Gardners Invests in Dotrix Digital Inkjet Press to Expand and Diversify Its Customer Offering

Published: March 19, 2004, By PRESS RELEASE

MORTSEL, BELGIUM—UK-based converter and specialty printer Gardners will be the first United Kingdom installation of Dotrix's high-speed, color inkjet press—the.factory (pronounced "the dot factory")—says Dotrix, an Agfa company. The installation is underway, reports the inkjet press manufacturer.

According to Dotrix, Gardners produces various technical and promotional applications including point-of-sales (POS) materials, signs, labels, and outdoor media. Having primarily used screen printing for production, Gardners will use the.factory to meet its increasing client demand to resolve issues of brand integrity, reports Dotrix. "The.factory will [be used] to produce many single items on a wide range of substrates that would have been traditionally manufactured using a variety of processes, which have often led to the dilution of the brand in-store," explains the company.

Having worked with various wide format inkjet presses, Gardners has long recognized the customer value of variable digital inkjet printing. Says managing director Richard Gardner, "The.factory is the most advanced digital inkjet press available in the market and the only industrial solution capable of providing high-quality results in at least four colors featuring a wide color gamut, which ultimately enables very accurate spot-color reproduction."

Gardner continues: “The press is extremely flexible and able to print on foil, plastics, and coated papers. We also are developing our own coated substrates in-house. The.factory’s ability to print on such a wide range of materials is of great importance to us and gives us the opportunity to expand and diversify our portfolio," he adds.

Dotrix says, following the initial testing period, its customer has forecasted a rapid return on investment with the.factory; the supplier report Gardners has already received positive feedback from such customers as major retailers and financial institutions regarding the increasing possibilities the press brings. The printer, adds Dotrix, plans to install a second the.factory later in 2004.

The.factory incorporates the single-pass inkjet color engine (SPICE), Dotrix reports. "SPICE uses piezo-ceramic drop-on-demand, grayscale, inkjet technology with inkjet heads from Toshiba TEC. The heads, integrated into Dotrix's cartridges in the.factory, are able to produce different tints of ink by varying the droplet sizes, thus providing a 300dpi resolution with three-bit grayscale or eight levels of gray per spot. These different intensities combined with stochastic screening result in a high level of print quality at a perceived resolution of 900dpi. Capable of printing 907 square m/hr. at widths to 63 cm, the.factory is the most productive and flexible industrial digital print solution available today," states Dotrix.

Learn more about Dotrix at dotrix.be. Visit Agfa at agfa.com.