The first Eagle digital printer has been installed at Concorde Graphics in London where it has a busy life ahead of it. Designed and built by Inca Digital Printers in Cambridge, UK and distributed by Sericol Imaging, it is a large format
flatbed printer, which uses four colour (CMYK) UV curing inks and the latest piezo inkjet technology.

Concorde Sales Director, David Boris, first saw the Eagle in December 2000 and was soon back in Cambridge with his own images doing tests to confirm the suitability of the machine for his workload.

'I was impressed by the repeatability of the print quality and colour,' said David, 'It copes well with graphics and text, printing directly onto a variety of rigid and flexible materials. It can also print edge to edge eliminating the need for finishing.'

This is the first Eagle to go to the commercial printing market, but it will quickly be followed by a number of others, in the UK and in Europe, as Inca steps up production faster than it had originally planned.

'Concorde is just the sort of company we had envisaged using the Eagle', said Heather Kendle, Marketing Manager at Inca. 'They already had digital printers, but were looking for a machine that would complement its existing technology. The flatbed can print materials up to 40mm thick and the Sericol UV inks provide adhesion on a wide variety of materials, offering good print quality for short to medium run lengths. The Wasatch RIP handles large and complex files with ease, making the Mac operator's task simple, and the print queue system means that the printer can change easily between jobs, even printing just one image in the middle of another print run, if required.'

The Eagle is already producing eye-catching images for Concorde's customers. The Liberty building in London's Regent Street was decorated with these boards printed as one of Concorde's first orders. Wraps of this type are normally printed in one large piece that can make for a cumbersome installation. The Liberty job was printed on 2.4m x 1.6m lightweight plastic boards and assembled as a simple jigsaw. As well as simplicity of installation, one clear advantage of this production method is that damage to a small area can be easily replaced at low cost.