Currie Group showcased a stand-alone concept stand, dominated by the imposing Canon Colorado M-series a fully modular, scalable 1.6m UVgel roll-to-roll printer for large-format graphics, in this case running white ink as an option to demonstrate its versatility. With full remote control over all elements of the press a reality, Currie Group and Canon Production Printing let the kit do the talking in their Business in a Box strategy for the show.
Currie Group's Paul Whitehead front and centre at PacPrint's Business in a Box collaboration with Canon Production Printing
Paul Whitehead, who heads up the Sign & Display division of Currie Group was on hand to explain the concept: “The whole point is that I don’t really need to be here, because this system runs itself and a fully remote operation is a reality: it’s like a desktop printer on steroids!”
“We’re confident that you can essentially build a whole business around this piece of kit, largely because of its versatility in terms of both applications and media handling, as well as the ease of use. Owners can be concentrating on other things whilst the Colorado does all the heavy lifting!”
In spite of the concept, Currie's Paul Whitehead was too enthusiastic about the concept to not do any of the talking at PacPrint!
“The real secret is in the UVgel technology, which is relatively new to the smaller print-house market over here, even though a lot of the bigger printers already use it. UVgel dries instantly, and it can be used for everything from vehicle wrapping to wall signs to floor graphics and so on….highly versatile. It also offers a flex finish capability, using the same set of CMYK inks to produce both gloss and matte without changing the system or inks, or using a combination of both matte and gloss in a single pass to give you a spot UV look.”
“White ink is also now available on the Colorado M-series and is treated like any other colour.
Advertised as ‘one machine, many configurations’, the Canon Colorado M-series can be tailored and configured to the primary needs of your business - hence the concept – including:
- In-field speed upgrade, taking the M3 model to an M5
- Temporary speed boost
- White ink as an upgrade – with just a service visit
- Larger 1L ink bottles, and smaller 0.7L ones
- FLXfinish+: glossy, matte or mixed glossy/matte finish in one print
- Double-sided and print-side-in printing
- Kit for magnetic media
Paul adds: “The system itself is built for unattended use. You can set it up with multiple roles with different substrates loaded at one time. Most systems can handle one roll, but the Colorado handles two. There's a system in the printheads that continually monitors each nozzle to ensure that they are always at their optimum. The paper step is corrected throughout a print so when you leave a print running overnight, you can be confident that will work.”
“But the real selling point is that once you hit a colour, it always hits it. And there's no heat involved, so you can even run very thin, lower cost stocks that can't run on other technologies because the heat impacts their performance.”
Canon Production Printing Australia & New Zealand
