Product category:
Print Finishing (Binding, Folding, Inserting, Stitching, etc.)
News Release from: Graphic Arts Equipment | Subject: Stitchliner
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 16 December 2004
Auto Saddle Stitching Allows
Restructuring
Oxford (UK) short-run print and publication specialist Parchment has completed a restructuring programme that sees the family-run enterprise turn full circle.
Oxford (UK) short-run print and publication specialist Parchment has completed a restructuring programme that sees the family-run enterprise turn full circle The revamp includes the closure of its out-of-town factory unit and the concentration of its entire production facility at the extended city-based headquarters where company founder, Don Parchment, first set up in 1962
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 7 May 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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Central to the move has been the upgrade of all key bindery processes, with the introduction of new automated Horizon saddle stitching, folding and perfect binding systems from Graphic Arts Equipment (GAE) to maximise floor space and operator efficiency while reducing make-readies and waste.
For Mary Parchment, who took over running of the company in 1985, it is more a question of the equipment manufacturers catching up with her company's business focus than the other way round.
"As a small printer serving a local business community, of course we have always supplied a broad range of products but, over the years, we developed a specialism in fast turn round short-run items - typically full-colour books and booklets in runs from 50 to 700 - to a national and now, an international client base.
Further reading
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The development of an automated on-demand bindery for producing examination papers and for serving the educational market has been key to WJEC/CBAC Services.
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Estimated monthly cost savings approaching GBP10,000 are being made at Stockport's APG Visual Colour following the install of a Horizon Stitchliner.
Print Finishing Equipment's Consistent Workflow
Malton, Yorkshire (UK) Heidelberg printing house, In-Print Colour, has installed an Horizon Stitchliner system from Graphic Arts Equipment (GAE).
This sector has grown to become a core part of our business, but it put very high demands on our production practice." Maintaining the kind of production discipline required to protect margins on such regular short run work was the key to Parchment's early success in that niche market.
In the bindery, with traditional equipment, it meant high investment in quality staff: Parchment has always cross-trained its finishing operators and two-thirds have been with company for more than 20 years.
That had an impact on efficiency at set-up and keeping waste as low as possible.
Nevertheless, the equipment was complex and space-hungry and considerable numbers of 'overs' were required during make-readies.
As Parchment introduced a digital print arm, that too, created new challenges, which traditional bindery processes struggled to meet.
For Kate Parchment, the company's general manager now beginning to write the third chapter of the Parchment story as she prepares to take over the reins, Horizon might have designed its new systems around Parchment's very strict specification requirements.
"Well, firstly, the footprints are all so compact that they made this rationalisation of our premises possible in the first place.
Then the automated set-ups are so accurate that products are right first time, so there's little or no waste and a run-of-one is a practical proposition.
Set-ups that used to take 20 or 30 minutes are, literally, achieved in a matter of seconds - a couple of minutes at most - and the icon-based touch-screens are so simple that training that used to take years now takes just days." She added that the digital factor also comes into play.
"Horizon has designed these systems with both litho and digital print in mind.
The Stitchliner is modular and has options to work with either or merge the two and the BQ-270 perfect binder gives us perfect results on both.
The binder it has replaced just wouldn't give us a good enough bind with digital print.
These systems are cleaner, quicker and easier and our staff love them; our new work-smart environment is the way ahead for the next generation of printing and communications service providers in the 21st century," added Parchment.
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