Rotherham-based John Brailsford Printers has installed a Xerox Iridesse six-colour toner production press and is benefiting both from its speed and the ability to retain customers via the special colours that the press supports.
John Brailsford Printers, which recently celebrated its 35th anniversary, has used Xerox colour and mono digital presses for the last decade, in addition to two PressTek DI offset machines that are still in regular use, and added a Versant 3100 five years ago. They chose to invest in a six-colour Iridesse, capable of printing silver, gold, clear toner or white. As of June, they have taken the time to finesse their customers orders through testing and experimenting with the press.
John Brailsford, the founder of the company, comments: “When we started looking at the start of 2020 we were thinking of another Versant, but we were persuaded by our long-term rep Sarah Timlin that it would not take us beyond where we are. I had always thought the Iridesse would be too expensive. After running the numbers from the start of this year, the extra cost, if any, would be minimal, while the company would gain the additional colours, the ability to print a long sheet and the improved quality of CMYK printing. The low interest rates available also had an impact.”
John continues: “The icing on the cake is the gold, silver, white and clear colours. We’ve never done metallics without a separate process, but now we can do it the same day, without £50 or £100 blocks and dies, all in one pass and in perfect register.”
From the offset world, the new Xerox press prints a solid black that had previously been printed on its Presstek DI machines. On these the company slows down to ensure enough ink is applied followed by an uncertain wait for the ink to set properly. While the 4,000-sheet job is more expensive to print on the Iridesse, the simplicity of doing so and the instant turnaround because the sheet is immediately dry, has meant the job has switched. Normally the cross over between the digital press and its two DI machines is around 2,000 sheets.
The foil used to enhance the printed image is clean and sharp, crisper than using a conventional foil or inkjet technology. The press also uses a Fiery controller, so was simple for operators to pick up, aided by a user-friendly interface and operator replaceable components that have kept the machine running. It is a question of following the sequence on the screen.
John concludes with their current business ventures: “We are now producing Christmas and greetings cards using silver and gold to enhance what we print in a way that was never possible before. We have printed filigree work for invitations, have created hologram like effects and thanks to the long sheet can print eight-page DL with concertina folds, print A4 landscape booklets or six-page A4 brochures – all things that we could not print before.”
For more information about the product, visit: www.xerox.com
