For printer Orchard Press, the purchase and installation of their Duplo DBM 350 booklet maker system, in November couldn’t have come at a more opportunistic time. With 70,000 booklets produced in the first week alone, the bottleneck in their digital department has dissolved into a flurry of activity and completed orders with the target of 100,000 booklets a week.
Jason Grubb, Managing Director had been looking to bring Orchard Press’ booklet production in house for some time. “We looked at various equipment suppliers, Duplo just gave us the all-round aspects we required; flexibility, and compatibility, but was also sensibly priced. The new booklet maker was brought in to help us keep up with our order book, with it, we can now keep control of the work, both in set-up time, logistics and profit, whereas previously we always outsourced the saddle stitching. All our fold/stitch/trim work was outsourced, and it was significant how much of it there was. What is surprising however is how hungry the DBM 350 actually is. It just takes the jobs we throw at it which isn’t surprising since we have a four year old collator and it’s still going strong. The installation happened just as a couple of key contracts were coming up and we hammered them out on the Duplo perfectly.”
Based in Swindon and with a staff of 14, Orchard Press cater to large blue-chip clients, estate agents, medical companies and the motor industry for a wide variety of jobs including normal commercial print along with business stationary, promotional materials, exhibition stands and window signage. The Duplo DBM 350 was fitted with the square back option and brought in mainly for longer litho runs: 100,000 8pp A5s to 20,000 28pp A4 booklets being typical jobs. It can run at up to 3,000 booklets per hour on 64-300gsm paper. Maximum book size of 320 x 230 and with block mode on the towers, jobs can be refilled using half of the towers for different jobs for higher flexibility.
“Jason and his team are absolutely belting work out of the DBM 350” says Jason Davies, Regional Sales Manager for Duplo. “When I saw a YouTube video of Jason running the booklet maker at that speed, I realized exactly why he had to change the wire twice inside the first month! It’s really satisfying to deliver equipment to a company who are making use of all the functionality on offer and are willing to see how much it can take. The DBM 350 although on the smaller scale of our booklet range is still a very robust and well put together machine. Orchard have a fully kitted out version and it looks like it’s not going to stop for a while.”
“From initial discussions, demonstrations to delivery, installation all the way to training, Jason Davies and Duplo have looked after us and everything has run like clockwork, says Jason Grubb. “What was promised, Duplo delivered. The training was seamless, we could not fault it, with the promise of more if we need. Once set up it runs like a dream - Anyone of our operators can use the DBM 350, it’s a green-button machine. It’s a standout feature of the machine actually, the ease of use, once it’s set up anyone can operate it, which makes it flexible when we have large runs and has increased our productivity immensely – it’s a perfect fit for us and I don’t know why I didn’t buy it sooner!”
