In April 2012, AIPS brought in a CMC250 mailing line alongside an Océ ColorStream 3500 as part of a £2.5m investment programme. But the CMC250 was only capable of finishing around a third of the Colorstream’s output.
On 22 August, Affinion’s Portsmouth facility will take delivery of a CMC400 envelope inserter, which AIPS director Greg Howford said would boost the firm's finishing capacity to handle two thirds of its total print output.
He said that AIPS, part of Affinion Group, is considering investment in further finishing equipment, but is looking to seal contracts with more third party sales businesses to generate further work for the ColorStream prior to making a buying decision.
The continuous feed CMC400 is fitted with one friction fed hopper and three suction hoppers to insert A4 forms into C5 and DL envelopes. Howford predicts that the machine will output around 2m filled envelopes a month and it will be used to process charity and government mailings and lifestyle products.
Howford said: "It was the service, quality and ability of CMC Machinery to react to our requests that made us decide to use them again – they are very flexible in their R&D."
While the incoming CMC400 has no modifications, Howford said that CMC was very accommodating to AIPS’ desire to develop the CMC250 specifically to work with the company’s ColorStream.
The new envelope inserter will replace two Pitney Bowes 8 Series inserters, which have come to the end of their lease. Employees who are currently undertaking manual fulfillment tasks required for the pieces produced by the ColorStream will operate the CMC400, which will perform those jobs automatically.
