Gauteng civil and structural engineering firm LC Consulting is currently the only engineering company in Africa to print its drawings on an Oc'e TDS700 wide format machine.
LC Consulting's Miguel Tavares says: "We pride ourselves on using leading-edge technology to produce our design and documentation, and the Oc'e TDS700 fits nicely into this professional approach."
LC Consulting became an Oc'e customer three years ago when it acquired an Oc'e TDS400. Impressed by the service and ease-of-use offered by Oc'e, the engineering firm decided to expand its print room facilities by adding the Oc'e TDS700, a machine that would meet the drawing office's current and future printing and scanning requirements.
"When our company's wide-format print volumes increased to 10km of paper per month, we decided that we needed an additional machine. Our existing wide format printer, an Oc'e TDS400, was designed to print 2 000m of paper per month, and was printing well beyond its capacity. Oc'e had just brought out the TDS700 and it suited our needs perfectly," says Tavares.
All of LC Consulting's drawings, from A3 to A0 and at times AX in size, are now being printed on both the Oc'e TDS700 and Oc'e TDS400. The drawing office is primarily printing in black and white but is also making good use of the colour scanning function on the TDS700.
Tavares explains: "We don't always have documents in electronic CAD format, so this enables us to archive and/or e-mail documents where required."
He adds: "Without an efficient printing system, we can't be a productive engineering firm. Paper is our primary means of communication; we need to print all our documents as many of our contractors and sub-contractors aren't equipped to receive and print the documents as yet. However, with the TDS700 and TDS400 we can now designate the 'traffic' routes whereby the drawing office uses the TDS400 for printing 'original' hard copies of a document and the print room manager can use the TDS700 for multiple copies of the 'original' hard copy to be distributed to the project's professional team, the main contractor and sub-contractors. With regards to statistics, the TDS700 can handle 600m of paper split into four 150m rolls, while the TDS400 can take 300m of paper split into two 150m rolls. The machines can be programmed to print overnight, which also takes pressure off the print room during the working day."
Oc'e South Africa's Johan Steyn says: "Engineers and architects often spend too much time around the printing system trying to get prints and copies right. To say nothing of the time they waste searching for prints and sorting out paper jams. Being able to print and scan concurrently is also a time-saver. In combination, the two wide-format machines offer LC Consulting an impressive print speed of 8m per minute."
LC Consulting has been in existence for over 50 years and provides a civil and structural engineering consultancy service in the commercial sector, carrying out projects such as retail malls, office parks, hotels and casinos.
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