The new record has been set with a 55x59m print of Bollywood film star and producer Akshay Kumar, which was unveiled and verified by an adjudicator from Guinness World Records and an independent surveyor, at an airfield local to Macro Art. The poster was printed on 36 PVC mesh panels, each measuring 5m x 18m, using an EFI GS5000 UV machine. The panels were then welded together using an FIAB high frequency table (Macro Art has in the past produced a larger, 90m x 60m Paralympics print, but this didn’t qualify for a Guinness World Record as it was assembled as separate panels. Over 40 staff were needed to help fold and lift the 1.4 tonne poster onto a specially made pallet and 30 to unfurl it at the other end. A total of 250 ground pegs were needed to hold the print to the ground. The key challenge was handling of the poster, said Macro Art’s technical advisor Adam McMonagle. “It weighed over a tonne and so took a lot of people to move,” he said. “We had to fan fold it then fold it onto itself.” The poster took 30 hours to print, reported McMonagle, significantly less time than a job of this epic scale would have taken in the past. “You have to shut down all other work to print something of this size and that could have been an issue a few years ago when printing took longer. But with the speed of our EFI machine, it only took a weekend,” he said. The poster was commissioned by Akshay Kumar’s fan club Team Akshay and the production company of Kumar’s latest film The Boss. It has now been shipped to India to be used to publicise the film. “We are honored and thrilled to break the world record and make our idol Akshay Kumar proud of his ace fan club,” said Team Akshay in a statement. “The only aim…was we always wanted the world to see our idol on a larger than life canvas, just like his persona.” “I am grateful to my fans for this unique gesture which speaks volumes about their eternal love and support,” said Kumar. “God bless them all.” The record for the World’s Largest Movie Poster was previously held by Macro Art for a 52m x 52m Michael Jackson print. The poster, detailing the launch of the This Is It album following the singer’s death in 2009, was unveiled in a field near Heathrow to catch the attention of those flying in and out. Macro Art also holds the record for the World’s Largest Advent calendar, hung from one end of Birmingham city centre’s historic old Town Hall to the...

M Partners joint managing director Murray Lock said the company had spent the past year researching the market to find a machine that combined high-performance with low-production cost rather than just entering the market with a “me too” product. “Anyone can be a reseller in this market – that’s the easy bit,” he said. “The difficult bit is doing your homework to find a product that is going to add value and then identifying the right resellers – whether they’ve got specialist contacts or cover a specific sector – with no cross-over.” Key to the deal was DGI’s latest range of machines, launched at Fespa in London earlier this year, which use Konica Minolta’s KM1024MN printheads and includes the Velajet VE-3204D, a 3.2m wide eco-solvent printer capable of 120sqm/hr at 720x360dpi and with a maximum resolution of 1,440dpi. “We were looking for Japanese technology on a cheaper base – we represent Japanese products [in offset litho] and so we know how good the quality is and we do see a real opportunity in this sector for a high quality machine with low running costs,” he said. “Wide format is still growing but it is also becoming more competitive, so it’s not just the upfront cost of the machine that’s important, it’s going to start coming down to the cost per square metre.” At around £75,000 for the machine, the Velajet VE-3204D is similar in price to Mimaki’s JV5-320S (£86,995) and Lynx Europe’s Lynx 320PQ (€57,000). However Lock claimed that the production cost of the DGI machine, at £1/sqm, was around half the price of rival machines; he said the comparison was done using TimeHarvest’s software and based on ink usage. The Velajet VE-3204D is a four-colour machine, with eight printheads (2x CMYK) capable of printing 120sqm/hr in draft mode (720x360dpi), 60sqm/hr in production mode (720x720dpi), 45sqm/hr in quality mode (720x1080dpi) and 30sqm/hr in high quality mode (720×1,440dpi). Lock said M Partners Wide was in the process of appointing a reseller network and that it was “looking out for different products to cover a range of processes”. This will include a textile printer, also from DGI, and a UV machine, although Lock said the firm had yet to find the right solution for UV. DGI has previously had a UK distributor in Tamworth-based Grafityp, although it’s UK install base remains small relative to mainland Europe, where the bulk of its customers are in Italy, Spain, Portugal and France, according to Lock....

The tool, which is made by UK technology company ccDotmeter, combines a high-spec, off-the-shelf digital microscope with software from Centurfax. It allows users to measure the image on a plate and then calibrate the platesetter. In addition to being used in-house by Fujifilm’s plate specialists, the manufacturer recommends that its plate users purchase a dotmeter in order to check that their platesetter remains within tolerance. Fujifilm UK offset solutions product manager Sean Lane said: “Complex electro-mechanical equipment such as a platesetter does need checking regularly to ensure that the highest quality standards are still being maintained. “This is not a flaw in the plates or the imaging device. This is why printing standards such as ISO 12647-2 stipulate the need for a device to accurately measure plate creation equipment. “By investing a few hundred pounds in a MicroDot printers can save themselves a lot of expensive wasted time, spoilt print that goes in the bin, and annoyed customers. It’s a no brainer!” Paul Foster, sales director for ccDotmeter, said: “This is another great success for British software in the printing industry. Fujifilm is a company that focuses on print quality. “The microDot itself was thoroughly tested by Fujifilm both in the UK and at its Tilburg factory prior to Fujifilm Europe recommending the product to its subsidiary operations and dealerships.” The MicroDot is suitable for reading a wide range of plate types including Fujifilm’s Brillia HD PRO-T3 plate....

Benton, who was mistaken for a potato and a coconut – not to mention an altogether more intimate type of ‘nut’ – was in fact dressed as a walnut (allegedly) for his fund-raising feat. The press ancillaries expert ran alongside friend and testicular cancer-survivor Mike Deed and was one of 32 runners raising cash for Orchid at the Royal Parks Foundation half marathon last month. Benton was said to be the only one of the 32 crazy enough to wear the charity’s nut costumer in support of its message to men everywhere: “Check your nuts!” He finished in a very respectable time of 01:45:16 – ranking him in 2,597th place of the 16,000 runners who took part in the event. The fastest male time on the day was 01:09:07....

Benton, who was mistaken for a potato and a coconut – not to mention an altogether more intimate type of ‘nut’ – was in fact dressed as a walnut (allegedly) for his fund-raising feat. The press ancillaries expert ran alongside friend and testicular cancer-survivor Mike Deed and was one of 32 runners raising cash for Orchid at the Royal Parks Foundation half marathon last month. Benton was said to be the only one of the 32 crazy enough to wear the charity’s nut costumer in support of its message to men everywhere: “Check your nuts!” He finished in a very respectable time of 01:45:16 – ranking him in 2,597th place of the 16,000 runners who took part in the event. The fastest male time on the day was 01:09:07....