Business - Events

Stanford Marsh Group Graphics (SMGG), the commercial graphics division of Stanford Marsh Group, returns to Sign & Digital UK in 2015 – on stand E24 – with an array of exciting wide-format and 3D print solutions.  

Celebrating its 50th anniversary in business this year, SMGG is a leading independent solutions provider for the wide-format print sector.  It sells and supports numerous print solutions including HP Latex and graphics products, Mimaki print and print/cut solutions, Mimaki flatbed printers, textile printers and 3D printers, alongside all the associated consumables and finishing devices.  

On stand E24, the company will be showcasing the 64-inch wide HP Latex 360 printer which has been designed to help sign shops, quick printers and small to medium PSPs expand their businesses and boost their capacity whilst maintaining a healthier production environment.  The printer can print at up to 91 m2/hr (978 ft2/hr) and increases application versatility with an ink collector for porous textiles. The printer also features automatic front-to-back registration for printing double-sided banners.

The Mimaki CJV wide-format print and cut solution will also be demonstrated on SMGG’s stand. This multi-award winning, 'all in one' machine sports a number of high-end features and is delivered with up to 2 years’ comprehensive Gold warranty, a full set of 8 inks, a take-up unit and a powerful software bundle including RasterLink PostScript RIP, FineCut cutting software and a design creation package.

SMGG has had huge success selling the much-vaunted Mimaki JFX 200 Flatbed printer of late and will be happy to discuss Sign UK visitors’ flatbed printing requirements at the event - as well as the associated financial options available. 

The company will also be showcasing the Stratasys uPrint 3D printer which enables users to test products prior to going into full-scale production. Models can be made within hours and then sanded, painted, tapped and drilled - even chrome plated - to give a reliable representation of the actual planned manufactured product. These mock-ups also enable users to uncover design flaws and make the appropriate adjustments early and frequently throughout the design process.

Finally, SMGG’s stand will feature the Easy Rack storage system which offers the perfect solution to the challenges of storing wide-format media.  Built with high quality materials, the Easy Rack range is available in a number of different heights and widths and can be supplied on wheels or wall-mounted. The levers on the system can be adjusted to cater for the numerous sizes of roll-up media.

As a truly independent supplier of an extremely wide range of printing solutions, SMGG is able to offer sound advice on how to get the best performance from any given machine.  Courtesy of Stanford Marsh’s own in-house finance company, it is able to offer flexible financial terms and fast credit clearance on purchases.  SMGG’s representatives will be able to talk interested parties through all the available options; finance can be arranged on the day and there will be special pricing offers for orders placed at the show.

On the upcoming event, SMGG’s Steve Guest comments: “Whether you’re looking to buy an HP Latex solution, a Mimaki print and cut machine, the ever-popular Mimaki JFX200 printer or an Easy Rack storage system, come and visit us on stand E24 and we’ll be able to help advise you on all your printing, finishing and consumables needs.”

For more information on SMGG, please visit www.smgg.co.uk

MTEX Technologies will create a ‘UK first’ at Sign & Digital UK 2015, showing the newly-launched MTEX Vision with direct disperse inks and the MTEX PAD coating machine together as a ‘snapshot’ of its total turnkey solutions. 

Stewart Bell, Managing Director of MTEX Technologies comments: “We’re very excited about the upcoming exhibition, and the chance to showcase two of the key elements in our direct-to-textile print solutions.

“A recent Infotrends report showed that the worldwide value of digital textile print was $5.8bn in 2013 with a forecast annual growth of 39% to 2018, making it a fast-growing and profitable market.

“Our turnkey solutions allow innovative and entrepreneurial businesses to enter this exciting market from a standing start, whichever element they want to focus on from fashion, apparel, industrial or decor.

“We’re the only company worldwide that delivers every element of the equipment required for textile production including the site survey, site plans and installation, rather than just one or two pieces in a jigsaw puzzle of different suppliers.”

The brand new 1.85m wide MTEX Vision is designed to offer an alternative production method to transfer printing, and offers direct printing onto four-way stretch fabrics with excellent and vibrant colours, and deep dense blacks.

There’s no paper involved, with print and fix as one process. It’s powered by Mimaki and the Ricoh print heads print up to 1200 dpi. The Vision is available now with direct disperse inks for polyester, reactive and acid inks for cotton and silk, and it will soon have a pigment ink option for poly cotton and natural fibre fabrics.

The MTEX PAD is designed to pre-treat and coat textiles with production speeds of between 30 and 140 linear metres per hour. There are two coating options of immersion or a surface coating, and the infrared drying system delivers fully dried fabrics.

It can be used as a standalone machine or in-line with the MTEX 500, MTEX Vision and MTEX Turbo 1.8m wide printers, effectively allowing users to coat their own medias prior to printing.

“MTEX make the cost of entry into the market achievable with a total solution and significant return on investment, offering exciting new business opportunities for anyone investing in this new technology.

“We can now offer printing onto any kind of textile from polyamides for swimwear to high quality silks, and we hope that visitors interested in all areas of textile print – from soft signage and display graphics to home textiles and fashion – will come along to our stand to have a drink and a chat about the opportunities that an investment in MTEX will bring them.

“We can also talk to people who might be interested in one of our other printers, as we can set up a personal visit to our centrally located showroom in Leicestershire for a demonstration of the MTEX 1800 or our market leading 3.2m 5032Pro model.”

The MTEX Steamer and the MTEX W&D washing and drying machine complete the MTEX direct-to-textile family.

The MTEX Steamer is a roll-to-roll steamer that can be used for acid and reactive ink setting at widths up to 1.8m. Steam and temperature are regulated using touch panel controls, and it can reach up to 185oC.

The MTEX W&D has been developed specifically to emulate traditional methods of finishing fabrics – but designed with the digital textile printer in mind. It has four washing tanks and a water treatment and re-use system installed as well as a dual drying system via vacuum and cylinders which can reach drying temperatures of up to 200 oC.

City and West End Solutions (CWE) will highlight the need for optimal quality across an entire digital print and finishing workflow at Sign & Digital 2015 – from the machines and inks, to the software, the media and the finishing.

CWE Commercial Director Graham De Kock explains: “To get the best output you need to invest in your entire workflow – but that doesn’t mean it has to cost you a fortune.  We’ll be showcasing the HP Latex 360 and 310 printers, which we first introduced at Sign & Digital 2014. They’ve proved to be incredibly popular since then, and we’ve installed more than 80 units from the HP Latex 300 range. Feedback from our customers has been overwhelmingly positive, and visitors to the show will be able to see how the new technology could benefit their business too.

“While the HP Latex 300s are great for signage applications and volume printing, they’re also perfect for the more bespoke, high end applications such as wall coverings and lightboxes where you need guaranteed colour matching and top notch image definition and ink density.”

The inks
The water-based HP Latex Inks combine the best characteristics of solvent inks and water-based inks for applications with versatility and enhanced durability. They produce high quality, environmentally friendly and odourless prints which are completely cured inside the printer to form a durable image that’s immediately ready for finishing, shipment, or display.

The software
Put the HP Latex 300 range together with the HP WallArt application for customized wall decoration, and the AVA Rip software that’s optimised for the decorative printing industry, and you can produce stunning results.

“High end, high margin applications are becoming increasingly popular across the residential, retail and commercial markets, from wallcoverings to posters, lightboxes and canvas,” added Graham.

“We’ve also recently been appointed as the sole UK distributor for Barbieri Spectrophotometers, and we’re looking forward to showing visitors how this top of the range product complements our suite of wide format solutions, offering super-accurate colour matching.”

Barbieri Electronic is the colour measurement market leader for large format, flatbed and industrial printing. Its spectrophotometers utilise many points of reference during the measurement process to give an accurate description of the colour. They also offer the benefit of variable patch size readings, contactless and speed readings.

The media
CWE will be demonstrating the capabilities of the HP Latex printers using its Expanse range of media which is aimed squarely at wide format print providers and signmakers. Expanse media deliver optimum results and a reliable, consistent and trouble free performance. The range supplied by CWE includes poster papers; vinyls; poly laminates; billboard paper; textiles including knitted flag and lightbox satin; backlit gloss; and easy to use Textile Wallpaper.

The final product
CWE will be taking a Summa wide format cutter to Sign and Digital, demonstrating how to get the perfect cut finish, every time.

Perfect Colours says it will be 'unmissable' at Sign and Digital UK this year, bringing a full house of new and established products to its largest stand to date. But, as well as the first UK outing for one of its new flagship wide-format machines, the award-winning sign and graphics supplier will be making the statement that it is personality that makes the difference when choosing a vendor partner in this fast-paced market.

Debuting in the UK at the show is the five-colour UV-curable InkTec Jetrix KX6. The 2.4 x 1.2m flat-bed – which the reseller supplies with two years' free warranty – attains speeds of up to 55sq m/hour using dual CMYK plus four white channels, making it an attractive option for the Sign UK audience. Able to produce fine art quality at low running costs, the KX6 is a robust and cost-effective option for those transitioning from analogue process or hoping to increase their throughput, being as it is the fastest true flat-bed in its size.

Precision-focused printers will be interested in the Durst Omega 2, the compact but powerful 1.6m hybrid which, despite its entry-level price point, can accommodate heat-sensitive media and produce high-quality prints at up to 1,728dpi. Perfect Colours will also present an array of machines from HP, such as the popular 1.62m (64") Latex 360, which prints at a top speed of 91sq m/hour and integrates a media cutter for vinyl, paper and polyester film, and the small but mighty Latex 310.

The HP Designjet Z6800 and the Epson SureColor F6000 are likely to appeal to display professionals looking to diversify in 2015. The eight-colour 1.52m HP engine is a lightning-fast photographic production printer reaching an incredible 140sq m/hour and sporting an on-board X-Rite I1 Pro spectrophotometer for superb replication of skin tones and solid colours. Meanwhile, the 1.1m Epson SC F6000 creates a viable entry point into lucrative dye-sublimation work. Supported by Perfect Colours's education- and customer-led approach, these machines are strong contenders for print houses to expand without breaking the bank. A range of high-productivity cutters from Summa – renowned for their accuracy – will also be paraded.

Powering and complementing this formidable line-up will be software from Caldera. Perfect Colours will show how the suite – which received a major upgrade towards the end of 2014 – can streamline the entire production process for businesses large and small with modular options and varying degrees of workflow management. Finally, the reseller's comprehensive range of media and ink options will also be on show.

"Perfect Colours is out in force at Sign and Digital UK this year to show how we always deliver for our customers on value, service and quality," states Jon Telling, Perfect Colours's sales director. "A business can have the best machine on the market but it has to be supported properly in the field to maximise its return on investment. We have the range, the expertise and the personal touch to ensure that success, and we invite visitors to come and see what we mean."

Germany-based Sachsen Fahnen is one of the biggest screen and digital printers in Europe with a production area of more than 30,000 m² specialising in printing on fabric, PVC & board.

At this year’s Sign & Digital UK, Sachsen Fahnen will show a comprehensive range of seating units made of stable foam cores with a custom-designed printed cover. This range is completed by a couple of cushions and folding chairs which can be also personalised with graphics. Folding chairs are available in three different types: as a deck chair with or without armrests, as a directors’ chair with double-sided backrest as an option or as a beach chair, fully collapsible and easy to carry due to their small size. Furthermore, Sachsen Fahnen presents the brand new advertising sail Bowflag® Premium. These giant feather flags come in four shapes and are developed both for single or double-sided banner finish.

For the first time in the UK, Sachsen Fahnen will also present its comprehensive range of customised stickers and films.

 

Kettering-based print specialist i-Sub Digital will be demonstrating its exclusive Digi-Foil digital foiling system for printing onto a wide range of packaging materials and the Mimaki Kebab for direct printing onto cylindrical items. The speed and ingenuity of the systems attracted a great deal of interest at packaging, sign and display and trophy industry events throughout 2014.

Digi-Foil combines a desktop Mimaki UJF-3042HG or UJF-6042 Series UV printer with a heated applicator to create foil effects in minutes, giving a traditional appearance but without the time and cost necessary for preparing dies and foil presses. A wide choice of effects is achievable in a very short time frame – from metallics to embossed patterns and high-resolution printed graphics. As separate modules the UJF UV inkjet printer offers an all-in-one printing solution, whilst Digi-Foil is ideal for the creation of detailed and accurate packaging mock-ups and promotional products.

The Kebab is an optional attachment for the Mimaki UJF-3042HG and UJF-6042 printer that achieves seamless 360-degree surface printing onto cylindrical objects up to 330mm in length and between 10mm and 110mm in diameter. Suitable for packaging, wine bottles, candles, water flasks and more, the Kebab gives extra value from the Mimaki desktop units by enabling 3D prototypes and one-off personalisation.

"The Digi-Foil and Kebab systems always attract a 'wow' from visitors," says i-Sub Digital Director Andy Spreag. "Being able to see such high-quality results so quickly tends to spark people's imaginations and get them thinking about what else they can produce.

"Being surrounded by such a wealth of innovative equipment at Packaging Innovations – such as the digital cutting systems being shown by our stand partners Zünd UK – means visitors will be sure to leave the event with great packaging ideas."

Zünd UK will be running demonstrations of the Zünd S3 M-800 (1330mm x 800mm) digital cutter with an automatic sheet feeder and camera system to enable fast, automated cutting. The Zünd Cut Centre software installed on the system opens the correct job once it has been loaded onto the machine automatically, for unattended production.

Packaging Innovations 2015, featuring over 350 exhibitors, will take place at Birmingham's NEC on February 25th and 26th 2015, combining Ecopack and Contract Pack areas with the co-located shows Empack and Label&Print. Zünd UK and i-Sub Digital will be available for demonstrations and advice on stand H18.

For further information on Mimaki UJF-3042HG or UJF-6042 Series UV, Digi-Foil or the Kebab from i-Sub Digital or to book a demonstration, please email info@i-subdigital.com or call 01536 415511.