The news coincides with Xerox passing the milestone of its 100th iGen3 installation worldwide.

Carrprint director Stephen Fullalove said he was delighted with the new machine after the initial print runs last week proved successful.

The quality of the DocuColor iGen3 is vastly improved over other digital presses, he said. It prints as well as litho, and in some situations is probably better.

Deciding factors for choosing the machine were that it could print duplex onto 300gsm board, and was very operator friendly.

A new division of the firm, C3Pi, providing online ordered print will use the output from the iGen3.

At the heart of C3Pi is a bespoke on-line ordering software package that can be used to transfer PDF files and to order individual items over the internet. Carrprint bought Epamea the company that developed the software.

Carrprint employs 200 staff and operates in the commercial, direct mail, games cards, and greetings cards sectors.

The iGen3, which is Carrprints first Xerox machine, joins a digital department with three Heidelberg Digimasters monochrome printers and a Xeikon DCP 50 D colour press.

Fullalove said the Xeikon was never really a major success, but the impressions of the Xerox iGen3 have been considerably more uplifting.

Xerox UK director of graphic arts Peter Taylor said Carrprints application proves that the iGen3 is no longer an early adopter stage technology.

The DocuColor iGen predominantly serves the short-run market, he said. But as this application shows, it is also finding a place in the high-quality personalisation sector as well.

Xerox says the iGen3 sales programme is now being ramped up. So far the firm has had a controlled rollout of the press since its launch.

Worldwide Xerox is targeting delivery of an additional 25 to 50 units this year, and between 400 and 500 units next year.

In the UK the plan is to treble the number of installed sites.

So far it estimates that 50% of the machines are running more than 400,000 impressions a month, while several customers produce more than a million impressions a month.

Story by Tony Brown