Active Display doubles flatbed capacity with multimillion-dollar HP investment

The Melbourne-based group will get a major capacity boost from the Scitex FB 10000 flatbed and Latex 3000 roll-to-roll printer it ordered at Fespa, said operations director Stuart Gittus.

Active Display was the first company in the Asia-Pacific to order the Scitex, which is expected to arrive by October.

Gittus told ProPrint it would be perfect for short-run work and that it would boost turnaround times by allowing the 380-staff firm to print directly on to corrugated display units.

The Scitex will increase the company’s flatbed capacity by 100% or 50,000sqm per month, he added.

[Q&A: Active Display’s Zita Watkins]

Gittus said the Latex 3000 would offer “incredible speed” and “eco-friendly” production when it arrived in August. He also said the machine’s odourless inks would eliminate the 72-hour airing process.

The Latex will be able to cover all of the company’s current roll-fed workload and still have 50% spare capacity, or 20,000sqm per month, he told ProPrint.

“We’re always looking at the business and making sure we’re on the forefront of any new technology,” he said.

“We’re still the best screenprinting facility in the country by far. We’ve got the latest digital equipment and now we’ve got the best roll-fed and the latest flatbed as well.”

Meanwhile, HP has revealed that Melbourne-based ABC Photosigns was the first company in Australia to order a Latex 3000, which was installed in late June.

Managing director Mick Hollingsworth said the 135-staff firm had invested in the printer so it could diversify from vehicle work and shopfronts in to interior decoration.

“When we saw the speed and quality of this machine and looked at the scope of what we could do with it, we jumped on it,” he told ProPrint.

Hollingsworth said ABC Photosigns was “pretty much an HP house” and had four other HP production printers.

HP also announced that Auckland business Juggernaut Graphics had invested in New Zealand’s first Latex 3000.

Managing director Ross Duffus said: “It opens up greater application possibilities for us, particularly in the exhibition and textile market and reaffirms our commitment to supporting customers’ evolving needs with strong technology investments.”

HP’s Asia-Pacific vice-president, Gido van Praag, told ProPrint in June that HP had already received more than half a dozen local orders for the Latex 3000, despite the printer not yet being launched.

[LinkedIn: How often should major kit be replaced?]

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