Imprimerie Baron & Fils has defied the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and successfully increased digital printing power and flexibility with an investment in Konica Minolta’s award-winning KM-1 Accurio-Jet technology.
Live printing started in May for the forward-thinking company, which completed 4-5 different jobs during training alone. Luxury brands, financial agencies and companies, trendy customers and the French national library are among clients of Baron & Fils now goes benefiting from the Konica Minolta AccurioJet KM-1 B2+ UV inkjet press that replaced an offset machine.
Crucial was Baron & Fils’ team support from Konica Minolta. The installation was the centrepiece of a major modernisation programme at the site in Clichy, in the suburbs of Paris, France, which had to be halted in mid-March due to the global coronavirus pandemic. It was completed two months later when restrictions were lifted and regulatory approvals obtained including cross-country border access.
Key reasons for investing in the Konica Minolta AccurioJet KM-1 included:
- Economics. The average run lengths for Baron & Fils are now 500-1500 sheets, with customers increasingly demanding personalization
Substrate flexibility. One of the most critical in the printer choice, enabling printing of a very wide range of substrates without precoating and to use same media as offset and even more.
- New opportunities. One new application involves textured, special material printing, particularly as it is scratch resistance and the ink quality is extremely high. Baron & Fils also wants to develop its own web-to-print business
- Faster response times. Digital jobs can now be completed within a day, with proofing and printing all done on the AccurioJet KM-1 with less waste, whereas offset work would typically take 3-4 days
- Frame technology. The AccurioJet KM-1 is simple to use, more productive and provides superior reliablility
- Quality / gamut. Reproduction of Pantone colors gives perfect matching – on one day alone 10 different substrates were successfully tested.
With the introduction of Konica Minolta’s AccurioJet KM-1, Baron & Fils will increasingly work directly with agencies, luxury brands and fashionable restaurants. Employing 10 people, Baron & Fils was formed in 1924 and has continually evolved to remain at the cutting edge of technological innovation.
