New Presses Make UK Firm Largest Digital Firm

Image Data Group invested in one of the latest Xerox iGen3 digital presses at Ipex 06, and plans to purchase another four within the next 12 months.

Image Data Group invested in one of the latest Xerox iGen3 digital presses at Ipex 06, and plans to purchase another four within the next 12 months.

The company has also taken options on another six of the machines by the end of 2007, which will make it one of the largest digital printing operations in Europe, said Xerox.

A long-time Xerox user, Image Data currently operates three Nuvera 120 production presses, one Xerox 6180, one Xerox 6135 and two Xerox 6060 presses.

Its mono print volumes already exceed five million impressions a month and colour volumes are in excess of three million copies a month.

Greg Roach, Image Data's Group ICT director said: "Our new iGen3 machines mark the start of a major investment programme for Image Data Group as we expand in to new premises and take the company in to a new dimension of digital printing capability.

Our decision to invest in the Xerox iGen3 technology is based on our knowledge of Xerox's reputation for manufacturing resilient machines that can handle large workloads.

Other important factors include the openness of the Xerox Freeflow workflow system, the quality of engineering and diversity of its product range." The majority of Image Data Group's work is spread across three core markets - retail, corporate and public sector.

It also produces large volumes of variable data marketing materials, including ticket books and other personalised direct mail campaigns.

Image Data Brighton, formerly XPS, is in the process of relocating to a new automated document factory in Brighton specifically designed to house five iGen3 engines, with the first of the iGen3s due to be installed at the new site in June.

A print logistics and distribution plant is also planned for later this year, at a new site in Howden on the M62 corridor, with extra digital capacity to act as a disaster recovery site for Image Data Brighton.

In total, Image Data Group employs 300 people with an annual turnover of GBP30m.

Based in Willerby, East Yorkshire, Image Data Willerby runs a range of large format B2 and B1 presses in up to 10 colours whilst Image Data Leeds acts as a digital and conventional screen printing plant.

Peter Taylor, Xerox director of graphic arts, said: "To be able to say that you have 10 iGen3 presses is to lay claim to an enormous amount of digital firepower.

Each machine is capable of producing more than one million impressions a month, all with the ability to individualise every single printed sheet.

The presses are perfect for the work that Image Data produces and will enable it to develop even more complex and ingenious approaches to one-to-one digital imaging and personalisation." The Xerox iGen3 is claimed to produce at 600 dots per inch (dpi) x 600dpi, in eight-bit resolution and run Xerox's patented dry inks for fine line rendering and colour gamut.

It is available with a choice of RIPs, including the Xerox DocuSP colour controller, the EFI Fiery colour server or the Creo Spire Colour Server.

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