Managing director and founder Paul Bulpitt first settled on investing in the machine at last month’s PrintWeekLive! trade show. The £30,000 machine will arrive at Bulpitt’s 370sqm Andover, Hampshire premises next month, replacing a four-year-old outgoing Konica Minolta Océ CS 665.
Bulpitt was especially impressed with the AccurioPrint's new long sheet feeder, introduced at the start of this year, which can hold more than 1,000 banner sheets of up to 750mm in length. He said where previously business card jobs would be 21-up, this could now be extended to around 40-up.
“When you run a business some decisions are easy to make and some are very hard, and this was an easy decision,” he said.
“It’s going to save us money, it’s going to give us extra capacity, we’re saving on the clicks and can do the bigger sheet size, so it gives us that double saving.”
The machine runs at a maximum speed in black and white mode of 61ppm. It takes paper without long sheet feeder at a maximum size of 330x490mm, weighing up to 350gsm and printing at 1,200dpi resolution. It has a 4,250 sheet maximum paper capacity for long press runs without interruption.
Using its perfect binder to finish, the new Konica will also allow Bulpitt to take on A4 landscape and six-page A4 book work.
Bulpitt said if things go well he would consider investing in another AccurioPrint in the near future.
“We generally buy a machine if it’s going to save us money. We like to produce stuff the most economical way within the company, it’s the first thing we look at, if it will give us a saving in production. We have to work within the parameters we are in,” he added.
Six-staff Bulpitt Print produces a range of print work, with an approximate 50/50 split between digital and litho. Along with the AccurioPrint, it also runs a four-colour B3 Ryobi 524 HE and a Xerox C70, plus finishing equipment. Last year, it had sales of approximately £500,000.