PhotoBox has invested in five new-generation Epson SureColor SC-S60600 64-inch wide-format printers. The company has installed these alongside its existing fleet of 16 SureColor SC-S50600 printers in its UK factory to meet the ongoing growing demand for personalised photo canvases.
Launched in 2000, the PhotoBox group encompasses seven brands - PhotoBox, Moonpig, Hofmann, PaperShaker, Sticky9, posterjack and PosterXXL - and employs about 1,000 people worldwide. Its five factories around the world turn digital photos into over 600 different personalised products - including photo canvases - for 30m members across 20 countries.
James Lawrence-Jones, group technical innovation director at PhotoBox, is responsible for product and production processes. “Since 2013 demand for photo canvases has grown by 70% year on year and we have expanded our production facilities to keep pace. We wanted an ink-efficient printer that would deliver great quality at higher speeds and with maximum reliability and the new SC-S60600 ticks all the boxes,” he said. “Our manufacturing challenges are unusual because we have to be able to print, finish and despatch a large number of canvases on a day, over 12,000 individual canvases a day 24/7 at Christmas for example, and we have to rely on the very best production equipment to meet our high quality standards and tight deadlines.”
The SureColor SC-S60600 uses Epson PrecisionCore permanent printheads in a dual CMYK configuration to deliver 1440 x 1440dpi resolution and speeds up to 95m2/hr (single pass) and 52m2/hr (typical banner applications). A media feeding system with auto-tension control and wide-diameter pressure rollers means a 45kg roll of media can be set up and left to print unattended.
“The SC-S60600 delivers improved print quality at reduced pass rates and offers improved ink efficiency which, when combined with the almost 20% boost in print speeds, results in lower overall production costs,” said Lawrence-Jones. “The new automated maintenance feature is another benefit. Plus, the new improved media loading means accurate media set up is easier and quicker - which allows for long run, unattended printing with the confidence that quality will be consistent across all the images.”