The printer, which cost £90,000, was signed for at Drupa and installed two weeks ago.
Datum managing partner Mark Gamble said its longsheet capabilities had already been useful in bringing four jobs in-house that would previously have been outsourced, including a run of 4,000 A5 brochures for a US pharmaceutical company.
The Ricoh replaces an outgoing HP Indigo 3050, which Datum had had for five years and Gamble said was getting “old and frail”.
Gamble said: “We started looking at the start of the year and had print tests done on a few different machines from a variety of manufacturers.
“When we went to Drupa we had a chat with the Ricoh guys and signed. It is just a better fit for us really and is basically more economically viable than the competitors. Because we do design and large-format print, we needed a machine that was flexible.”
The Ricoh runs at speeds of up to 130ppm. It supports uncoated, textured and coated media, at weights ranging between 52 to 400gsm, which Gamble said was a “huge range”.
It also takes speciality media, such as super gloss, magnetic, transparent and synthetic.
“Capacity has jumped and so has the speed of the work,” added Gamble.
“Because the Indigo was old and temperamental, it was taking longer and longer to produce work. This press is easier to use and the software is newer so we can get a lot more work through it.”
The machine uses a EFI Fiery RIP.
With the increased volumes being produced on the Ricoh, Datum is now considering investing in a number of pieces of finishing equipment, most likely a bigger guillotine than it currently has, stitching equipment and bookletmaking equipment.
Gamble said it is likely the purchases will be made at some point next year.
Other than the new Ricoh, the Hatfield, Hertfordshire-based outfit runs three Roland roll-to-roll eco-solvent printers and has a number of other bits of finishing equipment, including a Duplo bookletmaker, Duplo slitter-cutter-creaser, wide-format laminator and an envelope printer.
Last year, the eight-staff company turned over £1.2m.
