FIAUK Diamond Partner, Contact Originators, is celebrating after claiming gold at the prestigious Stationers’ Innovation Excellence Awards 2023.  

The company’s pioneering automated digital shim printing technology, PrintHQ, clinched the top honours in the Business Processes category, further solidifying Contact’s position as the gold standard in prepress innovation. 

The awards are presented by the Stationers’ Company, an organisation with over 600 years of history, that today includes nearly 1000 members. It serves as a hub for communications and content industry leaders to network, learn, share ideas, and collaborate on shaping the future of these industries. The awards seek to praise the best innovations from the world of printing, printing supplies, publishing, packaging, office products, promotion and communication.  

Bringing digital automation to a typically manual and time-consuming process for the first time, award-winning PrintHQ uses inkjet technology, developed in partnership with AV Flexologic, to deliver precise print job information directly onto the plate shim during mounting. This data can be accessed through a printed QR code that collates the relevant job recipe and information, and links to relevant online graphic support. The result is a more accurate and efficient plate mounting process, supported by a free flow of information from prepress to print.  

The judging panel said that PrintHQ showed a really impressive practical approach, with clear benefits in time, cost and energy savings for their customers. The range of KPIs was extensive, and a major step forward for the corrugated printing sector with its digitally traceable management of the shim mounting process. 

It’s the second time that Contact Originators has received top honours at the awards ceremony, held at the historic Stationers Hall in London. In 2019, the company was recognised for its Optimus plate technology, which delivers improved ink laydown and ink reduction in the corrugated print process.  

Click here to find out more about Contact Originators.