The business unit, based at Canterbury’s Ilam campus in Christchurch is selling a range of presses including a Roland with numbering and perfing, a Heidelberg Platen and a platemaker, plus a range of metal type and consumables.
UC Print + Copy manager, Wayne Riggall says that it was uneconomic for the university to renew its offset equipment and had decided instead to expand its range of digital machinery to cater for work created by students and staff through its three copy shops.
“The bulk of our work is in the under 1000 sheet short-run, print-on-demand category and off-set is just not economical for us. If we need any work which requires longer runs then we will probably out-source it, along with any finishing work we can’t do in-house.”
He says even course material comes into the short-run category as classes are rarely above 200 students.
Riggall says the university printing unit is also looking at variable data strategies for the introduction of personalisation and moving the unit’s capabilities into database management, so that students can create their own print on demand documents.
“This will meant that they can select what documents or course material they want and when they want it.”
The unit is currently appraising its equipment needs, looking at the various options available and Riggall is confident that they will be able to acquire the speed that is required for most of their work.
“Most of the new digital printing equipment these days comes with collating and even hole punching capabilities.”
