Wellington Press invests to upgrade flatbed cutter

Finishing Solutions

Wellington Press in Leyton, East London, has taken the decision to upgrade its flatbed cutter from the Valiani Mat Pro Ultra V150 to the Valiani Optima 160. The product was purchased and installed by Morgana Systems, the UK exclusive distributor for Valiani products.

Commenting on the purchase, Nick Murray, managing director of Wellington Press, said: ‘We are now regularly handling thicker substrates. The Optima 160 can cut up to 20 mm, and we can now work on materials up to 1600 x 1230 mm. It also allows us to produce work faster thanks largely to the twin head tool station. That means, for example, that we can cut and crease at the same time.’

‘The V150 was a great product, and has served us well, but, as demand has grown, the time was right for us to move to a more capable and more productive machine,’ added Nick.

‘Morgana kept in touch with us after the initial purchase. We were able to update the company on our progress with that unit, and when the more robust Optima unit became available, Morgana talked to us about the benefits the change might offer us. We were looking for faster production and the ability to cut thicker boards, and that is what the more robust Optima can provide.’

The Valiani Optima series of flatbed cutting tables offer extreme versatility. The Optima 160 machine is a vacuum flatbed die cutting unit that is able to cut a wide range of materials up to 20 mm (3/4″) thick, on a bed measuring 1600 x 1230 mm. The unit is ideal for in-house prototyping, point of sale displays, or short to medium runs of packaging boxes – which can even incorporate high levels of personalisation.

Valiani Optima units provide the user with reliability and flexibility, and are simple and intuitive to operate. The Optima series incorporates refined cutting technology that can satisfy the most demanding of users. The 160 offers a vacuum table for holding the media in place, a twin headed tool station, and interchangeable accessories for cutting, half-cutting and creasing, drawing and oscillating, and perforating a wide range of media.

The Optima comes as standard with a camera for crop mark detection. Used in combination with the optional OptiCrop software, the unit can perform accurate contour cutting and creasing around pre-printed media – even with print-distorted materials.

Wellington Press remained active throughout the last year of lockdowns, but with only half of its normal workload: ‘We were able to keep most of the team busy for most of the time,’ said Nick. ‘The flexi-furlough scheme has had its uses, but Covid did itself create additional work for us – additional signage requirements, and we have produced more floor stickers regarding two metre distance than you could ever imagine!’

He continued, ‘The typical workload for our cutting table has been incredibly mixed: short runs of boxes, either for prototype or small production runs, banner products, point of sales pieces, as well as general signage items of all shapes and sizes for a wide variety of purposes.’

When talking short runs of boxes, Nick added: ‘With the additional productivity offered by the new Optima machine, I can see that extended to 100 pieces or more.’

With the company’s East London location, close to the Olympic park, work can emanate from the immediate area, the City, or from the many businesses in surrounding counties. ‘Distance isn’t a huge issue these days. Over the last year a great many orders have come from people working in a remote location, away from their offices, with final delivery to yet another location,’ said Nick.

‘As just one part of our environmental policy we have purchased an electric delivery van. The Nissan van is able to cover a wide geographic area, and helps to illustrate our environmental focus directly to our customers.’