cost saving immediately apparent is the low number of sheets needed to get to good copy. The fast and accurate makeready on the RMGT press means very few waste sheets – and that mounts up over the course of a year. The automatic plate loading helps to reduce job changeover times still further.’
The machine includes RMGT's Smart FPC simultaneous plate change with simultaneous blanket wash, ink pre-setting and pre-damping settings running automatically. It also has inline density control and a dual LED-UV drying system in an extended delivery.
The benefits of the LED-UV drying system were highlighted by one particular job that the company was asked to produce just before Christmas: ‘It had heavy solids throughout. It could have been very hard to produce that job in time with the older litho equipment. The solids would never have been dry enough for backing up – even if we had left it until the following day. That type of work could also have presented problems in finishing too, with marking, set off and scuffing. The LED-UV certainly showed its capabilities in that particular job. It was produced without any problem at all and delivered to the customer on time,’ said Richard.
The long life expectancy and reliability of the RMGT press and its components are things that are hard to prove initially, but MPL joint managing director Mark Stribley says that as Richard has enjoyed conversations with a number of RMGT users, his confidence can be high in that regard: ‘RMGT users worldwide speak passionately about the reliability of our presses. They just print!
‘Being able to see the RMGT plant in operation certainly gave Richard a very positive impression of the company. He was able to see first hand the exacting standards that are in place throughout the manufacturing process, and the critical focus that RMGT has on producing printing presses that will simply keep on producing.’
