Olympic Press invests in DC445 DuCreaser
OLYMPIC PRESS BUYS DUPLO DC-445 CREASER FOR DIGITAL EXPANSION
13 Sep 2011
Olympic Press in Altrincham have just purchased a Duplo DC-445 creaser to improve the quality of their digitally printed output. Olympic Press has been in business for 20-years and has built up a solid client base largely through recommendations and organic growth which Director Jim Gray puts down to "good quality at a fair price".
The firm diversified into digital print in 2009 to be able to satisfy a shift in demand to more frequent but smaller quantity orders and now runs a digital press alongside their four Heidelberg machines. Over the years Olympic Press have brought all their finishing in-house to stay competitive; Gray explained, "out-sourcing your finishing is not a viable option for us these days. The high transport costs and minimum charges make it too expensive – especially as run lengths have been coming down."
After the digital press was installed, it quickly became apparent that the raw print was incompatible with most of their existing finishing kit. Folding was a major issue because the print was cracking so they bought a hand-creaser to overcome the problem. The volumes coming off the digital press continued to creep up and it quickly came to a point where they were spending far too much time creasing by hand.
Gray realised they needed a more automated solution and they began searching the market for creasing machines. Local finishing equipment specialist, The Finishing Point in Warrington recommended the Duplo DC-445 but Gray was sceptical because the stated top speed was slower than a leading competitor.
The company decided to trial the machines side-by-side and settled on the Duplo because of the performance of its top feeding technology. Gray said, "the guys in the factory found it to be the most productive because the feeding was more consistent and less prone to mis-feeds. We also noticed it didn't mark the print which was a major advantage".
Since installing the machine, Olympic Press have been using the machine every day and particularly like the versatility as it can perforate and crease at the same time. They've even been putting certain litho jobs on it which was not something they had anticipated. As Gray summarized, "it's a great piece of kit, you can just load it up, start it running and then walk away and do something else".
The DC-445 Ducreaser is an auto-feeding creasing machine with optional slitting and perforating units. It is designed to cope with short runs with fast set up and multiple creasing – up to 15 per sheet in 0.1mm increments.
