Digital Foto is one of the largest printing houses in Europe, operating at the intersection of three areas - printing, photography and bookbinding. The company is headquartered in Zaczerno, where it undertakes activities in the field of digital printing in the broadest sense, focusing mainly on the production of photo products such as photo-albums and photo-books, also producing a number of other articles such as photo-images, photo-papers, prints, photo-gadgets (mugs, calendars, magnets). Digital Foto, knows that these are products that evoke a lot of positive emotions and makes sure that each of these products is always of the highest quality, bringing smiles to the faces of customers. However, it's not just a printing company and quality products and, above all, people. The company is not a corporation and takes special care to maintain a work-life balance. Employees come first and their initiatives, are always supported. The atmosphere that makes people more motivated to work and more creative ideas is extremely important here. To meet the expectations of very different groups of customers, to whom all products were dedicated, the need arose to distinguish them and create certain categories and, consequently, to create departments dealing with specific products only. In response to this very demand, Colorland, nPHOTO, Artibo or Decormint were created - these are the best known, but not the only own brands of Digital Foto.
The company's extensive and diverse machine park includes not a few but dozens of different machines, but in order to optimize its processes and make its products in the best possible quality, there was a need to purchase a new machine. The company, which is so active in the field of digital printing, was looking for an alternative that is more ecological and cheaper to operate like foiling. Up to that point, finishing had been done here on several semi-automatic foiling machines supplied by Akonda, among others. The obvious choice seemed to be UV varnish, but the solutions available on the market did not satisfy in terms of quality.
For these struggles with the issue of refining, the solution in the form of the Print Flood 200 automatic varnishing machine was just proposed by Akonda and the installation itself took place in May. It is a machine with a unique technology that allows the realization of varnishing with film-like effects, both in terms of coating uniformity and gloss. The images can be compared to a traditional photographic print and the sheet reversal module supplied by Akonda further increased the efficiency of the varnisher. After varnishing one (first) side, one can drive the pallet out of the stacker, drive up to the feeder and varnish the sheet again, this time from the other side, without having to turn the stack. The machine can be further expanded by adding a second varnisher, thus obtaining a double-sided varnishing system in one pass. Among other machines available on the market, this is not achievable anywhere else!
There are many more advantages of the Print Flood 200 varnisher, as the Digital Foto team found out very quickly and after many weeks of experience with the machine, owner Piotr Leszczynski assures -. "We have improved not only the quality of the work performed, but also the comfort of the work itself. The benefits of optimizing and streamlining the entire process translate directly into economic issues. It cannot be overlooked in all this that foiling is much more expensive and I am just getting a foil-like effect of unparalleled quality."
The Print Flood 200 has a mechanism to prevent unwanted transfer of varnish to the other side of the print and the rollers automatically turn off when there is no sheet or when not in use. This prevents roller damage and sheet loss, dents or flat spots both on the roller and on the print. A special system lowers the viscosity of the UV varnish, ensuring that it is applied smoothly and more consistently across the sheet. A not insignificant variable pumping speed is also used to ensure this even application of the coating on the sheet.
However, what both the distributor and the customer focus on is not only the possibility of double-sided varnishing, unrealistic for other varnishers, but also very fast turnaround time. This is extremely important for this type of production and the high level of speed and efficiency guarantees customer satisfaction. What is also important for operators, during the operation of the machine it is not necessary to touch the rollers, nor to turn the valves on and off, so the cleaning of the machine can take place without unnecessary dirt. In addition, a self-diagnostic tool helps operators troubleshoot the machine on their own. It is worth mentioning that the Print Flood 200 inkjet works with HP Indigo prints and is virtually fully automated.
The quality guarantee, double-sidedness and even versatility embodied in the modular design of the Print Flood 200 varnisher makes working on the machine convenient, safe and unobtrusive for operators. On top of this, the results obtained, the savings in time and materials, or the trouble-free operation, reaffirm Digital Photo as their best investment.
Specification:
- maximum format up to 530×750
- speed up to 34m/min
- low or high stack feeder
- runoff table or stacker on the lining
- modular design with the possibility of adding a feeder, receiver and reverser
- innovative duplex function
- unique roller clamping technology allows to realize high quality painting
