Signcraft buys Seiko II ColorPainter W-64s from Colourgen reseller, City and West End Solutions

Signcraft purchased a new Seiko II ColorPainter W-64S large format mild solvent inkjet printer from Colourgen reseller, City and West End Solutions, in 2012 to meet its requirements for greater speed and quality.

For more than 40 years, Signcraft has served the signage requirements of the property sector from its home in West Drayton. Its office, originally a 19th century coach house, is now a true 21st century facility boasting a state of the art production line capable of delivering high volume, high quality signage.

Founded by husband and wife Bob and Berni Colwell, along with Phil Morgan, Signcraft has grown steadily by providing a professional marketing board service to clients in the property sector and has more recently expanded its capabilities to deliver striking architectural signage, fascias and displays. Bob Colwell explains, “We are a family business with a strong management ethic and an experienced team of signage design, manufacturing and installation professionals who keep pace with the latest technology while adhering to traditional sign-makers skills. We are fully focused on meeting the needs of our clients and maintain an up-to-date technically advanced sign-making workshop.”

With the recent recession hitting the property market particularly hard, Signcraft has had to focus heavily on maintaining business by delivering quality at a competitive price. Bob explains, “In the past, the property industry has sailed through recessions pretty much unharmed. Not this one. This recession has hit the industry hard and we have had to adapt to meet the challenge. We have developed a fast and responsive service based on quality and accuracy to ensure we deliver a great value and essential service.”

Delivering this level of quality and service has required Signcraft to be at the cutting edge of new technology. “We have always embraced new technology and were one of the first companies in the property industry to bring full colour digital inkjet graphics when we purchased the original Seiko ColorPainter 64S printer in 2004. We quickly followed this up with a second printer and this machine is still operational today. However, the need for greater speed and quality encouraged us to look again at the latest printers on the market and we quickly decided that the updated version of the 64S would be an ideal addition,” adds Bob.

The Seiko II ColorPainter W-64S is a 64" wide printer that uses high viscosity inks and features a new piezo printhead, developed by Seiko to deliver outstanding image quality without any loss of colour density.  The improved dot pattern gives sharp, crisp images in all print modes and offers high quality production speeds up to 18sqmph.

The ColorPainters are in addition to Signcraft’s UV flatbed printers, which are used for direct to board printing. “We use the Seikos for the really high quality image requirements,” says Bob, adding, “We got to a point where we needed more than the old 64S machines could offer and carried out a very detailed review of what was available in the market. We looked at several machines at Sign UK and had a number of demos, but I always felt that the new Seiko would be in line with the quality, performance and reliability that the older machines had when they came out. So far I have been proven correct!”

He continues, “If you ask anybody what they want from a printer, they will tell you they need it to print right and work all the time. That’s what we have always had from the Seikos. We have never had any problems with them.”

The ColorPainters have allowed Signcraft to add several applications to its solutions portfolio. As well as property boards, they can now offer everything from wallpaper to large format signage. “Anything that needs to be produced in very high quality is ideal for the ColorPainter. It really does deliver striking quality and also at very fast speed. When we do work for very exacting clients, such as the BBC, we know that the image quality is going to come under the closest possible scrutiny. The Seiko ColorPainter has never let us down in this category and we are sure it never will,” he adds.

In conclusion, Bob Colwell is looking forward to the additional opportunities the new Seiko ColorPainter W-64s will provide for Signcraft. “Our business has had to move forward to remain successful. We still deliver the standard property boards just as our clients want them, but the ColorPainters have allowed us to grow and develop our business in line with the needs of our customers. As well as boards, we can provide complete signage solutions for large public areas like shopping centres, shopfronts and more. This has led to a lot more referral business and is certainly keeping us busy and profitable. We hope to add another printer soon and we are fairly certain that will be another ColorPainter. For the money, it is untouchable.”