The Plymouth-based commercial printer, which was formed in 1976 and specialises in work for government bodies, decided it wanted to upgrade some of its pre-existing equipment in mid-2016.

The Ricoh replaces a Ricoh Pro C901 model and the laminator, supplied by Friedheim International, takes over from an eight-year-old Tauler laminator. Both of the new machines were installed in the final two months of last year.

“We were happy with the 901 but we outgrew it. We went to Drupa, saw some other equipment and realised that you’d have to spend a lot more money on something that was better print quality than the 9100,” said Deltor managing director Sam Shannon.

“It’s been amazing. Whereas before on the 901 we were getting jams, since we put the 9100 in it’s just been phenomenal; really very good. We’ve been putting more through it in the hope that we can take something off our B2 presses and are starting to sway jobs that were litho over to the 9100.”

Shannon added that Ricoh had been keen to upgrade 35-staff Deltor’s machine since the C9100 was first launched in Q1 2015.

The 9100 boasts a recommended maximum monthly volume of 1m A4 pages, printing at maximum speeds of around 110ppm, which is 20ppm faster than the 901.

It prints at a maximum resolution of 1,200x4,800dpi and takes a wide media range at weights between 52 and 400gsm. 

The laminator was mainly purchased to save on makeready times. Switching between an SRA3 and B1 sheet on the Tauler took around 40 minutes whereas now it takes around five. 

“We do lots of different jobs of different sizes, widths and laminating reels and the versatility of the quick changeover was something we championed really,” said Shannon.

He added that even though Deltor had had a couple of “teething issues” with the Komfi at the beginning, Friedheim had dealt swiftly with the problem and since then there had been no issues. 

On the litho side, Deltor also runs a 10-colour Roland 700 and Komori L29.