The 25-staff business, which is based in the suburb of Campbellfield, was already a loyal SBL customer, running a 2003 model diecutter as well as an SBL guillotine and an SBL window facer.

The new Smooth 106, the first of its kind on the country, will diecut work produced on MIG’s 40-inch Komori Lithrone.

The machine has been optioned with an array of extras including a ‘thin plate system’, which makes makereadies times on existing jobs “very quick”.

“Instead of using a common cutting plate for every job, we put a thin 1mm shim on it, which has our makeready on it,” said MIG’s manager, Shane Gilligan (pictured left).

He said the investment was driven by a need to boost capacity but reduce shifts. “We would much prefer to be running just one shift. Previously we only had one 40-inch cutter in this size format and it was running seven days a week, with two shifts for five of those days. We never had a breakdown but if it had broken down, it would’ve out us in all sorts of trouble.

“So this puts us back to one shift and we won’t have to stress if we have a breakdown. It also increases our capacity. We were struggling with one machine and this has taken the pressure off,” he added.

Gilligan said he was happy to stick with the Taiwanese brand. “In 2003, we bought one of their 105s and it has been really good. We haven’t had a breakdown on the old one since it was put in; it has 20,000 hours on it and we have never had to bring their engineers out.”

Neil Southerington, from local distributor Graffica, said: “MIG needed additional capacity to cope with the company’s growth. Shane first thoughts were for another SBL-1050SE to compliment the machine he had already.

“However the extra features and overall improved performance led to the installation of the first Smooth 106 in Australia.”

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