Printer Review: Inca Colombia Turbo
By Denise M. Gustavson
Nick
Stevens, technical director at UK-based SP Group, is no stranger to
digital technology. SP Group’s origins date back to the 1970s as
a commercial litho printer, but the company continued to transform itself
over the decades. A screen print facility was built at the Redditch
site in the 1980s, and in 1998 SP Digital was formed, which added digital
printing capabilities to the company with a Durst Lambda, Xerox laser
technology, and inkjet production.
After a management buy out in 2001, SP Redditch moved to a new custom-built facility housing additional digital equipment including a second Lambda, an Inca Eagle, a Lusher computer-to-screen stencil, and two Indigo 3000 presses. It also expanded its screen printing, warehousing, and logistics facilities at the same time. Additonally, the SP Group uses HP, Encad, Epson, and Mimaki wide-format printers using dye, pigmented, and solvent inks for different product offerings, including proofing, displays, banners, and textile printing. By the end of 2004, SP Group was purchased by the St Ives Group.
"SP is a forward-looking company and purchased one of the first Inca Eagle 44 flatbed presses in the world, seeing the benefits of direct to media print. The machine performed well and to expectation," says Stevens. "The purchase of the Columbia Turbo was a logical choice based on the success we had with the original Eagle. The Columbia Turbo offered a doubling and, in some cases, a tripling of throughput when compared to the Eagle and production speeds way in excess of those currently offered by its competitors. It has proven highly reliable with excellent image quality."
The Columbia Turbo, delivered in November 2004, was immediately integrated into the shop. "The machine pretty much works straight after installation. SP’s experience in digital printing helped to get the machine producing high volumes quickly," says Stevens. "Our greatest area of learning has been the logistics of delivering materials to and from the machine in order to get the most productivity."
Overall, the Columbia Turbo has performed well under production settings and has provided SP with additional capacity and flexibility. "Because of the machine’s ability to quickly change from one substrate to another, it’s ideally suited to initial concept mock ups to producing the actual print run as seen with a recent promotion for Dyson," says Stevens. "As with the original Eagle44, the Columbia Turbo sits between Screen print and Lambda in terms of cost/run length/quality, therefore we can offer our customers the choice of production methods."
Would he recommend the Columbia Turbo? Stevens offers a simple answer: "Yes, because it delivers what it claims."
SP’s customer base includes many blue chip companies and international brands such as Levi, Ford, and Cadburys. SP’s main focus is point of sale, but the company also produces commercial litho and services local digital accounts such as advertising agencies.
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