Hollywood Monster buys Solent /Miller Weldmaster 112 Extreme finishing machine

Wide format printer of the year, Hollywood Monster, bought a Solent /Miller Weldmaster 112 Extreme combined heat welding, eyeleting and cutting, finishing machine.  The purchase enables Hollywood Monster to weld a wide range of materials (including eco friendly) which its previous HF machines was unable to finish.

Hollywood Monster's managing director, Tim Andrews, says, “The new equipment will also eliminate bottlenecks and provide a new cutting resource.  We first saw the 112 Extreme at an American show and since then we always had it in mind to invest at some point in the future. On winning a £1m contract to supply and install a large amount of digital print in London during May & June producing vinyl & PVC dressings/graphics, large format banners and street dressings in Eco friendly materials, we didn’t need to look at anything else; it was obvious it was the right machine for the job and the future direction of the company.”

“It wasn’t just the high quality and tremendous improvement in speed of the welding that convinced us, we were also impressed by the semi automatic cutting, eyeletting, rope inserting and the general increase in efficiency it brings to our business.  More and more eco-friendly materials will replace the current PVC ranges and therefore hot wedge or hot air welds may become the all round preferred route. Also, automated cutting technology for large format banners solves a big issue. We need to get people off their hands and knees on the floor. So all in all, as with most printers, the finishing department has always been a bottleneck and this will give us at least double finishing capacity, an improvement in quality of cutting, allows us to print onto a wider range of materials and generally increase throughput.”

Solent MD Ian Jenkins adds, “While RF welding has been popular in the UK in the past, there is now a general movement in the trade towards the Solent / Miller Weldmaster Hot Air and Hot Wedge welding solutions. Both these systems create very neat, strong seams as the weld takes place within the material, so you get an excellent finish that doesn’t interfere with the printed image. Hot Wedge and Hot Air systems are also fast - coping on average with 20m per minute.  They also require less materials handling and can be 5x faster than RF.  Another big plus is the ability of Hot Air and Hot Wedge to weld recyclable PE at high speed and this is becoming a standard specification for the retail market.”

As well as offering standard finishing systems, Solent / Miller Weldmaster offers customised automated finishing systems, which Ian recognises as a growing trend:  “Miller Weldmaster custom machines are tailored to suit the manufacturer's exact requirements.  They can weld seams, hem, add reinforcements, set eyelets, punch holes or add webbing or keder, then cut to size or rewind to rolls in a fully automated, computer controlled process. These machines improve quality, increase production, are built exactly to a customer’s specific dimensions.”