Creasing, Folding Upgrades To Meet Digital Demand

Ashgate Automation have installed a KAS Crease Matic 150 programmable card creaser and a Horizon PF-P330 table top folder at Print by Design (formerly Kall Kwik) in Cheltenham.

Ashgate Automation have installed a KAS Crease Matic 150 programmable card creaser and a Horizon PF-P330 table top folder at Print by Design (formerly Kall Kwik) in Cheltenham.

The Crease Matic and the Horizon systems service four Canon 3200 digital printers.

Rob Exton, the proprietor of Print by Design, said: "In the last three years we've seen a big change from litho to digital to meet the demand for short run, fast turn around, personalised colour printing.

We used to produce about 30,000 copies a month but that has increased to 100,000 copies and is still growing.

The business is now 70 per cent digital, whereas in the past it only accounted for 30 per cent of our production.

Consequently, we needed to re-equip our digital print finishing department to handle the expansion.

We previously had a hand creaser but found that we were having to send more and more work out for pre-scoring." Exton said he bought the KAS Crease Matic 150 because it fitted between a desktop machine and a high end suction feed creaser.

"Typically, we crease somewhere between a few hundred and a couple of thousand sheets a day, so I didn't want to pay a lot more money for a fully automated creaser.

The KAS Crease Matic is very good value.

As well as creasing cards and covers, we also use 100gsm digitally printed paper because we print a lot of one third A4 leaflets, which need to be pre-scored before they are folded," added Exton.

The Crease Matic uses a matrix style crease to prevent the toner and ink cracking when folding digitally printed stock.

It can be programmed up to nine creases per sheet on card from A5 to SRA3 and six pages up to A4.

Up to five regular creasing jobs can be programmed in to the memory function and the crease positions can be edited should the layout of the job change, said Ashgate.

Exton added: "The combination of the Crease Matic and the Horizon folder has transformed our handling of digital stock.

They are also very easy to use.

They don't require a skilled print finisher - anybody can use them, which is so important in a small, busy organisation.

Although we've had no problems, it's good to know that we have a very responsive supplier like Ashgate to call on, should we need it.".

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