The new Duplo DC-746 was installed on 4 August, with socially distanced training carried out on the same day.

“We were up and running it that afternoon, installation was that smooth and quick,” said the Brighton site’s operations director Jason Vivian.

The circa 200-staff group had been looking to add a multi-finisher to the small-format digital operation’s post-press armoury for some time, according to Vivian, to ease bottlenecks in the finishing department.

“It saves the work of a separate guillotine, creaser and perforator because it does it all in one pass,” he said.

“We have a lot of digital printing firepower and there’s always pressure on the finishing department to turn work around very quickly, so having a multi-finisher takes a lot of that pressure off, reduces makereadies and eases bottlenecks by taking work off multiple devices.”

Vivian said that while the business had a strong relationship with Duplo, going back 30 years, this had not stopped him fully scoping out the market. With the result that he felt that the DC-746 was “the best there is for that type of device”.

“So, it was a no-brainer in the end.”

The DC-746 has a maximum speed of 50ppm and can handle 110-350gsm sheets from 210x210mm up to 370x670mm via its 150mm high-capacity feeder. It can also process long sheets, up to 1m, via its control panel.

As standard, it features a barcode reader for instant makereadies and image recognition for on-the-fly adjustments.

“The fact it [automatically] compensates for any image shift, for us, was massive. Being digital there can be an element of movement, it’s the nature of the beast, having a device that can cater for that is great,” said Vivian.

ImageData configured their machine with the optional rotary perf module.

As Duplo’s flagship multi-finisher, the DC-746 can cut, slit, crease and perf in one pass and, as standard, can perform up to six slits, 25 cross-cuts and 20 creases on a single sheet. According to Duplo, this means that typically, 25 simple business cards or 21 business cards with full image bleed can be laid out on an SRA3 sheet.

Vivian said the finishing department was already starting to reap the productivity benefits of the new machine.

“We put seven jobs through it yesterday that were done in 50 minutes, apart from the packing. If they were being done on separate devices, you probably wouldn’t get much change out of two hours.”

Pricing for the DC-746 starts at around £48,000.

Like many businesses the Brighton site still has a number of staff on furlough and is making use of the flexible furlough to bring people as the work volumes start to pick up.

“We have noticed work starting to pick across all three sites,” said Vivian. “It’s already looking a lot better than it was a month, six weeks ago.”

The Brighton operation’s all-Xerox digital firepower includes two iGen 5s, a Versant 2100 and two twin-engined Nuvera 288s.

Last month the £20m group signed off a £250,000 MIS spend across its three production sites, which consist of Brighton and two in East Yorkshire: its headquarters in Willerby, which runs litho and screen kit, and a large-format digital operation in Howden.