PRODUCT PORTFOLIO: Me & My Machine - Xerox DocuColor 2045 - Futurecolour took Northern Ireland's first DocuColor 2000, and has no complaints, says Lauretta Roberts.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

Xerox's DocuColor 2000s are everywhere. Since the launch of this digital colour press at Drupa 2000 almost 600 have been installed in the UK. Belfast-based Futurecolour took Northern Ireland's first, a 2045 equipped with Fiery RIP, in September 2000 and is about to swell the installation list further. Its second 2045 arrives this autumn, and it placed a reservation order for an iGen3, Xerox's next generation digital press, at Ipex.

Established two years ago, Futurecolour eased itself into the colour digital print market with a DocuColor 12, so when the time came to install a higher-volume machine it had 'already been sold on the concept', says production manager Taggart Aston. 'The Doc 12 is mind-blowing. The speed (12ppm) didn't concern me. We were sold on the quality.' He's just as enthusiastic about the 45ppm 2045: 'The quality is incredible.'

Now, many litho printers might find such high praise for quality hard to swallow, but Aston, who as the son of a printer has been around presses 'since I was five years old', claims that he is his own worst critic.

'I would get a proof, go to a customer and say 'I'm not happy with this' and their response would be 'it's brilliant, go ahead'.' He claims, too, that customers 'love' the glossy quality of digital print, which is often criticised by those used to litho. And, anyway, he's clearly sick to death of these comparisons: 'Why does it have to look like litho print anyway?'

It's a fair point really as Aston claims a high proportion of the work the four-man firm does wouldn't even exist in the litho market. A typical job, as far as there is such a thing, would be a full-colour menu for a local restaurant and the average run length would be between 50 and 500. The company uses a lot of heavyweight stock, 280gsm is typical, though it will have to slow the machine down to around 22ppm to handle it. But with such short runs slowing down isn't a problem, says Aston.

The company carries out a fair amount of variable data work, mostly simple things like barcoding, and Aston hopes to build on this. At the moment he's not keen on getting into longer-run work, but he does need to build volume in preparation for the arrival of the second 2045 and the iGen3, which he hopes will arrive next June. 'At the moment we need long runs like a hole in the head, they tie up the machine,' says Aston. On top of which, he adds, frequent shorter runs keep cash flowing ...