Hitec Enables Copytrax to Lead the World in Print Technology

Hitec - There from the start...
Since 1992, Cambridge company Copytrax Technology Ltd have been experts in data storage technology. When demand for on-CD printing began to emerge, Copytrax led the way in the development of this new era of printing equipment. Early designs were based on heavily modified desktop inkjet printers with Copytrax developing the necessary transport to move the CDs under the print head.
These early designs would print a low resolution image on a single disk in 5 minutes. Although, today that might seem slow, at the time it was a big step forward and enabled low volume production without the time and cost of the creation of films or screens and the necessary pre-press setting up of traditional methods. Hitec started working with Copytrax at this early stage, helping to develop and manufacture mechanical parts for Copytrax.


Copytrax carried on to develop ever more sophisticated CD printing machines and a highly successful UV coating machine called the 'Artcoater'. This machine provides a gloss coating over the top of the printed image and greatly enhances the visual impact and durability of the design.
Being automated it is able to process batches of CDs whilst unmanned. This machine continues to be shipped around the world and key to its success has been the high quality of the engineering and design. Once again, Hitec played a key role in its development and provides much of the mechanical content of this machine.

Other successful projects include a a CD printer design, especially developed for Seiko, that shipped in excess of 10,00 untits.

Today, Hitec and Copytrax work as closely as ever. Their most recent achievement has been 'Project37'. Project 37 not only prints up to 1200 disks per hour but can also provide UV coating and achieve very high quality print. Being fully automated, Project 37 can process large batch production with the minimum of supervision.

"Mechanically, Project37 is quite an achievement," said John Stevenson, Managing Director of Hitec. "In order to achieve the very high resolution printing and the rapid throughput that Copytrax were looking to achieve, the mechanical components had to be machined to very high tolerances. In addition to this, the chassis had to provide maximum stability, to avoid any risk of vibration that could spoil the print quality. There have been several challenges along the way but the final result is most impressive."

Supporting Development...
When the engineers at Copytrax first conceived of this project 3 years ago, they knew that being the first to market with this technology would assure them of commercial success. Once they had a working prototype and industry support, with the target date of the next main industry exhibition (Media Tech in Frankfurt), they set to work producing the first production machine within a 6 month window.

"Without Hitec's support, I don't think we could have made the deadline,” said Steve Woods, Managing Director of Copytrax. "During the development phase Hitec were very helpful and flexible. They understood our situation and worked hard to provide us with the mechanical parts we needed and were always very fast and accurate. In addition to this, Hitec proved to be a good supplier on a personal level, always welcoming the chance to meet and discuss the project's progress and understand the issues. I think between us, we have really shown that UK engineering can still lead the world when it comes to innovative technology."

Much of the mechanical development of Project 37 has been undertaken using 'SolidWorks', a leading computer aided design (CAD) software. Copytrax were able to create the necessary files and e-mail them over to Hitec knowing that Hitec's engineers and modern machine tools would be able to understand these files and be able to quickly turn these designs into accurate finished parts. Hitec's combination of CNC laser cutting, multi-spindle machine tools and extensive CNC sheet metal machine tools provided a comprehensive solution to every design that the Copytrax engineers were able to generate.


Understanding the commercial world and helping create success...

Now past the development stage, Hitec is providing Copytrax with high quality production parts for initial shipments of Project 37.

"On the production side of things, Hitec offer us a great service," said Steve Woods. "As we work in a very niche market, we never quite know when we'll be shipping machines.

To help us manage our business, Hitec hold stock of our parts, so that we can call them off, as and when we need them. This kind of support and flexibility has really helped us in terms of how we use our space and manage cashflow."


Both Hitec and Copytrax are proud of the fact that this machine represents the best of British innovation and they remain confident that Project 37 currently leads the world in digital print technology for the 'optical disk' industry.
Steve Woods of Copytrax (left) and John Stevenson of Hitec (right)


”The trend in the industry is towards lower batch sizes because outlets are looking to hold less stock and the actual CD/DVD content is increasingly subject to regular revision,” said Steve Woods. “Project 37 really addresses this shift in the market and will provide this level of flexibility for the first time. Another important trend is the emergence of High Definition DVD. This new media is far less robust than the current formats, so a low impact technology such as our inkjet approach might prove a critical factor in the overall success of Project 37."

Visit www.copytrax.com for more information on Copytrax. Visit www.project37.co.uk for more information on Project 37.