Charles Rayner Ltd, based in England, knows how to get ink on a dazzling range of substrates through the screen process and it has been around since the advent of digital printing. Charles Rayner’s recent work was done for Chiltern Rail, the rail franchise operator, and Porterbrook who supply it with trains, and included wrapping its latest 168 unit, a small, two-unit train popular on regional networks.
There is nothing much new about a 168, or at least 168s in general. The one that Charles Rayner’s team got to grips with though was a bit different. The result of visionary and pioneering development actioned in pursuit of Porterbrook’s environmental mission, the HybridFLEX 168 represents a notable advance for the rail industry and for the planet, whose citizens it transports. The HybridFLEX features a new, retrofitted Rolls Royce MTU hybrid power plant. The first of its type.
Charles Rayner has been providing graphics and livery to Chiltern Rail for many years and that relationship prompted Porterbrook to contact them for some basic labelling for the HybridFLEX ahead of its handover to the operator. The conversation got rolling pretty quickly and it wasn’t long before a train wrap befitting the revolutionary stature of the project was on the table and, shortly after that, a design was delivered to the team at Charles Rayner.
The team applied its skills in handling train wraps to the supplied design and turned it into a manageable project. They elected to use MetaWrap MD-X for the wrap’s production and this was laminated using MetaGuard 850RW, having first printed the wrap on an Epson printer. MetaWrap MD-X is a flagship material in Metamark’s MD-Class digital materials portfolio, and it is valued for its elongation tolerance and compliance with modern ink species. The chosen laminate MG-850RW provides elevated optical continuity with the subject it protects, so making colours really ‘pop.’ It present a durable and largely inert face to the world, making it perfect for imparting extreme durability to hard-working graphics used in demanding application in the rail sector.
The Charles Rayner team’s experience anticipated any and all eventualities in terms of wrapping and application challenges and the net result of this is a head-turning wrap that distinguishes the prototype 168 HybridFLEX. It succeeds in softening the lines of the train and makes it look like the cutting-edge hardware it is. Physical application is perfect. The result is a big testament to the skills Charles Rayner offers the rail industry.
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