Elgin International eliminates production bottlenecks with VeloBlade Nexus 2516 from Soyang

Surrey-based Elgin International has said its recent investment in a new VeloBlade Nexus 2516 from Soyang Hardware has helped eliminate bottlenecks within its production line and also opened up opportunities for expansion into additional markets.

Elgin designs, builds, installs and manages exhibition stands and live events in regions around the world, working directly with clients from the design phase through to implementation, as well as building booths on behalf of agencies. As part of this, the company has its own in-house graphics production facility to support its own offering as well as other stand builders with their graphics requirements.

As the volume of its work increased, Elgin identified shortfalls in its ability to produce the graphics it needed and went in search of a machine that could increase production capacity while maintaining the fast turnaround times.

“We found traditional graphics facilities could not support the quick turnaround that exhibition and event graphics requires, so started exploring machines to pick up the shortfalls that we found with our current setup,” said Joshua Bingham, Project Manager at Elgin. “We chose to work with Soyang Hardware and decided on the VeloBlade Nexus 2516.”

A wide-format digital die cutter with a bed size of 2,500mm x 1,600mm, combined with a CNC router, the VeloBlade system enables users to work with stocks up to 25mm in thickness, including Dibond, MDF and acrylic. Customers also benefit from an automatic tool changer and cut depth setting, both of which increase setup and operating speed.

Elgin took delivery of the new machine in February and has already reported a marked improvement in production, most notably the elimination of troublesome bottlenecks and the speed at which it can now deliver work to customers.

“When we purchased the VeloBlade, the idea wasn’t to change the work we were doing, but to speed it up and reduce the manual handling and trimming that we were doing up until that point,” Josh said. “The VeloBlade has done precisely that. With all trimming now done on the VeloBlade, it leaves us more time to work on other things.

“It has also reduced the amount of wastage, eliminating the need for ‘extras’ in cases where the product is either cut wrong or damaged during the finishing process, and the ability to batch more jobs together than we were previously able to.”

On top of this, Josh said that the machine has opened the company’s eyes to opportunities in new markets, with Elgin now planning out how it can diversify and expand its offering to clients.

“The VeloBlade has shown areas where we were missing a trick,” Josh said. “The ability to process such a huge range of materials with one machine has inspired lots of ideas within the company and we look forward to exploring how those ideas flourish and seeing what they turn into.”

While the production attributes of the machine were a key selling point for Josh and the Elgin team, he noted how the price point of the VeloBlade was lower than alternative machines, despite having a wider range of features than comparable solutions on the market.

“We explored the more expensive options and found that in a similar fashion to buying a car, you were paying for the ‘badge’, and in fact the core functionality of the machine was similar to – or at times worse than – the more cost-effective options,” Josh said.

“The final deciding factor was the flexibility of both Soyang and Vivid regarding the installation of the machine. Our workshop has a small set of double doors, but they came and did a site visit, planned it all out and got the machine installed with very little hassle.

“I have no doubt in my mind that the VeloBlade was the right choice. It sits in the perfect price bracket and has all the capabilities a medium to large graphics production facility could need.”