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Out of the darkness and gloom of the recession springs a story of innovation and inspiration. Di-Sub Express Limited, is a specialist printer of polyester fabric for promotional purposes and was formed in May 2009.
A start-up business, their strategic aim was to fill a gap in a niche market to produce full colour printed products traditionally sourced from suppliers in the Far East. Products such as lanyards, security passes and wristbands. In addition, they aimed to produce and deliver these products with a parity of price and at the same time improve the choice and quality of product and, as their name suggests, with an express delivery performance.
Managing director Rob Gale explains how the idea came about; “Through an associated company we were receiving an increasing number of enquiries from customers requiring the quality of a ‘Dye Sub’ product with express, i.e. less than one week, delivery. At this time the industry standard was typically offering three or four. This prompted a feasibility study to set up a manufacturing operation in the UK to fulfill this need. The figures stood up and here we are several months later, up and running and on plan to meet our first year goals. With major events including the London 2012 Olympics approaching we were further convinced there was an opportunity for a UK mainland business to offer a more responsive service, much lower purchasing risk, from a shorter supply-chain and consequent reduced carbon footprint.”
After much searching for a printer to meet these specialist needs, they settled on the Mutoh DFS900 PRO. DFS900 PRO printers incorporate a new generation "Wide Model" print head (4 colour sections, 360 nozzles/colour), which enables the highest resolution at 2880 dpi should it be required. Running at 600dpi the printer is capable of 9sq metres per hour that makes it highly suited to a production graphics environment.
Rob Gale continues; “We wanted to keep our investment point low, being a start up company, but also knew that once we had a proven business model, we could invest further if and when the demand requires us to. Currently the DFS900 PRO is coping well with the demand and we know that should we wish to drive to double our capacity at any point, our expansion costs are minimal. The other added benefit of this machine is the low ongoing running cost, giving us a better return on our investment from day one.”
UK supplier of the Mutoh DFS900 PRO and MD of DCP Systems, Darren Walker comments; “This printer is ideal for a whole host of market places, not just the graphics or digital textile arena but also because of its really high resolution (up to 2880dpi) it’s also suited to CAD, mapping, GIS and engineering applications. We recommended this printer in particular to Di-Sub Express because of the low cost of entry it provided into this very niche UK market in addition to the high density ink and production speeds that they needed in order to cope with the volume orders that this industry is known for.”
The Dye Sublimation process is achieved by firstly digitally printing fine detail graphics and text onto paper. The image is then transferred from the paper onto a polyester material by heat as a gas. It becomes embedded as a solid image that is smooth, finely detailed and cannot be removed or damaged.
These attributes make dye sublimation the first choice for high quality products such as promotional and identification lanyards where a long lifecycle and durablility is required, at a cost that is competitive to other methods of reproduction.
Di-Sub Express Limited also produces full colour fabric wristbands in the UK for events and festivals. Fabric wristbands are becoming increasingly popular, particularly for large open air festivals and other major events. Over other more conventional methods, they offer long-term durability with a high level of security, whilst being more comfortable to wear for longer periods of time. Full colour (CMYK) fine detail and design that only dye sublimation can provide, is reproduced on 15 mm wide polyester cloth tape. Total security is provided by the aluminium seal, which prevents transfer and misuse once applied with a custom hand-tool. With all production and assembly controlled at their secure UK base, the risk of counterfeiting is considerably reduced by the short supply-chain.
www.disubexpress.co.uk
Tel. 01483 201004
For more information on the Mutoh DFS900 PRO www.dcp-systems.co.uk
Tel. 0114 2573640
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