Fingerprint fo+ takes Roland LEC-540
Fingerprint fo+ has installed a Roland LEC-540 print-and-cut machine at its premises in Welwyn Garden City. The machine, supplied by Atech, has been bought to create short run graphics, colour proofs and packaging prototypes.
“The machine is so flexible we can use it to fulfil a number of different roles within the company,” explained sales director Doug McBride. “We can create textures and contours, prototype boxes and packaging and print on all sorts of materials including lenticular type materials, plastics and cling. The Roland LEC-540 helps us recreate innovative print designs, which we then scale up for our main production runs. The reason we win most of our jobs is due to our own flexibility and ability to create really unusual print effects and the Roland machine will help us do this more efficiently.
“Atech did a great job in helping us with our pre-purchase trials, which was extremely important to make sure we were buying the right printer for our needs. The install went really smoothly and we were up and running in a matter of hours.”
The Roland LEC-540 is colour-matched to Fingerprint fo+‘s existing mix of litho and digital print kit. The company looked at several machines before deciding on the Roland LEC-540. “We trialled a few machines but the LEC-540 with white ink was a bit of a designer’s dream. It fits in with the varied print solution provider reputation that the company has gained over the years and there is no limit to the choice and type of print we can create - be it plastic, foil, canvas, textile, paper or card, we can print, finish and deliver anything that is thrown at us.”
One of the products used in the trial was Mirri. Jennifer Deacon marketing manager Mirri, a division of Celloglas commented: “Fingerprint has printed some fantastic samples using our Mirri Pak card. When Mirri is combined with the Roland DG special effects the results are stunning.”
The Roland LEC-540 is a 137cm wide printer, using LED with curing technology and UV-curable ink to add clear coat and white to standard CMYK output. Producing one-off packaging prototypes and short-run labels in a single machine for printing, cutting and creasing, the Roland LEC series is suitable for use with a vast array of substrates, including metallic and synthetic papers, foils, BOPP, PE and PET film, the VersaUV can even work on fabrics such as leather and suede. The unit supports card stock, plastic board, polycarbonate and other rigid substrates up to 1mm thick.