Today we made a visit to Evolution Print, which is a printing specialist based in Sheffield City Centre. It is named as a premier printing house and the company is headed by Jonathan Newbould & Graham Congrieve. The print shop employs 38 people. They work for clients of gigantic range and for a wide variety of projects, aiming to provide the highest quality of print. Their print equipment includes:
- Five Colour & Coating Unit (Infra-red Drying) Heidelberg Speedmaster XL75 B2 – Image area 700 x 500mm
- Five Colour Komori B1 Lithrone with PQC and Coating Unit (Infra-red Drying) – Image area 700 x 1000mm
- A3 Heidelberg GTO Offset Machine – Image area 300 x 430mm
- Ricoh Pro C751 Digital Press – Image area 297x420mm
- Ricoh Pro C901 Digital Press – Image area 297x420mm
- HP Designjet Z6200 Photo Printer
The company also caters for other print finishing purposes as well such as folding, cutting and collating.
The tour around the warehouse proved very interesting; we got to see the printing process of the Heidelberg Speedmaster whiich is one of the largest and most expensive printers in the world. The printer produces high glossy prints and can print over 3000 pieces per hour. The paper is loaded using a forklift and once the printing is complete the same heavy stacks of paper are taken to be laser cut.
We also learnt about the custom cutting machine, in which custom shapes can be created using foam mounts and thin blades. Designs are fed through the machine and the custom shapes are cut out; it can be used for designs that require a finished shape other than a rectangle.
Pantone colour charts are also used when communicating with clients. Just like choosing a colour of paint, the Pantone colour book shows the correct colour of certain combinations of ink. A client can select a specific colour and these amounts can manually be entered into the printer so that the correct shades are produced.
This visit was really valuable to me as it made me think more about the printing process and its complications, but also what amazing technology is available to achieve the print required. It also taught me about the value of high quality prints, and made me consider the fact that high quality prints are important to the status and professionalism of a company.
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