Digital print boost at Uni of Wollongong

Océ wins contract to increase black and white production from15 million to more than 20 million impressions per year.

In the three months since the University of Wollongong Print Centre installed its new production engines, it is on target with more than five million impressions so far.

The Print Centre is unusual among educational printing facilities in that it also operates as a thriving commercial printer for outside customers, under the name of South Coast Graphics. South Coast Graphics was bought by the University Print Centre two years ago when it was seeking to move off campus and saw the purchase as a means to further develop its business to commercial clientele. The premises, which were extended after the move, bear the name of both businesses.

Print Centre Production Manager, Garry Piggott, said the decision to move to Océ equipment came about when existing contracts for digital equipment and prepress and workflow software came up for renewal earlier this year.

“We wanted to explore our options and we were concerned that our software didn’t allow us to output to other printing equipment, which limited our options considerably,” he says. “We spoke to a number of vendors about the issue, including Océ, who set up a demonstration of Océ PRISMAprepare software which easily handled prepress and also allowed us to output to any vendor’s printing equipment. It eliminates the restrictions we experienced before and future proofs the investment.”

Photo Caption (above): Max Chiodo, General Manager, University of Wollongong Print Centre, with the Centre’s new Océ VarioPrint 6160 Gemini press

To replace the previous fleet, they have installed an Océ VarioPrint 6160 Gemini press, an Océ VarioPrint 4110 and integrated hole punching and booklet making, as well as the Océ PRISMAprepare software.

“Because the Océ VarioPrint 6160 is able to print both sides of the paper instantaneously with perfect back-to-back registration, it becomes a highly productive unit for us, in that more than 90 per cent of our output is double-sided. These two units have replaced three print engines and are still giving us increased output,” Garry Piggott says.

Quality was also a concern for the print centre for both university work and for outside customers.

“As a longtime offset operation, South Coast Graphics has a good reputation for high quality and it was imperative those standards did not drop in the revamp. In fact we consider the quality to be superior to the previous equipment and more reliable as well.

“Our commercial customers are just as happy as the university customers and the staff are happy with the reliability, which has virtually eliminated downtime.”

The revamp has also enabled the University Print Centre to overcome a production bottleneck in the print room, which necessitated staff time on unproductive manual labour, collating punched documents.

The new printing systems allow for the insertion and printing of double-sided tabs, inserts from any tray, colour splitting and inline punching reducing additional shifts which were commonplace prior to the revamp.

“All in all, it’s been an excellent investment and the beginning of a good partnership with Océ which will really work to the good of our digital production,” said Piggott.