Monica Print purchases HP Latex 530 from GAMART

Photo L-R Adam Faraguna, Aran Kilpatrick, Guarav Kumar, James Gleeson, Sonam Raheja, Mark Mcinnes 

Already enjoying accolades for one of the most innovative Visual Impact stands – with a vintage record shop feel where the faux album sleeves accommodate the distributor’s extensive consumable range – Graphic Art Mart was also one of the show’s stand-out performers when it came to selling products off its stand: Adelaide-based Monica Print the latest show-purchasing customer, investing in a new HP Latex R530.

Guarav Kumar, Owner of Monica Print Group says: “We’ve been using an HP 365 for the last five years, and never had a problem, so when the time came to upgrade, the brand choice was a no brainer. I think the machines sell themselves; but for us it’s also about the people who are selling them and we have been working together with the GAMART team for a very long time now – it’s like an extension of our family – and the sales service and technical support we get from them is excellent.”

The HP Latex R530 accommodates boards up to 1.6m wide with a maximum media thickness of 5cm, while delivering indoor printing speeds up to 24m²/hr. It features large 3-litre ink cartridges for both colours and white, and supports a single roll weighing up to 55 kg.

Aran Kilpatrick, Business Development Manager Graphic Art Mart. who sold the machine explains: “Monica Print had a couple of older slower machines, one a flatbed and one roll to roll, and the business had grown to a size where they could upgrade their technology. This is a hybrid roll to roll and flatbed machine which obviously requires less space compared to running two machines, so it is more environmentally friendly and more economical, giving Monica Print greater capacity to support their ongoing business growth.”

Another ‘hot’ product that enjoyed Visual Impact success for GAMART, was the newly launched Summa F1625 Vantage cutter, with both Connecting Brands ands Melbourne-based printer Printrade snapping one up. For Paul Ilieski, Manager at Printrade, the story was similar to that of Monica Print, in so much as he already operates two of the large format Summa S3-160TC cutters to support his Canon Production Printer workflow. Paul explains: “It helps to have familiarity in and confidence with a brand, and we’re confident that with this new Summa cutter we can help our customers achieve even more productivity benefits.”

For Connecting Brands MD Jason Thompson, the Summa purchase was more specific: “We do a lot of road sign contracts and Class 1 reflective work for emergency vehicles, so this new Summa will help with that immensely – and we’ve got a lot of shopfronts and work like that happening as well and this machine is not a tool that just does one job – it’s going to drive plenty of efficiencies on the floor when it comes to our productivity.”

Elsewhere on the busy GAMRT stand, Kwik-Kopy Pitt Street snapped up a new Mimaki UJ330H-160 hybrid UV printer, a highly versatile entry-level printer, capable of switching from roll-to-roll to rigid applications, which was one of the show’s product highlights, both on distributor stands like GAMART and on Mimaki Australia’s own stand where two of the products were running adjacent to each other, to enable customers to see both applications at once.

Operating fluidly behind all of its product noise, GAMART’s The Edit concept quietly drew in the crowds and enabled customers to browse through any number of album covers that were showcasing new releases like Avery Dennison’s Ultima Plus and Coloured paint protection films, the ten additional colours in the Arlon Premium Colour Change range, Nekoosa wall and floor films, Siser DTF film and EX-CEL PVC foamboard, as well as the latest offerings from Utopia, 3M, ASLAN, Nufoam and Nuflute.

And as if this wasn’t enough ingenuity for one supplier to showcase, the entire stand, including shelving, product displays and larger structural elements, was made out of Xanita-engineered fibreboard using direct-to-board printing, built specifically to show the material’s print quality and structural capability at scale.