Swanline Print buys UK's first HP Scitex FB10000 Industrial Press

Staffordshire, UK-based Swanline Print Ltd, a trade supplier of laminated packaging and point of sale (POS) displays, has purchased the UK’s first HP Scitex FB10000 Industrial Press to provide in-house, high quality short to medium run packaging and POS services.

With the HP Scitex FB10000 Industrial Press, Swanline will be able to print directly onto an increased range of light and heavy-weight substrates for a greater variety of jobs. By working digitally, eliminating the need for traditional offset litho plate production and substrate pre-treatment, Swanline expects to realise increased production flexibility and efficiencies, cost savings and new business opportunities.

“Quite simply, the HP Scitex FB10000 Industrial Press reinforces our ability to serve the packaging and POS market,” said Nick Kirby, managing director, Swanline Print Ltd. “Our current business is split 60 per cent packaging and 40 per cent POS, and this investment will improve our service levels to a standard that competes with traditional analogue technologies.”

Greater versatility, improved workflow and built-in upgradeability

Utilising the HP Scitex FB10000 Industrial Press’s UV-curable inks and HP Scitex High Dynamic Range Printing Technology, Swanline will be able to print more easily onto a wider range of substrates, including heavy weight boards. In addition, the wide format of the new press â€" which supports up to four B1 prints in one pass â€" gives the company the capability to design packaging in fewer pieces and significantly reduce gluing and finishing requirements.

According to Kirby, Swanline followed the development of digital print, but required a combination of higher print quality and productivity than digital could historically deliver. The HP Scitex FB10000 Industrial Press addresses these challenges and also provides a critical upgrade capability, ensuring its future competitiveness.

“We offer the more specialist types of packaging and POS print in-house than many other printers,” said Kirby. “We have built a solid reputation for the skills and technology to be able to do this work. Based on this success, we are able to invest in the HP Scitex FB10000 Industrial Press to address the short- and medium-run markets, and do it cost-effectively and profitably.”

“With the digital printing capability, we have the opportunity to version, regionalise or personalise customer jobs,” continued Kirby. “For POS, with reduced run-lengths for seasonal campaigns, for example, and more targeted promotions, we expect this press to be a powerful tool to meet customer demands and attract new business.”

High speed, precision colour control

With the new HP Scitex FB10000 Industrial Press, Print Service Providers (PSPs) can meet peak demand with a print capacity up to 625 m2/hour (6,727 ft2/hr). The HP Scitex FB10000 Industrial Press is powered by the HP Scitex High Dynamic Range Printing Technology, utilising 16 grey-level printing and enabling a range of small and large drop sizes on the same print, to provide both high speed and high quality. This combination enables customers to benefit from a wider range of applications and run lengths with rapid turnaround times â€" for instance, 1000 B1 sheets in less than two hours.

Since the HP Scitex FB10000 Industrial Press is designed to address offset, screen and digital applications using UV-curable inks, the press offers exceptionally wide media versatility and prints to substrates including foam board, foam PVC, corrugated cardboard and compressed cardboard, and ACP (Aluminium Composite Panels).

“Larger converters of corrugated packaging and POP display materials needed a digital solution to meet the production volumes and turnaround times demanded by their customers,” said Arzu Ilhan Babaoglu, general manager for Large-format Printing, Sign & Display, EMEA, HP. “The HP Scitex FB10000 Industrial Press gives Swanline and other packaging converters these capabilities as well as the benefit of printing direct to substrate and other advantages of digital printing.”

Swanline Print was established in 2001 and currently employs 80 people with a turnover of £10 million. As one of the UK’s leading trade suppliers of specialist printed packaging and POS displays, Swanline prides itself on a reputation for service quality, confidentiality and its adherence to the non-compete nature of trade business servicing. From product design engineering through to print, finishing, distribution and storage, Swanline provides a broad product portfolio, where customers can truly bespoke their service.

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