Precision Group adds two new Kyocera presses

Melbourne-based Precision Group has installed two TASKalfa Pro 15000c presses, which it recently purchased as a new customer from Kyocera Document Solutions.

Precision Group, which is a privately held family business comprising of marketing experts and production specialists, is a large mailing house with digital and offset capabilities. 

It installed its first TASKalfa Pro 15000c press in November 2020 and following increased capacities, installed a second machine in July this year.

Precision Group head of operations, systems and workflow Matt Gatfield told Sprinter that the company purchased the presses as it saw a gap in the market where there was an opportunity for inkjet but for slightly higher volume work.

“We have both an offset division and a digital division. Majority of our larger volume work was going to the offset division, then over printed with variable data. Whereas a lot of the smaller volume work was going straight through to single-pass, four-colour digital production,” he said.

“But there always was a gap in the slightly higher volume work where the cost of digital became a little bit prohibitive and the throughputs of doing small volume, which was a two-part process with overprint, became inefficient.  

“So, when these machines came along, they were a perfect fit that sat in between. We’re saving our clients time in terms of speed to market and in some instances, reducing costs as well. For us, the presses have provided us with flexibility.”

Precision Group general manager Nick Carayanis said the entry-level features of the TASKalfa Pro 15000c was very appealing to the business, alongside its flexibility, output capabilities, footprint and efficiencies.

“Its throughput gives us so much more flexibility and considering that a lot of the work we do is variable, it allows us to offer high level personalisation to our clients – which you can’t necessarily do with offset and overprint,” he said.

“The TASKalfa is similar in size to our digital presses, so were able to fit two of these units in our premises very easily.”

The TASKalfa Pro 15000c is a high-speed production four-colour CMYK inkjet colour printer that aims to offer reliability, flexibility, and consistency at up to 9,000 A4 impressions per hour in colour or monochrome. Its support for uncoated stocks ranges from A6 to SRA3 and beyond from 56 to 360gsm.

The main unit itself comes with an optional Fiery System to optimise colour and boost productivity with advanced workflow options. Precision Group took on this offering with the purchase of its presses.

Kyocera Document Solutions A/NZ national sales specialist Skipp Humphreys added that the power consumption of the technology is a lot lower than traditional digital presses.

“One of the challenges that a lot of businesses face is that factories are usually loaded up with amp-age and not much spare power. Finding spare power for the 15000c is not much of a challenge as it runs on 10amp; it has good environmental credentials with it,” he said.

Humphreys also mentioned that the TASKalfa Pro 15000c is Kyocera Document Solutions’ first foray into the production space using its own technology.

“Kyocera has been providing inkjet heads to other major manufacturers for almost 10 years. So, our manufacturers saw a gap in the market and we’re approaching the right clients. In the right environment, the press is bullet-proof,” he said.

Gatfield said the installation of both presses happened with no delays and the Kyocera Document Solutions team had them up and running in just a couple of days.

“We didn’t have a lot of pre-committed work to put through to it so once we got it going, got our staff familiar with it and ran successful testing, managed to migrate a lot of our existing customers over to that platform. It happened much faster than we expected,” he mentioned.

“This has also allowed our other machines to do what they do best as we’re not trying to produce short runs on a big offset press.” 

Carayanis added that the support from the Kyocera Document Solutions team has been faultless and that they have been available to support Precision Group at every step of the way.

“The technicians have bent over backwards to ensure that the presses were installed properly and a proper handover was provided to our staff. The support has been top-notch and the machines are very reliable and fits our operations perfectly,” he said.

Comment below to have your say on this story.

If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@sprinter.com.au.  

Sign up to the Sprinter newsletter

Leave a comment:

Your email address will not be published. All fields are required

Advertisement

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.
Advertisement