First Folder Of Its Kind Installed In UK

Trade finishers, Printsolutions in Peterborough (UK) has installed the first MB Prestigefold Net 52 folder in the UK.

Trade finishers, Printsolutions in Peterborough (UK) has installed the first MB Prestigefold Net 52 folder in the UK.

"We saw it being launched on the Encore Machinery stand at Digital Print World and placed an order the next day.

I believe that there is a big opportunity for us to add value to our trade finishing services by offering intricate folding, like roll and concertina folds.

My biggest priority was to invest in the latest technology, so that I would have the advantage over everybody else," said Peter Melkowski, Printsolutions' managing director.

He added that most of his company's customers are local printers, who can do basic folding themselves.

"They know it isn't a particularly lucrative service but until now, if they are asked to do complex and more profitable folding jobs, a lot of them don't know where to go to get it done.

Others send their folding jobs out of the area.

My plan is to become a centre of excellence in Peterborough for this type of work," he continued.

When Melkowski set the company up in 1997, he focused on bindery with a Muller Martini binder and a Stahl T50 folder with a 4/4 knife configuration to prefold the sections.

"In 2000 there was a massive change in the market away from booklet binding.

Some of our regular orders were going overseas and others had become much shorter.

Consequently we had to re-focus the business and that's when I decided to buy the first Fenimore Sidewinder flat feed bookletmaker in the UK.

It's worked so well for us that I have no qualms in being the first company to install the Prestigefold.

Folding had become a relatively small part of Printsolutions' business because the Fenimore folds, stitches and trims in one process.

I was certain there was an untapped market out there if I had the right equipment," Melkowksi stressed.

He said he had seen the MB CAS 52 computer controlled folder at Northprint in 2001 and had liked its build quality and its ease of set up.

At the time he did not pursue it because the company was about to move to a new factory unit and the budget was being used elsewhere.

He started seriously to look at more sophisticated folders six months ago but waited until Digital Print World to see whether anything new was being launched.

"I was really excited when Encore demonstrated the Prestigefold because it wasn't comparable with anything else on the market.

I placed an order for a machine with a six-plate on the first unit and a four-plate on the cross fold unit.

I may well add an end unit in the future," said Melkowski.

The Prestigefold Net 52 is a computer-controlled buckle folder with CIP3/CIP4 compatibility and an Ethernet interface for production data acquisition.

It has an automatic set-up system, including automatic position of setting elements for the flat pile feeder, fold plate stops, deflectors, fold roller, alignment rails and delivery roller.

Twenty standard parallel and crossfolds are pre-programmed and it is possible to save the setting data of more than 200 jobs in a program memory claimed Encore.

It is said to have a short set up time for repetitive jobs because speed, sheet gap, shingled delivery, suction duration, counters, double sheet detection and paper travel control are also set automatically.

It is also claimed to be accurate, with fold corrections to within 0.1mm while the machine is running.

"Ease of set up due to its computer controlled setting is its main advantage.

We used to have a specialist folding operator who ran the Stahl but now everybody can use the MB folder, which gives us a lot more flexibility and it's much quicker.

It used to take us 20-25 minutes to set up an eight-page roll fold but now we can do it six minutes and then it runs comfortably at 21,000 sheets an hour.

As we are often under great pressure, this makes all the difference.

I've never had a folder before with a memory but that is proving extremely useful.

In our type of business we never know what sort of work we are going to be given from one day to the next.

If a job is time critical or running late, printers often ask us whether we can finish a few hundred straight away and then do the bulk later on.

This has always been difficult in the past because it has meant setting up the folder twice and hoping that the second run matches the first.

Now we just put the settings in the memory and it is a piece of cake.

We don't often get exact re-runs so once the job is finally completed, we can simply erase the settings from the memory," commented Melkowski.

Print Solutions also purchased a Pit Stop Creaser from Encore.

"I asked them what else they had on the stand at DPW and they demonstrated the Pit Stop.

We were solely reliant for pre-creasing on a Heidelberg cylinder and platen and when I saw the speed of the Pit Stop and the fact that you can multi crease at set intervals, I was sold on it.

We get a lot of different work that needs pre-creasing and this machine can cope with all of it.

Once again it gives us the flexibility to offer a broader range of services, which is what the market wants.

Both the folder and the Pitstop make a good working partnership," he added.

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