Trenton, NJ - Direct Group (DG), a leading provider in the premium high-volume, time-sensitive segment of the direct mail industry, has purchased 30 new Challenge C-15 high-speed inserters from Service Solutions Group, Columbus, OH, to meet customer demands for increased direct-mail production capacity. Each new machine inserts as many as five items into envelopes as large as six by 12 inches at speeds up to 15,000 per hour, according to Ray Clemmer, vice president and general manager of Direct Group's direct mail processing facility in Swedesboro, NJ.  Many traditional inserting machines in the industry can only handle #10 or six-by-nine-inch envelopes, and then at 3,000 or 4,000 an hour, he says. Even high-speed inserters top out at 10,000 to 12,000 envelopes per hour. The new inserters also have flexible, easily configured, top-feeder-friction and rotary feeders to give customers more flexibility in what and how they insert.  Whichever feeder is used, objects are positively transported to the main transport line for feeding - by grippers or on belts - not dropped loosely to settle in place. All feeders are also equipped with both electronic and mechanical detectors to catch improper double feeds before they get to the transport. These new inserters will help Direct Group break its own annual production record of 1.3 billion pieces produced and mailed in 2004. At its three main production facilities located throughout New Jersey, Direct Group prints, personalizes, assembles, affixes cards, inserts, commingles and mails on average more than five million pieces of mail every day of the year. The company can produce more than nine million pieces a day. To keep pace with the needs of its world-class customers, Direct Group has more than doubled the size of its largest direct mail production facility, located on Rt. 322 in Swedesboro, NJ., from 167,000 square feet to 417,000 square feet, doubling the number of printing presses and restructuring the layout to greatly speed workflow from concept through mail.