The company prides itself on being able to cheaply print large numbers of labels, but was unable to achieve this on its Chang IK Korean poly-plate roll press. For David Westray, Able Labels director, it was case that it couldn’t print photographic-quality images, it wasn’t cost-effective for short-run jobs, and it exposed the Westray family to all the hassles of the pre-digital era – from running out film to ordering PMS inks for customers with exacting colour-matching requirements.

Enter the Canon imageRUNNER iR C3200. According to Westray, it exceeds Able Labels’ short-run and high-quality label printing requirements, and allows the company to offer a general full-colour printing service, too. Today, customers come to the Westray family for labels, and leave with everything from business cards to letterheads.

According to Westray, his customers love the vivid colours and fine detail of the iR C3200’s output, but he knows that the digital revolution has changed everything that happens behind the scenes too, delivering considerable savings. He estimates that a job that would have taken a week to prepare and print on the Chang IK can be completed in two or three days on the iR C3200.

Other savings come from eliminating film, plates and PMS inks from the process entirely, as well as providing fewer opportunities for error and making it easy to correct any errors on the spot. In relevant volumes, the iR C3200 has reduced the cost of printing labels by a third, Westray estimates – and that’s presuming the Chang IK was capable of completing the job at all.

For printing photo-quality labels, the alternative to using the iR C3200 would have been spending half a million dollars on a metal-plate roll press. Westray says that with repeat customers, the process is even quicker and the savings even greater.

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