Artisan Print and Sign Solutions has invested in a second iSaddle from Duplo. The Oxfordshire-based printer installed the saddle stitcher to meet increased demand for local community magazines, which has risen during the pandemic.
Ian Campbell, owner and managing director of Artisan, explained the investment. ‘Artisan Print and Sign Solutions have been going from strength to strength,’ he commented. ‘Continually reinvesting to ensure we have state of the art print and finishing equipment with the latest iSaddle Pro being installed in March. It is designed to suit todays challenging commercial print environment.
‘It can handle litho and digital stocks and is extremely adaptable for small and high length runs due to its very fast set-up times, as quick as 60 seconds without any manual intervention from our operators. With these efficiencies Artisan can pass these savings to our clients.’
The company, which installed its first iSaddle in 2012, has no shortage of equipment, printing smaller digital work on a Ricoh 9100, a Xerox Versant 180 and a Xerox J75. For it’s larger signage and exhibition jobs it can call upon an HP Latex 360, an HP Latex 365 and an Agfa Acuity 1600 LED. Finally, on the finishing front, it also operates a folding machine and booklet-maker from Horizon, a Morgana digital crease and fold machine and two guillotines.
Jason Davies, regional sales manager at Duplo added, ‘Artisan’s first iSaddle is one of the oldest in the country and is still giving them great service. But four generations on, this latest version of the iSaddle Pro offers much more automation, and multi-sized books on the fly. The idea of having two of these systems offering a combined top speed of 10,000 books per hour is very interesting, and without the need for folded sections and long make readies. The automation offered by the new PC control means that these are the perfect machines for the type of work Artisan are doing.’
