Wilmot-Budgen Secures UK Market-first with Agfa Onset Panthera

Wilmot-Budgen, the family-owned production specialist working with the UK’s top brands and retailers to design, produce and install high quality, innovative display solutions, has secured a UK market-first with the acquisition of an Onset Panthera flatbed digital inkjet press from Agfa.

The only true flatbed high-productivity inkjet printer in the market, combining a heavy duty build for 24/7 printing with impressive productivity and print quality consistency, this versatile printer tackles sign and display, as well as packaging jobs, on a wide range of materials.

Richard Budgen, Managing Director of Wilmot-Budgen, said: “We are a long-term fan of the Onset platform, and have been hanging on to see where LED would head. Agfa’s significant investment in R&D in recent years has seen the technology accelerate and the time was right for us to secure the advantages LED will bring as we build our new bespoke print facility.

“This investment will see us gain significant speed and productivity benefits, as well as further boost our print quality. And, with the Panthera’s significant energy reduction performance, we are keeping our brand, retailer, and print management customers front of mind supporting them to meet their sustainability goals, as well as reducing our waste and costs.”

“Today’s market is highly competitive. We need to be continually upping our game differentiating our offer and service. The Panthera enables us to produce products with a wider colour gamut and different finishes, which offers valuable upsell for our business. On top of this we have the reassurance of working with a dedicated partner. Agfa is in a unique position; it produces the machine, inks, software and service to support us – one supplier to solve any issues. We get the quality, consistency and reliability we need in one package to support our future growth.”

The design of the Onset Panthera FB3216 flatbed press offers customers four major benefits. First, it is equipped with LED modules that lower the risk of print bed and media deformation creating better image quality, as well as more curing power for better color reproduction. Faster start up is also achieved minimizing downtime and material waste.

Second, new faster high gloss modes are achieved by delayed curing to boost productivity, and third, a wider color gamut is secured. Finally, energy savings of up to 60% are predicted, when compared to UV bulb curing during printing, and reach more than 80% in standby mode.

Paul Fitch, Head of Inkjet UK, Ireland & Nordic at Agfa said: “We are delighted to see that Wilmot-Budgen has made this investment, as they have been using Onset products for many years and know the range inside out. Their acknowledgement of the leap forwards that the Panthera represents versus its predecessors demonstrates our commitment to innovation and driving this technology forward.”

For more information on Agfa’s Panthera flatbed digital printer, please visit https://www.agfa.com/printing/products/onset-panthera/