South Shields printing company steps up with new investment

Harlow Printing based in Maxwell Street has become the latest printing company to move to the SRA1 format with investment in a highly specified RMGT 920 LED UV sheetfed press.

Harlow Printing has installed a four-colour RMGT 920 with LED UV, as additional capacity. The press joins a line up that includes two mini webs, Speedmaster SX74 B2 sheetfed, Anicolor, and a host of SRA3 single- and two-colour presses.

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Harlow Managing Director Richard Walker says: “We thought it could be the right time to go to a larger sheet format, the question being should we go to B1 or to SRA1, which would cope with the vast majority of our needs.”

"The slightly smaller format won out, and the competitively priced RMGT won out with the choice. “I believe that we got a good deal,” he says. “The coatings worked out. Now we can produce existing jobs more competitively and efficiently. We haven’t bought anything during Covid.”

The South Shields printer produces work for a number of NHS Trusts and earlier this year won a place on the Crown Commercial Services framework. It has a particular specialism in work for maternity and early years development alongside general commercial work.

The decision to opt for the RMGT is a departure for a company that has frequently bought Heidelberg in the past. On this occasion the Heidelberg option was not competitive.

The new machine will help Harlow become more competitive on framework tenders. The press is specified to run at 16,200sph and even at 14,000sph this is the equivalent of 28,000 four-up sheets an hour.

The machine includes Smart FPC simultaneous plate change with simultaneous blanket wash, ink presetting and predamping settings running automatically. It also has inline density control and a dual GEW LeoLED UV drying system in an extended delivery.

A wall screen control panel helps, along with the degree of automation on the press, including press mounted cameras and a WiFi enabled tablet to monitor production and adjust settings.

The company has bought a new Agfa platesetter to cope with the larger plate format, and has no need to change anything in finishing.

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