Hickling & Squires completes the first UK installation of the Konica Minolta AccurioJet 30000 B2 inkjet press to bridge the gap between litho and digital printing.
Nottingham-based print and communications provider Hickling & Squires has completed the first UK installation of the Konica Minolta AccurioJet 30000 B2 inkjet press. The capital investment forms a central part of the company’s long-term production strategy to bridge the operational gap between its offset litho and digital toner output.
The arrival of the B2 sheetfed UV inkjet press follows a wider restructuring of the production floor, which involved retiring older lithographic equipment to establish a more agile technology mix. The AccurioJet 30000 has been integrated into a diversified fleet that includes wide-format flatbed and reel-to-reel systems, alongside four existing Konica Minolta digital toner presses. By deploying the new B2 platform, the company can now handle mid-volume, short-run commissions that were previously inefficient to run on either litho or smaller digital devices.
To prepare for the installation, Hickling & Squires constructed a dedicated 9m by 16m climate-controlled production environment. Featuring integrated air conditioning and humidity management systems, the custom cleanroom facility was completed over a five-week period.
Jamie Gilbert, Production Director at Hickling & Squires, said, ‘Customers are getting a better-quality result, and we can now produce on a wider range of substrates, including plastics and fabrics, at a much bigger scale.’
The press allows the business to offer faster turnaround times and reduced material waste across its core markets, which include the hospitality, education, leisure, and corporate brand sectors. Daily work handled by the machine encompasses booklets, menus, letterheads, and specialised short-run items requiring consistent colour accuracy and litho-level output quality.
Mark Bladon, Major Accounts Sales Specialist for Industrial Printing at Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Ltd, stated, ‘Jamie and the team needed to upgrade the litho equipment, but instead of simply replacing like-for-like, he recognised that a lot of his short-run work needed litho-level quality but with more flexibility. The AccurioJet 30000 delivers exactly that – a B2 inkjet platform that sits perfectly between litho and digital.’
With the press now in full commercial production, the firm intends to continue adjusting its equipment stable to keep pace with changing market trends.
Gilbert added, ‘We always follow the trend. If we’re doing something regularly and it makes sense to bring it in-house, we do it. Right now, the focus is on fine-tuning this new inkjet press and then we’ll keep building from there.’