MIT Adds 'The Right Finishing Equipment'

After being restricted from making any purchases for about two years, Steven Dimond, manager of MIT Copytech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, knew what his first move would be when the buying ban was lifted. Last year, he made that move when his in-plant installed a Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C8000 and a Konica Minolta bizhub PRO C6501.

To compliment the new output devices, MIT Copytech added a Duplo 645 slitter/cutter/creaser with a business card module. This allowed the shop to offer customers jobs on a wider array of paper stocks, and bring business card production in-house.

"We decided that we would acquire the Duplo to do a lot of the work that we were now going to be doing on the new [Konica] devices," Dimond says. "The work was going to be of a higher quality and higher standard, so we wanted to have the right finishing equipment to go along with that."

The in-plant's introduction of printing business cards in-house coincided with the unveiling of a new website and ordering system.

"It was just a perfect way to have it all come together," Dimond contends.

Dimond says the installations have been a big hit with his customers.

"We picked up a number of customers that were using outside vendors," he confides. "We are thrilled with the way the Duplo operates. It has truly become a time-saving device for us."

Dimond notes that during facility tours, customers often wind up spending more time talking about the Duplo device than the much more expensive Konica machines.

Dimond recalls seeing the Duplo 645 at several industry events. He kept it in mind when it was time to upgrade the shop.

"It is the type of machine that is built to last a long time," he says. "You are going to pay a premium for that, but I have seen so many pieces of equipment get lighter and cheaper made over the years. If we were going to do something in the bindery, this was the machine we wanted."

Dimond, who oversees 21 employees in three locations, says the Duplo 645 satisfies many different things MIT's customers are requesting, including scoring heavier stocks, slitting and perfing. It also eliminated the time-consuming need to perform cutting and trimming on reply cards, forms and multi-up prints.

"It's probably one of the best finishing decisions we have made in a long, long time," he raves.