CMYUK has installed a Canon Colorado 1650 UVgel printer at ESP Smile, part of the ESP Group of companies, to ensure the continued delivery of canvasses in the light of increasing output volumes. This is the third Colorado at the site, which together form the production engine of a print-on-demand canvas gifting service.
Simon Smogur, CEO of ESP Group, with his Colorado collection
The business launched its on-demand service in 2017 with the purchase of a Canon Colorado 1640 that was used to produce up to 50,000 canvasses per year. Increased volumes led to the purchase of a Colorado 1650 in 2020, which saw total output rise to 250,000 canvases per annum. With the addition of the third printer, ESP will be able to output 350,000 canvases a year.
‘We bought the Canon Colorado rather than any other printer out there because we’ve found something that really works for us,’ said Simon Smogur, CEO of ESP Group.
‘There’s nothing like it out there in the market. It scores top marks for everything: capital costs, running costs, reliability, quality and speed. People have asked why we haven’t invested in a larger faster industrial printer, but then I’d have a single point of failure, and also if I ever needed it, I know Canon’s service is second to none. So, no, thank you.’
The new Colorado has been added ‘seamlessly’ to the existing production workflow and is operated by the same staff who use the existing Canon machines, so no further training or recruitment were necessary.
‘The gifting market is very competitive, and so the Colorados run 24/7 in peak periods. We leave them printing unattended overnight when no one is here. With some machines, you can’t trust that you’d not get breakdowns and issues, but the opposite is true for the Canon Colorado, which makes the running of these machines very cost effective,’ added Mr Smogur.
The prints are made on UFabrik Canvas Textile, also sourced from CMYUK. Made from 100% polyester, this has a bright white print surface that is compatible with UV and latex inks and has a dual coating that is said to bring superior colour results.
Mr Smogur noted, ‘We’ve looked at lots of canvas materials and took it upon ourselves to compare UFabrik to several other products. We found that UFabrik’s colour reproduction was noticeably more vibrant than the others. Also, when you stretch printed canvas onto a frame, the stretcher bars can poke through on the corners, and where the print wraps over, a white line can appear, but not with UFabrik.’
Find out more about the Canon Colorado printer series here and printing on canvas here.
This article was published before by digitalprintermag.co.uk.