Chroma, a full-service printer located in Theale, near Reading, has moved into flatbed wide-format production with a Yotta Fr2513-R5 printer and Sinajet DK2513 cutter. The move coincides with the company having doubled its floorspace to around 1672m2 via the addition of a second adjacent unit which now houses an expanding large-format department. Although turnover has slightly reduced during the Covid pandemic, Chroma is expecting to exceed its pre-pandemic turnover with a target of £3m.
The Yotta/Sinajet investment comes just three years after Chroma first entered the large-format market with the installation of a Roland roll-fed print-and-cut machine, which was followed by another in 2020. All the kit has been purchased via SOS (Service Offset Supplies).
Operations director Justin Earl: “These machines have been a big success for us. To date much of our work has required us to mount vinyl to materials such as graphic boards, foam PVC or aluminium composite - so with an increasing workload it made sense for us to look at direct-to-media printing which would allow us to cut out the mounting stage. We were also increasingly being asked to produce work that could only be done on a flatbed machine and we were keen to bring this in-house.”
The Yotta machine is not well-known in the UK, but Earl believes this is set to change. “It’s a competitively priced entry-level machine, but it seems to be quicker and more capable than the more expensive alternatives in its class. We did our research independently by visiting a Yotta user with our own test files and substrates, with the emphasis on speed and colour accuracy. Straight away we could see the quality and performance were more than up to the task.”
Earl added: “We chose the flexible ink option for the machine as we felt this would enable us to offer the broadest range of end products to our customers. Another feature we really like is the option to increase capacity in future by adding more print heads. Although we will mainly be producing rigid signs and point of sale, we are seeing more demand for packaging including high-end, short-run projects, which is why we also included spot varnish in the spec. One of the really exciting things is that this machine will allow us to print on almost anything - wood, leather, plastic, glass, PVC, MDF, metal and more. We are even planning to print on table tops.”
The Sinajet cutter installed alongside the Yotta has also impressed the Chroma team. “The cutter is an amazing piece of kit,” said Earl. “Jobs which used to take half an hour to cut by hand can now be completed in minutes and with 180 tooling options it is extremely versatile. It will cut just about any shape. As well as the rigid signs it provides a viable alternative to traditional die cutting for jobs such as packaging or folders.
“We have already seen new business coming in as a result of the installation. For instance, we just picked up a big order for cardboard pallet wraps which are printed on fluted board. Also we just produced all the signage for the cafes at Kew Gardens, direct to board, which we were able to turn around really quickly. We could not have done either of these jobs without the new machines.”