Leeds-based direct mail and fulfilment specialist RNB has replaced its litho capability with Ricoh’s Pro VC60000 high-speed inkjet press, widening its potential customer base and allowing for the production of hyper-personalised mailings with greater Mailsort savings.
The press can produce over 120,000 A4 images per hour with support for a wide range of media types. Since the installation, the company can produce six times more printed matter per day than it was able to before, making the business reportedly £30,000 more per month.
A key aspect of the press’s capability comes from ‘front-end intelligence’, delivered by the integrated Ricoh Pro Scanner (RipSo) software. The Pro Scanner, a 600GB image processor, checks every page automatically during production runs for colour consistency with Fogra standards using built-in spectrophotometry, said to ensure consistency even across million-plus page runs. The Pro Scanner also automates and – via AI capabilities – optimises over time various routine operational tasks.
Ryan Metcalf, managing director at RNB, said, ‘This investment has elevated RNB to the top of the pile again. It would take more than a week, back and forth, litho printing versions of the base stationary shells and then mono laser over-printing, and the same job takes three hours with the VC60000. Three hours, instead of a week, is a phenomenal upgrade. This new machinery has opened up the ability to deliver three to eight million runs a week, which we can produce on time and competitively.’
Simon Isaacs, national sales director at Ricoh, said, ‘The VC60000 has had a dramatic effect on the speed, the scale and the sophistication of the work that RNB can now tender for, making it competitive for print runs of up to eight million items, with each page potentially incorporating unique text and images, personalised and targeted.’
