The machine, which has been installed at the university's printing services department, is expected to help staff keep up to 10% more short- and medium-run jobs at the facility.

According to printing services manager Stuart Mclean, the purchase was made in order to cut the cost of B3 work while improving both quality and productivity.

After printing a variety of pieces on the Presstek, the university said it has found that certain jobs have proved to be 40% cheaper.

He said: "We wanted to reduce our turnaround time because we were waiting overnight for work to dry before we could finish it, particularly as we were printing more jobs with depth of colour and solids."

In addition to reducing costs, Mclean said the new investment should also bring new business "which we could not have produced before".