Bex Design are the 1st in the country to get creative with the new UV Digital Mimaki JFX flatbed UV printer


Nestled in the heart of Wiltshire, family owned print company, Bex Design Services Ltd continue to thrive in a tough economic climate through their dual commitment to investment in technology and by delivering a quality product to their expanding customer base.

With a geographically and product diverse customer base, Bex Design employ 32 people and export to the likes of Poland, the USA, France and China - bucking an industry trend of importing through the global appeal of their ISO 9001:2008 quality accreditation.

Their core products lie in the graphical overlay market - the production of the fascia panels that users of electrical products interact with, yet rarely give any thought to their creation. Always a reverse print to a clear substrate, these have to be robust and accurately registered and were traditionally screen printed in limited colours. Now, with their recent investment of a grand format Mimaki JFX-1631 LED UV printer, Bex are able to massively improve the creative content of their work, reduce their lead times and wow their customer base. The investment in the new Mimaki came about after some extensive testing of alternative flatbed units and various tests on different media.
The benefits of LED UV technology
The cold cure technology utilised by the Mimaki JFX enables Bex Design to output to substrates that are heat sensitive, and under traditional UV curing lamps are prone to bowing and buckling - often resulting in head strikes that can be costly in terms of time, materials and potential hardware damage. The other vital facet of the solution is Mimaki's unique flexible inkset. Produced in partnership with 3M, the flexible nature and excellent adhesion of the ink allows Bex to print, cut, hydroform and emboss to create stunning final products with many production stages removed.

Board is also impressed by the quality of the machine. "The print from other UV machines was grainy and with visible banding. Mimaki's flexible ink took us into a whole different ball game."

"If we tried to guillotine foam core boards printed on standard UV cure printers, the ink just fractured. The print on the JFX keys, doesn't mark and guillotines perfectly"

Choosing the Mimaki JFX
"The flexible ink is the holy grail for us," said Board. "It works for almost all our applications, but what surprised me most was the quality of adhesion to other substrates. The variation of media we can print to; foam core trade work, point of sale items that are produced direct to the board; and the adhesion on foam core has been superb. When embossing the graphic overlay panels, it's the only digital ink type that's worked."

Beating the 'two shades of grey' syndrome
Because the standard screen print model costs print jobs on the number of colours used, the norm for graphic overlay panels has been what Board refers to as 'two shades of grey'. With his investment in the Mimaki, he intends to turn that on its head. "It was always about the quality and fine detail.'' remarked Board. "For us, it's bespoke, low volume work where quality is paramount."

Active promotion of how their capabilities have improved is leading Bex's marketing. Gone are the days where unexciting graphics ruled the roost. For the same price, his customers can have highly creative multi colour overlays that incorporate their true logo, a build up of imagery, drop shadows and so on. "It doesn't matter how it's achieved," says Board, "It's the potential for improving their product. The swaying factor in our investment was that I knew I could sell this very quickly."

Getting bigger, not just better
"The Mimaki JFX has added a few strings to our bow," Board continues, "We're really pushing the larger format rigid work. By supplying our existing customers with new products, they can consolidate their supplier base - plus it protects our position too."

Bex were previously constrained by 60" x 40" screen printing in process colours - but now can offer much larger short run work with their JFX. Point of sale onto foam board can then be routed on one of their two machines, and harking back again to the advantages of the cold cure technology employed by the Mimaki, Board laughs; "It's a lovely machine to print the foamboard with, because you're not cooking it!"

"The UV cold cure lets us produce a fine tonal image that won't scuff or mark and is stable under the lamp. Other UV printers we've tried gave us warped ends, with the head often hitting the substrate - we've had none of that with the JFX."

Full service
In spite of their substantial investment in digital, Bex Design still maintain an impressive screen print capability with manual and semi automatic machines producing volume work that still benefits from a screen printed finish. In addition to their printing capabilities, Bex also offer a manufacturing skill too, as Board points out; "We're not just a print house - we try and do as much as we can for the client. "

Keeping a creative edge
Bex Design's new website has examples of their current work, news pages and a blog - all designed to entice new customers into investing in digital print. Board's vision is further expansion; "We've come through a difficult year. Investing in two new machines has given us a head start on our competitors, that was the mindset we had for 2009. Get through it, survive - or even thrive as we have done, then get set for 2010 with a vengeance! My dream is further digital expansion. We've got a creative edge that I want to keep for as long as possible."