20% Production Increase As College Goes Digital

Duplo's DP-460H Duprinter has improved printing processes at Loughborough College so that production has increased by an estimated 20 per cent.

Duplo's DP-460H Duprinter has improved printing processes at Loughborough College so that production has increased by an estimated 20 per cent.

Classed as a photocopier and printing press hybrid, the Duprinter is an entry level printing system, offering flexibility and economical short run printing, said Duplo.

The DP-460H was installed at the college to streamline and improve the production of a variety of documents for its 10,000 students and staff.

It has printed over 200,000 pages since its installation in July, including the college's two-colour letterhead, compliment slips, student certificates, spot-colour flyers, two up to four-part carbonless sets, college maps and car park permits.

Stewart Chawner, technician at Loughborough College said: "We previously produced the college's letterhead on two 30 year-old, single-colour printing presses, but it would take anywhere from 15 minutes to half-a-day to change the inks on the machines.

As I was the only one trained to use them, I found almost all of my time was spent cleaning the presses, maintaining them or changing the colours - the set up was completely counter-productive.

We would often have to print more than we would need on the litho presses and have to store the excess stock, as the machines were only capable of functioning profitably on a large scale.

In addition, the print presses took up a lot of room and the chemicals used to clean the presses gave off unpleasant fumes that had a negative impact on our working environment." Chawner continued: "The Duprinter has vastly updated our print department, bringing a wealth of benefits since its installation.

It has had the effect of freeing up my time to undertake more varied tasks, it prints profitably at runs of only a few hundred and is ready to go within a minute of switching it on.

It has also enhanced our working environment, as we no longer have to put up with a contaminated atmosphere.

The system is far more suited to our needs and I'm delighted with the changes it has brought." Duplo's range of Duprinters take the speed of a litho printing press and combine it with the usability and cleanliness of a photocopier, claimed the company.

Although a mono printer at first glance, a change-over of print drums means the Duprinter has the capability of printing spot colours.

The company claimed that the Duprinter is the only suction fed digital duplicator in the marketplace and incorporates an offset stacking function for easy batching, which can be rolled away from the main unit for transportation.

Chawner commented: "We use the Duprinter with two different colour drums and I have another one ready when needed.

This gives us a large degree of creativity and diversity that we wouldn't experience with a black and white printer.

We have also taken a Post Script file processor, the DP-RIP, although we have yet to install it.

This will accompany our new machine and enhance the print quality by enabling easy transfer of files from our PCs.

I've also found the batching facility to be especially useful when printing off jobs that I will be putting in to padded sets with a specific number of pages." The Duprinter is designed to be most cost-effective in the 50 to 5,000 copy run length and its suction paper feed system can handle delicate stocks such as carbonless paper as well as card and envelopes.

The DP-460H installed at Loughborough College runs alongside two Konica 7075 photocopiers, a Konica 8031 colour printer, two Fastback binding machines, inserters, laminators and guillotines.

Loughborough College is a provider of education and training in north Leicestershire with an annual turnover of GBP17million and employing 900 staff.

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