Pure Point of Sale Flies High With DYSS X7 Digital Die Cutter

Some 75 years after the father and founder of the Jet Engine, Sir Frank Whittle, formed his Power Jets Ltd. company in Lutterworth - another company is taking-off with its business. Working out of the same building where the foundation block of the jet aviation industry was born, Pure Point of Sale Ltd. has seen its sales and growth soar in its first five years.
It all started for Pure in 2009 when two long term friends, Russell Murch and Liam Gibbs, Managing Director and Sales Director respectively, decided their backgrounds and industry contacts would be a great basis for a print and POS business.

Like Sir Frank Whittle, the partners started from humble beginnings - purchasing a Roland digital printer from eBay and running the business from a conservatory. Just five years on and Pure has premises boasting 20,000 sq ft, employs 20 staff and anticipates a turnover of £1.5m in the next 12 months.
This success comes from a partnership that combines Mr Murch’s extensive background in the print production industry and Mr Gibbs’ experience as a retail designer specialising in POS/POP with the likes of Tesco, Homebase, and George - the clothing subsidiary of the Wall-Mart (Asda) Group. After Mr Gibbs moved on from working at George to his current position, Pure quickly became a trusted supplier for the retail giant. Pure now supplies corrugated and displayboard POS products, from dumpbins, standees and FSDUs (Free Standing Display Units) to shelf-ready packaging to all of George's 400+ UK outlets as well as many of the company's international franchise partners.
To accommodate the continuous growth, Pure has invested heavily in staff and state of the art equipment. The latest acquisition being a DYSS X7-3216C Digital Cutter from AG/CAD that arrived at the end of October.

Why Buy a Digital Die Cutter?
For Pure, the selection of the DYSS was initially made out of necessity. The company is growing year-on-year and it needed a high-speed digital die cutting machine to underpin its growth. The Lutterworth company already had an KM626A cutting table from AG/CAD but this was struggling to keep up with increased production demands. As the company has grown and invested in large format digital print equipment, it has expanded the product ranges it handles for its blue chip clients and this has created a requirement for increased capacity, larger products, and the ability to process more varied substrates.
Why Choose the DYSS?

The decision to opt for the DYSS cutting machine was many-fold. Firstly, Pure already had a cutting table from AG/CAD and the reliability and service has been excellent. Mr Murch takes up the story: "The existing AG/CAD table has been remarkably well supported in the four years that we've had it and this is always a key factor for any manufacturing facility. We've developed a great relationship with AG/CAD and we've been impressed with the cutter, but now our requirements have outstripped its capabilities. Another factor in our selection process was the KASEMAKE CAD software from AG/CAD. We've been using the software for four years and it’s been an exceptional design and sales tool for us.”

Despite AG/CAD already wowing the company with its reliability, service and KASEMAKE software, it was by no means a 'done deal'. As Mr Murch recalls: "We had to investigate the market for alternative options and we looked at all the leading suppliers. However, the very large cutting size, high quality and robust build, powerful cutting tools, impressive cutting speeds and the upgraded KASEMAKE software really did seal the deal. Not only that, but AG/CAD also listened to our requirements and adapted the DYSS to suit our specific needs. No other supplier was willing or able to do this."

What Advantages Has The DYSS Brought to Pure Point of Sale?
As Pure has grown, so has its plant list and complementing their traditional screen print equipment a two year old EFI VUTEk QS3200 UV cure direct-to-substrate printer with a 3.2m width flatbed as well as roll to roll has added digital print capabilies. Printing up to 3.2m caused a cutting issue for Pure, as it couldn't fit 3.2m jobs on its original cutting table. By installing a DYSS X7 flatbed digital cutter with a 3.2m wide by 1.6m cutting bed, a production flow has been created whereby large print jobs can be transferred straight from the VUTEk to the DYSS.

On top of enabling prototyping of much larger jobs, the DYSS has been able to reduce the lead-times for lower volume production jobs. As Mr Gibbs continues: "We now use the DYSS for POS production runs that we would have had to use our die cutter for. That previously entailed having die formes produced externally at a cost and lead-time that would hinder our turnaround times and disrupt the through-flow of our work schedules.”

With a plant list that will shortly include a HP Scitex FB7600 printer with a 3.2m by 1.6m flatbed, the DYSS will comfortably accommodate the output from both machines. At Pure’s request AG/CAD also customised the rear sheet feeder to allow 3 sheets of board to be loaded and processed at once for optimum productivity.

What Are The Cost Benefits With The DYSS?
The remarkable power and cutting speed of the new DYSS X7 enables Pure to process small production runs of up to a few hundred on the machine cost effectively without sourcing die formes. As Mr Gibbs enthuses: "At a cost of £200+ for a die, the monthly cost would vary depending upon workload. As a conservative estimate, we would spend upwards of £1,500 each month on dies. This has now been cut by at least £1,000 a month thanks to the DYSS. In addition, we don't have the associated lead-time issues with sourcing dies. With some existing jobs where we already have formes, we will continue to use these, but all new jobs go on the DYSS."

"Despite only being installed a few weeks, we can already see the huge cost benefits of installing the DYSS, whilst the ability to cut short runs digitally has improved our lead-times and reduced set-up costs. We are delighted with the benefits the X7 machine has brought in a few short weeks and undoubtedly we'll continue to benefit immensely as time progresses" concludes Mr Gibbs.