Advantage Digital Print (ADP) in Dorset, United Kingdom is enjoying a range of benefits since installing a new Ricoh Pro C9110 Production Digital Printer in October 2016.
The press has been brought in to replace a six-year-old Xerox iGen4, which had been the first such press in the UK. Charles Anderson, Director of ADP, commented:
“We are enjoying a more economical click rate, lower energy bills and the ability to print with higher quality and on a wider range of stocks. Our up-time is considerably better with the Ricoh; their engineers are readily available and remote diagnostics has resolved some situations before we even needed an engineer.”
ADP was formerly the digital print department of the old Friary Press, located just outside Dorchester. It was established nine years ago, when Mr Anderson purchased Friary’s digital department from its then owner, Media and Print Investments. ADP remains in the old Friary Press site today, and has a comprehensive bindery that includes PUR binding and lamination, as well as its digital printing expertise.
The company serves a diverse customer base that includes graphic designers, trade publishers, charities, self-publishers, print management companies, artists, photographers, retailers and the public sector, as well as a wide range of local businesses. It is producing work such as variable data direct mail, A4 landscape and estate agent brochures, perfect bound books, fine art prints and publications, annual reports and folders and wallets.
There are high end quality requirements involved in some of this work, and ADP has found that its new Ricoh press is able to hold fine detail very well. Demanding photography customers have remarked upon this improvement. On-press checking of sheets and correction on the run to eliminate print variances has also been a significant improvement, according to ADP.
Being able to print onto a long banner sheet (700 mm in length) was an essential requirement of the Ricoh Pro C9110, since the Xerox press also had this capability. ADP is even promoting this through a “Super sizes” page on its website. One of ADP’s customers is a short run, variable print book publisher, and production of this client’s work has been progressing more smoothly using the Ricoh technology, thanks to its more advanced front end data processing power. The Ricoh press can also handle heavier media stocks, including envelopes.
“On the whole, our customers have been pleased with the improvements we can deliver as a consequence of changing the press,” said Mr Anderson. “Before deciding to purchase the Ricoh Pro C9110 we took test materials to Ricoh and we were impressed with the results we came away with. After we met the Ricoh people a couple of times we believed there was a good opportunity there.”
Away from the interface with customers, the Ricoh Pro C9110 is also proving its worth behind the scenes, reported Mr Anderson. “The Ricoh press does much the same kind of job as the iGen4 press, but with a lot less power consumption and a much smaller footprint. We are seeing significant savings just on those sorts of things. We are going to reduce our electricity bills by at least a third, for example. The Ricoh press operates in normal room conditions too, and not having to put in air conditioning is a big saving as well. It’s also much quieter – it’s just less intrusive.”
Overall, ADP has been very pleased with the performance of its new press and with its relationship with Ricoh itself. “We’re confident that the Ricoh Pro C9110 will help us to win business and we are pleased to have such a reliable press,” he concluded. “We are able to get to a result that we can sell faster. We have been with Xerox for 20 years but the Ricoh support team has been very helpful. They have more than lived up to our expectations in terms of service.”
Tim Carter, Sales director – commercial print Ricoh UK comments: “ADP had very specific requirements from their next production printing press and we were delighted to be able to match them, if not exceed them, with the Ricoh Pro C9110. There are many important factors involved in running a print business and in choosing a new press, but bottom line costs are always high on the agenda. It’s great that we’ve been able to have a positive effect on running costs for ADP through the energy efficiency of our technology.”
