Hamilton hits high speed inkjet

Last night, Fusion Print held an open house at its Hamilton plant to demonstrate the Canon Océ VarioPrint i300 high speed sheetfed inkjet press.
 
The first of its kind in New Zealand, the Canon Océ VarioPrint i300 runs at 300 A4 pages per minute and its ColorGrip technology eliminates the need for inkjet treated media.
 
The open house welcomed around a hundred guests who included Tim Macindoe, MP for Hamilton; Kim Conner, managing director Canon New Zealand; Craig Nethercott, Oceania Region Océ; and All Blacks assistant coach and Waikato rugby legend Ian Foster.
 
Graeme Foote, managing director at Fusion Print and Fred Soar, managing director at Soar Printing, welcomed guests to the event and pointed out the significance of the new piece of kit. Last year, Soar Printing acquired Fusion Print in a deal that saw the Hamilton company moves its offset production to Soar’s Auckland plant. This installation gives the companies the chance to expand production.
 
Fred Soar says, “Not only is the Waikato team a great bunch of people to work with but it is a small and agile team. It’s been great seeing how Graeme and his team have adapted. It was sad to close down the offset presses here but today we have this piece of equipment that increases our output five times at this premises.
 
“Hamilton is the centre of what we call the golden triangle: Hamilton, Tauranga, and Auckland. This area is 50 per cent of the population of New Zealand and it is the fastest growing, producing more than 50 per cent of the country’s GDP. We see Hamilton as the manufacturing hub of this region.
 
“What does this mean for our clients? Lower costs and quicker time to the market. The other important point is that it reduces obsolescence so you don’t have to be sucked into printing so many pieces and we can do them at a cheaper rate doing what is called just in time manufacturing but what printers call print on demand. It means that when you need something, we print it really quickly and you don’t throw anything away.”
 
Graeme Foote, managing director at Fusion Print, took groups through the plant, demonstrating the i300’s advantages and putting the press through its paces. He had made several trips to Germany over the past few years as the Océ team developed the i300.
 
Guest speaker Ian Foster delivered a brief presentation on how to stay ahead of the pack, talking about how the All Blacks management keeps the team in front of its opponents.
 
Océ points out that any print manager can run a white paper factory on the Océ VarioPrint i300, eliminating the management of pre-processing of paper completed prior to print and controlling the finishing processes prior to distribution of the finished work. This reduces risk in delivery of these components and allows for finished output straight off the Océ VarioPrint i300 ready for distribution.