The Xerox 700 was specified with EFI's Fiery colour server technology to accurately callibrate colour and has only just been installed at the 13 staff facility in the past two weeks.

Additionally, the in-plant installed the 52DI to replace an existing four-colour Hamada after evaluating equipment at Ipex last year, along with a Presstek Vector FL52 small format chemistry free CTP system to support a two-colour Hamada press.

The in-plant rebranded itself as Print Essex at the beginning of the year in a bid to bring in commercial work to supplement university print. General manager Chris Lewes said the new presses are capable of handling the variety of commercial work now coming in and will position the company to be able to start up a web-to-print offering.

"It's perfect for the commercial market we're moving into, where customers want everything yesterday," he said. "[The 52DI] has also reduced overtime, which means that we can support our web-to-print service as we know there is capacity to deal with the fast turnaround orders.

"The system just eats work... It's equally happy producing short-runs or jobs that are 14,000 long. It is a very productive press."

The company also runs three Xerox machines and a Canon Large Format 8100 poster printer as well as the Hamada 252 offset press.

It produces all of the university's print requirements, such as brochures and stationery, with the exception of the prospectus which is needed in such large quantities that it is contracted out.