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Item Products secures record order from the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.
Oxford, the city of dreaming spires, provided the perfect location for Gerry Taylor, Proprietor of Item Products, to conclude a substantial order for the supply of injection moulded tray handles for the Book Storage Facility (BSF) of The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. Pictured shaking hands with Toby Kirtley, Estates Projects Manager for the libraries, the pair are framed by the beautiful Wren door, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, outside the C15th Divinity School of the Old Bodleian Library.
For Toby, the order is one small part of a huge project to relocate 8 million volumes to a purpose built, air conditioned, book storage facility based on a 15-acre site in South Marston, near Swindon. The Bodleian was in need of a high-density book storage facility to provide essential space and better protection for its collections. As the Bodleian is a legal deposit library, its collections are gowing by approximately 170,000 volumes per annum, which requires an additional three miles of shelving every year. The BSF's statistics are remarkable. There are 31 aisles, each 71 metres long and 11.4 metres high. They provide a staggering 247,000 linear metres (153.5 miles) of shelving that nets out at 10,052 square metres of book storage.
For Gerry and his colleagues at Item Products, the project has not been without endeavour. Says Mr Taylor, "Our brief was to design a handle and support backing plate to fit a range of tray sizes and book weights of up to 20 kg. An unusual aspect of the project was the request for a fire retardant material and for the product to be assured for 50 years. Consequently we are working with new material which will give strength and durability over time whilst blending the material to give a V2 (self-extinguish) fire retardant rating. Mr Taylor went on to say "the volume of handles required to feed the BSF build schedule will keep one of our injection moulding machines running for months to come. It was a pleasure to work with Toby and his colleagues for what will be something of a milestone in the 24 year history of Item Products".
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AWARDS
Item Products (NPD) Ltd is proud to have been involved in the pack development project for Office Depot’s banking industry Campaign Pack, which won a Gold Starpack Award in 2008.
The pack is fitted with Item’s new handle, The Brandle. Item worked closely with DS Smith Packaging to ascertain the optimum handle for performance, ease of handling and presentation.
This new carrying handle features an integrally moulded base plate to provide additional supporting strength for pack contents and quicker assembly speed.
Brandle is so named as there is scope to emboss a company/brand name onto the main facing of the handle to provide a bespoke characteristic and unique marketing opportunity.
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