News
Easibind Selects manroland for Polymer Printing
East Midlands-based Easibind International has announced that it has placed an order with manroland GB for a five-colour plus coater configuration of the ROLAND 500 press with UV coater.
The B2-plus press will be used predominantly for the printing of difficult substrates, such as polypropylene materials, and will run alongside a B3-format set-up that included a KBA Genius waterless press and two HP Indigo digital offset systems. The new press completes the “UV Offset” line-up at Easibind, taking over the long-run element of production from the existing four-colour Planeta and two-colour Roland Rekord machines.
The products produced by Easibind International are largely used for the packag-ing of paper materials and document presentation, and include: binders, wallets, folders, diary covers – all printed to the highest standards, often with corporate colours to enhance and detail the contents. Printing on polymers also takes Easibind into a wide range of others markets, including: plastic card production, such as gift cards, loyalty cards, and membership cards; security wrist tags; lenticular; and new types of print production. Paper based production includes corporate stationery and direct mail work.
The final selection decision regarding the new press was concluded during the re-cent Drupa exhibition. Harry Skidmore, Chairman of Easibind International, said: “Drupa is the one venue where you can see all of the major press providers in ac-tion in a short period of time. Because we are not a “normal” print business, just putting ink on paper, there were a number of important elements that we needed to ensure could be handled by the machine that we selected.
“Firstly, there was the range of substrates: FSC papers through to 1,000 micron polymers; we also needed a press that was able to provide UV capabilities right through including coatings; it needed to have the rolling power to give us top qual-ity solids for Pantone colours, which is a regular requirement in our business; and we needed a machine that could handle opaque white anywhere in the sequence, as we regularly have this requirement when printing onto transparent, translucent or darker colours of polypropylene. Quality of print was essential, of course, par-ticularly for some of our security work, where microtext, for example, is often used, and this does need exceptional press performance to maintain the fine detail.”
Finally, but perhaps most importantly, it was imperative that the press was able to be provided in an extended format. The oversize demands of the folder work pro-duced by Easibind required manroland’s extended B2 format of 590 x 740mm. It was decided that an extended B2 format would be preferable to the additional space demands and running costs of a B1 press, although this option was certainly reviewed.
The new press would also be required the handle new projects introduced by the company, which currently include new developments in authentic 3D images. This process uses a new substrate and design process to provide clarity compared to the existing lenticular printing process.
“Only manroland was able to provide everything that we needed,” said Harry Skidmore. The ROLAND 500 also fitted with Easibind’s rigorous environmental pol-icy, which conforms to ISO14001 and the European focused EMAS, and includes a constant focus on “review, reduce, reuse, and recycle”.
Features on the Easibind ROLAND 500, which is capable of printing up to 16,000 sheets per hour, include the ability to handle substrates of up to 1mm thick; manroland’s Premium Plate Change and Premium Format Change for fast job changeovers; UV drying, including two interdeck and one end of press unit; manroland’s ColorPilot D, which helps to ensure consistent colour reproduction throughout the print run; the PrintNet press management system; and manroland’s TelePresence, which provides for remote access for service specialists.
Substrates in use at thirty-year-old Easibind International include polypropylene, polyester, polycarbonates, and synthetic papers, as well as standard paper and board. With typical customers coming from the financial and retail sectors, the company has found it necessary to establish relationships with customers, design-ers and print management companies in order to offer the most effective solutions. “Designers can sometimes be too creative, without regard to costs; print management companies can often be too focused on cost, loosing site of the need for the creative element that satisfies the client. We aim to sit in the middle and provide an ideal compromise: something that appeals to the client, but at a price that fits the budget. Sometimes that means making adjustments – for example we have gone back to designers and said how about producing this job in A5 rather than A4. Such a shift in thinking can make a real difference to the final cost,” said Harry Skidmore. Job run-lengths for the new press will incorporate everything from 5,000 through to 500,000 copies.
The company provides a comprehensive range of finishing solutions in-house, as well as warehousing for completed customer orders at its Heanor site.
Commenting on the Easibind International order, Gary Doman, Sales Director for Sheetfed products at manroland GB, said: “We are delighted to have been se-lected as the supplier of choice by Easibind International. The production require-ments and quality demands at the company are very exacting, and require the very best in printing technology to ensure complete satisfaction. The manroland ma-chine has been able to fight off some tough competition in order to win this con-tract.”
Easibind Selects manroland for Polymer Printing
East Midlands-based Easibind International has announced that it has placed an order with manroland GB for a five-colour plus coater configuration of the ROLAND 500 press with UV coater.
The B2-plus press will be used predominantly for the printing of difficult substrates, such as polypropylene materials, and will run alongside a B3-format set-up that included a KBA Genius waterless press and two HP Indigo digital offset systems. The new press completes the “UV Offset” line-up at Easibind, taking over the long-run element of production from the existing four-colour Planeta and two-colour Roland Rekord machines.
The products produced by Easibind International are largely used for the packag-ing of paper materials and document presentation, and include: binders, wallets, folders, diary covers – all printed to the highest standards, often with corporate colours to enhance and detail the contents. Printing on polymers also takes Easibind into a wide range of others markets, including: plastic card production, such as gift cards, loyalty cards, and membership cards; security wrist tags; lenticular; and new types of print production. Paper based production includes corporate stationery and direct mail work.
The final selection decision regarding the new press was concluded during the re-cent Drupa exhibition. Harry Skidmore, Chairman of Easibind International, said: “Drupa is the one venue where you can see all of the major press providers in ac-tion in a short period of time. Because we are not a “normal” print business, just putting ink on paper, there were a number of important elements that we needed to ensure could be handled by the machine that we selected.
“Firstly, there was the range of substrates: FSC papers through to 1,000 micron polymers; we also needed a press that was able to provide UV capabilities right through including coatings; it needed to have the rolling power to give us top qual-ity solids for Pantone colours, which is a regular requirement in our business; and we needed a machine that could handle opaque white anywhere in the sequence, as we regularly have this requirement when printing onto transparent, translucent or darker colours of polypropylene. Quality of print was essential, of course, par-ticularly for some of our security work, where microtext, for example, is often used, and this does need exceptional press performance to maintain the fine detail.”
Finally, but perhaps most importantly, it was imperative that the press was able to be provided in an extended format. The oversize demands of the folder work pro-duced by Easibind required manroland’s extended B2 format of 590 x 740mm. It was decided that an extended B2 format would be preferable to the additional space demands and running costs of a B1 press, although this option was certainly reviewed.
The new press would also be required the handle new projects introduced by the company, which currently include new developments in authentic 3D images. This process uses a new substrate and design process to provide clarity compared to the existing lenticular printing process.
“Only manroland was able to provide everything that we needed,” said Harry Skidmore. The ROLAND 500 also fitted with Easibind’s rigorous environmental pol-icy, which conforms to ISO14001 and the European focused EMAS, and includes a constant focus on “review, reduce, reuse, and recycle”.
Features on the Easibind ROLAND 500, which is capable of printing up to 16,000 sheets per hour, include the ability to handle substrates of up to 1mm thick; manroland’s Premium Plate Change and Premium Format Change for fast job changeovers; UV drying, including two interdeck and one end of press unit; manroland’s ColorPilot D, which helps to ensure consistent colour reproduction throughout the print run; the PrintNet press management system; and manroland’s TelePresence, which provides for remote access for service specialists.
Substrates in use at thirty-year-old Easibind International include polypropylene, polyester, polycarbonates, and synthetic papers, as well as standard paper and board. With typical customers coming from the financial and retail sectors, the company has found it necessary to establish relationships with customers, design-ers and print management companies in order to offer the most effective solutions. “Designers can sometimes be too creative, without regard to costs; print management companies can often be too focused on cost, loosing site of the need for the creative element that satisfies the client. We aim to sit in the middle and provide an ideal compromise: something that appeals to the client, but at a price that fits the budget. Sometimes that means making adjustments – for example we have gone back to designers and said how about producing this job in A5 rather than A4. Such a shift in thinking can make a real difference to the final cost,” said Harry Skidmore. Job run-lengths for the new press will incorporate everything from 5,000 through to 500,000 copies.
The company provides a comprehensive range of finishing solutions in-house, as well as warehousing for completed customer orders at its Heanor site.
Commenting on the Easibind International order, Gary Doman, Sales Director for Sheetfed products at manroland GB, said: “We are delighted to have been se-lected as the supplier of choice by Easibind International. The production require-ments and quality demands at the company are very exacting, and require the very best in printing technology to ensure complete satisfaction. The manroland ma-chine has been able to fight off some tough competition in order to win this con-tract.”
