News

The Printing Charity helped 1,646 people in 2016, an increase of 44% over the year before. The figure included 496 people helped through welfare grants, 98 residents in its two sheltered homes for retired people, 537 young people through its education work, 439 people with CV and job search training, and 76 through charity partnerships.

Paul Underwood, a driver at Antalis, has along with two other keen cyclists from associated businesses, raised £2,500 for charity via a 320 mile bike ride.

Spandex has added the 3.2m-wide HP Latex 1500 printer to its product portfolio. The company is now inviting demonstration booking for the machine at its Bristol facility.

EFI has named CMYUK its ‘Inkjet Global Dealer of Excellence’. The award was presented to CMYUK group directors Robin East and Jon Price by EFI’s UK inkjet sales manager Martin Mayo in recognition of the company’s impressive sales figures and customer support excellence. The award also noted 12 years of partnership between the two companies.

Kiian Digital’s Digistar Hi-Pro sublimation transfer inks have achieved Eco Passport certification, meaning they can be used on textiles required to achieve Standard 100 by Oeko-Tex.

Felix Schoeller Digital Media has introduced improved papers for solvent latex printing. These optimised SLP papers, which are all coated with a solvent latex primer and now also with a special back coat, are certified for HP’s Latex 300 and 3000 series. Four products are available in a glossy or satin finish and grammages of 140 and 200gsm.

OpenColor 2.1 multichannel profiling software has been released. Profiles can now be created without a test chart using custom patches.

The first production-ready electronics and software to drive the newly announced Samba GMA line of Si-Mems inkjet printheads from Fujifilm Dimatix is now commercially available from Meteor Inkjet.

The new GMG ColorServer 5.0 has improved automation features, including hotfolders handling, and automatic colour conversion for consistent print results across various printing processes and substrates.

Expectation of growth in the wide-format graphics market has prompted Nazdar Ink Technologies to appoint its former product manager for digital textile Inks, Stephen Woodall, as its new global market segment manager for aqueous and solvent digital.

The response from the print industry to a call for views on apprenticeships has led to the Trailblazer Consortium being able to “communicate a really robust message about the sector’s needs” according to its coordinator Ursula Daly. 

Leach has created an innovation department with an annual budget of £250,000 to constantly research, develop and engineer new ideas and products for the graphics display marketplace. The move follows with the appointment of a senior expert in industrial design. Mike Willshaw - who is the new head of innovation, leading an innovation team of six at the Huddersfield based firm - has had a 20-year career designing consumer goods, packaging, FMCG, medical and promotional materials.

3M has appointed Amari Plastics as a UK distributor of its commercial graphic and architectural film range - the first time in over 20 years that 3M has appointed a new distributor in the UK in this sector.