As a fledgling company operating in its seventh year, the pace of growth at Bolton based Impression Ltd has been remarkable. The large format display, PoS, event and signage company produces a range of graphics and digitally printed products from leaflets to store window displays, outdoor signage to exhibition stands. This diversity has delivered year on year growth in excess of 20%.
To maintain such growth levels, the company has invested heavily to meet the demands of its diverse customer base. Initially progressing with Roland for solvent wide format roll fed devices and Konica Minolta for their small format digital press; it was the arrival of their first Océ Arizona Flatbed digital printer in 2011 and an AG/CAD KM627R digital cutting machine that took the company to the next level.
However, as Company Director, Mr Carl Webster comments: "At the time we wanted to increase productivity of the large format PoS department on such materials as Acrylic, Di-Bond, Foamex and fluted boards as well as introducing white and clear inks. Whilst this portion of our business has grown since 2011, the continued diversity now sees an increase in enquiries for signage work. With the increasing indoor and outdoor signage demand, we are cutting ever more challenging products. Whilst the KM627R machine was ideal for many materials, it wasn't best suited to cutting Di-bond, plastics and acrylics at higher speeds, also it was a fixed bed, so not designed for continuous cutting of roll media."
With business bustling and the pressure of seasonal peaks such as 'Black Friday', Christmas and January Sales, 11 employee Impression re-visited the available cutting solutions. Once again, it was AG/CAD that came out on top with its latest DYSS X7-1624C Superhead Digital Cutter that was delivered in November 2015.
Discussing the need for the DYSS X7 machine, Mr Webster continues: "Since the installation of the previous KM627R cutting table we had introduced a second Océ Arizona. The variety of materials and products was growing, massively and the previous machine wasn't going to keep pace with two Arizona’s and 4 roll-fed machines running night and day. So, despite having the cutting machine, we still had two staff manually cutting for 4 hours a day."
"The new X7 is at least 40% faster than the previous machine on roll media and flat sheets. This is credited to the high-end drives and controls on the X7 that move the head around the table at impressive speeds. Added to this, there is a more powerful oscillating unit that drives the knife tool and a much more robust, high precision router spindle. This not only provides more efficient cutting, but also gives superior, high quality edge finish. We can now process larger number of jobs per day on the DYSS with minimal hand cutting and with a high level of finish."
With the diverse workload at Impression Ltd, the company needed a cutting machine with the flexibility to process roll media as well as sheet materials. To this end, AG/CAD supplied a conveyorised X7 machine with roll feed system to accommodate roll media. Eluding to this, Mr Webster says: "Up to 8 hours a day was spent hand cutting posters, window decals and banners out of 30 to 100m long rolls. These rolls are now loaded onto the DYSS roll-off unit and the operator will run off a 60m roll of posters in a matter of minutes. The machine bed is 1.6m wide and 2.45m long, which is well suited to our rolls as well as our sheet materials. The X7 really has been a great purchase. We operate a two-shift pattern so the new DYSS is running over 12 hours a day and it has no problems keeping pace with our five printers."
Whilst the power, speed, productivity, build quality and flexibility are all contributing factors to Impression Ltd buying the DYSS X7, a clear benefit over competitor cutting tables was the Kasemake CAD software. As Mr Webster recalls: "We looked at other machine suppliers and the associated software is always a major factor for any company that conducts design work and creative solutions. Most of the vendors of digital cutting tables seemed to have a weak imitation of AG/CAD's Kasemake software. Additionally, because AG/CAD develops its own software, the service and support is far superior to anything we would get from another supplier. We now have two suites of Kasemake for our designers who have also undergone training on the 3D rendering aspect of the software which helped them create 3D store environments to virtually display promotional PoS and signs. This has become a great sales tool."
Not only has Impression Ltd been delighted with the level of software support and training, but also the overall ethos of AG/CAD with regards to customer service. As Mr Webster concludes: "We were replacing the KM627R cutting table with the DYSS X7 and AG/CAD understood our concerns over lost production time. To minimise the impact on production, AG/CAD removed the KM627R on a Wednesday afternoon and the following afternoon, our team were up and running on the X7. We literally only lost a couple of hours production, as AG/CAD really went the extra mile to give us the outstanding service we've been accustomed to ever since we installed the KM machine in 2011.