Hickling & Squires brings wide-format in-house

The business, which already offered litho, digital, and web-to-print services, took delivery last month of a Fujifilm Acuity Prime 30 UV flatbed printer and a Titanium 2516 cutting table.

“Due to the continual increase in outsourcing large-format printing and print finishing, the decision to bring wide-format in-house was a very easy one,” said Hickling & Squires production director Jamie Gilbert.

“The Titanium 2516 with router was recommended by our wide-format outsource partner Sherwood Universal who installed a Titanium 2516 in 2021 and found it to be robust, adaptable, and very competitively priced.

“The Fuji Acuity 30 and Titanium 2516 combination will enable us to offer a varied range of products including point-of-sale displays, signage products, kiss-cut labels, short run and prototype packaging.

“A bonus for our three Heidelberg [Speedmaster B2] presses was that the high precision drag knife allows us to cut our coating blankets to create intricate varnish areas.”

The Fujifilm Acuity Prime 30 can handle rigid media from 2.5×1.25m and has a maximum print speed of 150sqm/hr. In Fine Art mode, its maximum resolution is 726×1,200dpi.

The Titanium 2516 cutting table, meanwhile, has a maximum cutting area of 2.5×1.6m. It features automatic precision tool cutting depth, which supplier International Graphics Supplies (IGS) said enables the correct cutting depth to be achieved quickly, precisely, and efficiently.

A registration camera, which is supplied as standard, ensures that printed jobs are cut accurately to register. The camera can recognise any type of mark on the printed material using a high-resolution camera mounted to the tool-head.

A range of speciality tools supplied with the machine enables it to handle a wide variety of materials, such as corrugated, folding carton, solid board, foam, coating blankets, wood, and various plastics. A rotary tool is offered for the textiles market.

IGS managing director Peter Flynn commented: “I’m very pleased to see Hickling & Squires are already enjoying the many benefits of moving to a Titanium cutter.

“As Jamie has identified, our price/performance is hard to match and this powerful combination is allowing us to build a very impressive portfolio of customers.”

Hickling & Squires serves a wide range of customers, from the leisure and hospitality sectors to higher education, retail, and the public sector.