PRODUCT PORTFOLIO: Me & My Machine - Xerox DocuColor 6060.

After searching around, bd3 decided on the Xerox DocuColor 6060. John Davies discovers how it's worked out.

Since its launch last July, Xerox has sold around two DocuColor 6060s every week. One of those went to bd3, an eight-employee digital printer based in Tolworth, Surrey. The firm, set up in September 2001, and with a turnover at the pounds 500,000 mark, is helped by its Xerox kit to produce work for prestigious names such as BSkyB, the Cabinet Office and Chelsea Football Club. bd3 installed its first Xerox 2060 18 months ago, followed by the 6060, capable of producing 60 colour pages a minute, late last year.

However, the firm's investment in Xerox was not a sure thing. bd3 managing director David Scott had previously used Indigo equipment. 'We considered the HP Indigo (2000) again, but it hadn't moved on too much. I saw the quality of the Xerox (DocuColor 6060) and how easy it was to set up and get that quality. We decided to go with the Xerox after we saw the test files,' says Scott.

The DocuColor 6060 is mainly used for short-run colour and personalised work, but bd3's run lengths vary from a single copy to 50,000. Scott says that another reason for the firm opting for the DocuColor 6060 was that it's easy to operate. 'You don't have to be a machine minder to run it.

I thought that the Indigo was more difficult to get to grips with.' In fact, Scott believes that Xerox's initial two-day training period for the machine could have been compressed into half a day, such is the machine's ease of use.