Discount Displays pick-up first HP Scitex FB500 in UK

The first HP FB500 flatbed printer, launched this year at IPEX, has been sold into the UK market by award-winning HP reseller and large format specialists City & West End Solutions. Croydon-based print business Discount Displays purchased the new flatbed as a result of seeing the machine in action at CWE’s demonstration facility in Nottingham.

Discount Displays had previously been experimenting on an older machine and were pleased with the opportunities that the UV technology could offer their business. The decision was then made to source a true production machine that not only delivered high production volume at high quality but was also built to withstand all the rigours of a busy print facility. The FB500 satisfied all the requirements Discount Displays put forward, and more.

Giles Fletcher, General Manager says, “Not only were we extremely impressed with the ease of set-up and use of the machine in the demonstration, the colour vibrancy was of a standard we’d never seen before. The high production speed is down to the way it moves the media through, showing that HP has truly researched and delivered on what their customer wants.”

This new entry-level flatbed brings white-ink to a low-volume machine and described as a smaller version of the FB950. The aim of the smaller footprint was to enables new applications for the smaller printers and sign shops that may not have thought flat-bed technology was a viable investment. The 1.6m-wide machine can handle 6.4cm-thick media and has an optional roll-to-roll kit and speed ranges from 5sqm/hr in photo mode to 37sqm/hr for express mode.

Fletcher continues, “City & West End Solutions were a major part of our decision to buy as we have had a brilliant relationship with this supplier for many years and have bought all of our HP products from them. We have never been let down by their sales or after sales service and when making an investment in new technology such as this, we have the comfort of their experience and skill backing us all the way.”