HP today announced that Leicester-based print service provider, Greenshires, has proved to be a headline act for heavy metal icons, Iron Maiden, with vibrant drum wraps printed on the company's HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press.

Greenshires, one of the UK's largest producers of sophisticated marketing materials and solutions, has added the quirky application to the arsenal of print jobs it undertakes, which has become a big hit with a leading maker of high-end drum sets, Premier Music International Limited.

This saw Greenshires selected to print special-edition Iron Maiden "Ed Til I'm Dead" drum wraps for Premier, which the company produced on the HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press using POP34 mode for close-view applications. In total, 500 sets of 11 drum wraps, totalling approximately 1000m² (10,800 ft²) of printing, were produced in about five working days.

Premier was so happy with the results it has since been ordering other drum wraps fromGreenshires on a regular basis.

"We were most impressed with the level of consistency in the finished result," comments Colin Tennant, marketing manager at Premier. "The turnaround time is exceptionally fast but the quality does not suffer for it. And, the fact Premier can order wraps based upon actual orders rather than forecasting is also a benefit in itself."

Another fan of Greenshires' drum wraps is Nicko McBrain, the Iron Maiden drummer. The wraps are exactly the same as those used on Nicko's tour kit for the four Iron Maiden world tours.

According to Greenshires sales manager, Marc Wolfe, the company's earlier upgrade of the HP Scitex FB7500 to use HP FB225 Scitex Inks proved instrumental in its ability to take on the new creative drum wrap application.

"When printing drum wraps, the challenge is ensuring the ink adheres without cracking on the PETG substrate," explains Wolfe. "With our previous machine, we could not get the ink to adhere; but with the HP Scitex FB7500 and the new inks, we had the confidence to try again. Through R&D we came up with the idea of 'reverse printing' on the back of the media. This prevents the drum wraps from getting scratched with extensive or rough use." 

The six-colour UV-curable HP FB225 Scitex Ink set also provides excellent dot gain and an impressive colour gamut up to 600dpi resolution.

"We wouldn't have been in the market for the drum wraps job without the HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press," adds Wolfe. "The ink adherence and advanced digital printing capabilities made it possible for us to innovate and solve the challenges."

In addition to PETG for drum wraps, the HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press enablesGreenshires to print digitally on a wide range of media up to 25mm (1in) thick, including  EB Flute corrugated cardboard for free standing display units (FSDUs); as well as PVC for pop-up banners, foamex for exhibition graphics and fabric for seat covers at exhibitions.

"The HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press opens doors for us," continues Wolfe. "We can now print on almost any media while confidently offering better quality, quicker turnaround and more competitive prices, even with the most challenging projects."

Beyond drum wraps, the HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press, which offers throughput of 105 standard size 120 x 240cm (47 x 94in) sheets per hour, has played a leading role atGreenshires for some time. Wolfe sees digital printing as the future, and points out the advantages of being able to upgrade the HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press as the company's digital printing needs grow.

"We chose this press because of its speed and quality," says Wolfe. "Our expectations were fully borne out and we're winning new business because of it. Our screen press is less utilized, but the HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press is working non-stop."

In addition to upgrading the inks, Greenshires also added the HP Scitex FB7500/FB7600 Multi-sheet Loader Kit, improving productivity with simultaneous loading of up to four sheets.

"We're delighted with the speed and productivity of the press," concludes Wolfe. "The operators find the press easy to use. The loading is absolutely super and the speed is superior."

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