This mantra of marketing appears to be true for Nottingham-based John E Wright, a digital and lithographic printing outfit, which also offers large format printing and signage. The Midlands firm decided to upgrade its ten-year-old PN L-2500 machine to a new G3 XL-3200 system from Zünd in order to increase speed, efficiency and capacity.
The company’s older manual cutter meant operators had to edit artwork to add camera dots and apply colour management. The Zünd G3 was fitted with Prepare-it software to automate workflow, allowing the production department to reduce its studio time preparing files for ripping and cutting.
Zünd cutters are solid, reliable machines, built for heavy-duty work so we decided to stay with the manufacturer and chose the G3. Our workflow has sped up to the extent that we now have capacity for another new printer”
"Better nesting saves money, as there's no manual guessing. What took hours now takes minutes as there's no physical cutting or preparing," says Alan Edwards of John E Wright. "There's virtually no manual cutting in the building at all now."
Edwards explains that new printing equipment expedited the requirement for a cutting equipment upgrade. "We replaced our HP flatbed printer with a new EFI VUTEk and the increase in speed resulted in a backlog in the cutting department," he says. "Zünd cutters are solid, reliable machines, built for heavy-duty work so we decided to stay with the manufacturer and chose the G3. Our workflow has sped up to the extent that we now have capacity for another new printer."
Also the G3 has enabled John E Wright to keep more work in house. Before the investment, substrate manufacturers would cut materials to size, and use thicker substrates. The company now uses more Dibond and 10mm acrylic in its display graphics work, which includes production of banners, posters, POS and roll-ups – plus, recently, disposable furniture.
Cutting edge: the new equipment has helped the firm to bring in new work
Zünd also supplied Packz software with the G3, giving John E Wright the opportunity to offer its clients an alternative product: packaging mock-ups. These are achieved 'in a matter of clicks', says Edwards.
Since installing the new G3, John E Wright has won a number of new retail contracts which confirms the age-old adage that investing in new kit really does bring in business.
Have you bought a new machine? What are you buying – let Harry know at news@signlink.co.uk or news@printmonthly.co.uk
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This speeded up video shows a Zund G3 XL-3200 being installed in a small workshop. There is no sound but it is worth a view to see what’s involved: