Creaser-Perforator Supports Digital Print Growth

Netherne Printing Services in Dorking (UK) has installed a KAS Crease Matic CM150 digital creaser and sheet perforator.

The new machine represents the second piece of equipment that the company has bought from Ashgate Automation in the last 15 months.

The company, which runs on a commercial basis, creates employment for disabled people, as well as providing work experience for other disabled volunteers as a means of helping them to get in to paid employment.

Netherne Printing Services' general manager, Kelvin Bagley, said: "Since we became independent last year, our aim has been to increase productivity through investing in new equipment, so that we can use our trainees most effectively.

We have plans to introduce more new equipment to our finishing department as finances allow." The KAS Crease Matic replaced an old hand creaser.

As Bagley explained the company's the digital printing side grew and he was eager to have a new creaser because the hand creaser was out-of-date and all the jobs that Netherne prints digitally is on card and thicker stock.

That work includes table-top calendars that need to be creased before they are folded, which was a time consuming process.

Netherne had a short list of two suppliers and Bagley added: "Ashgate had already supplied us with a Kasfold bookletmaker, which has dramatically improved the turn-round times in our finishing department and enabled us to bring in more booklet work, even with short lead times.

KAS equipment is very well built and that's what impressed us about the Crease Matic.

It fits our type of work where most of the run lengths are only a few hundred copies and it also met our budget.

Had we been doing a lot of longer run work, I would have been tempted to buy a Crease Matic Auto50 but that is in a different price range." Ashgate Automation said that the CM150 has been designed for the short-run to medium-run digital print market to fill the gap between desktop card creasers and the fully-automatic suction feed models.

It is claimed to be capable of providing quick and reliable creasing results and at around half the cost of the current auto feed models on the market.

The company added that the CM150 can handle up to 2,000 sheets an hour, stream-fed by hand.

The operator can programme up to nine creases per sheet on card from A5 to SRA3 and six page A4.

Up to five regular creasing jobs can be programmed in the memory function, which is fitted as standard.

The trainees at Netherne Printing Services also find the perforator very useful, as Bagley commented: "We used to perforate using the folder but this is a much simpler and more efficient method.

It is important that we give our trainees the right tools for the job, so that they can progress.

The Creasematic has made a big difference to a very simple job where we were struggling before.".

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