Melbourne screen print house Briter Australasia has bought the first Océ Arizona 360 GT UV flatbed to be installed in Australia.
Based in Rowville, Briter was established 30 years ago and is well known in the industry for its screen-printed labels, overlays and membrane panels.
The Océ Arizona is being used primarily in the printing of other, larger types of work, predominantly decals, posters and vinyl panels which the company’s customers also require.
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| Briter’s Justin Wong with the first Océ Arizona 360 GT sold in Australia. |
General Manager Justin Wong says that the key to buying the Océ Arizona 360 GT for his company was print quality and productivity.
“Like most screen printers we get a lot of work that needs to be produced in a short time, often to deadlines that are impossible to meet by the traditional screen process,” Wong says.
“We’re like any other business in that we hate turning work away. The Arizona means we can now accept these jobs and produce them within very tight deadlines and our customers are delighted with the quality of the work they are receiving. It’s already being used for more than 30 per cent of our output.
“In selecting the Arizona we were looking for a flatbed that could print on a wide range of substrates that had to include acrylic, adhesive vinyls, PVCs, foam core etc. However we also demanded it print legible type as small as four point and be able to handle very thin substrates that could be subject to distortion through heat.
“If the holes in a vacuum table are too large or the heat lamps too hot, very thin substrates can be distorted in the printing process.”
To meet these challenges Océ showed Wong the new Océ Arizona 360 GT, with a new high definition feature that can print type as small as two point. opening the door to higher-profit technical and industrial applications such as lenticular lens and membrane panel printing. The flatbed also has a new-style vacuum table with small vacuum points and low heat lamps to enable printing directly to very thin or heat-sensitive media. Print speeds on the Océ Arizona 360 GT are up to 35 square metres per hour on its 1.26m x 2.51m table..
Océ VariaDot technology images are smoother than those printed on a six-color, fixed dot printers, regardless of resolution. Océ VariaDot technology can simultaneously jet smaller 6, 12, and 18 picoliter droplets for the production of sharp images and smooth quarter-tones, as well as larger 24, 30, 36 and 42 picoliter droplets for the production of dense, uniform solid colors. The result is near photographic quality with sharpness only before seen at resolutions of 1,440 dpi or higher
“We looked at a lot of other machines but the Océ Arizona 360 GT was the only one that met our criteria,” Justin Wong says. “It has exceptional quality. We also took the flatbed’s white ink option, which enables us to print on coloured or transparent substrates.”
Wong also praised the Océ sales process. “They listened to our requirements and came back with the answer to all of them. It’s not only a great printer, it’s a great company to do business with.”
Océ Australia
www.oce.com.au
Caption: Briter’s Justin Wong with the first Océ Arizona 360 GT sold in Australia.
