Product category:
Print Finishing (Binding, Folding, Inserting, Stitching, etc.)
News Release from: Graphic Arts Equipment | Subject: Horizon VAC-100 Powercollator,Stitchliner, AFC-544
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 13 December 2006
Magazine Printer's 50% Increase With New
Finishing
Ipswich (UK) magazine printer, Colourplan Print and Design, has recorded a 50 per cent increase in business and is also breaking in to the European market for the first time.
Ipswich (UK) magazine printer, Colourplan Print and Design, has recorded a 50 per cent increase in business and is also breaking in to the European market for the first time Those developments are claimed to be as a direct result of its installation of the latest Horizon automated finishing systems from Graphic Arts Equipment (GAE)
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 7 May 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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The bindery investment is the second phase of a programme that began with the introduction of a five-colour Mitsubishi Diamond 1000 in 2003 and was designed to help realise the full potential of the new pressroom capacity.
Colourplan owner, Steve Stone, explained: "These new systems mean we can take on a lot more work in longer runs and short lead times with the same staff, confident we can maintain quality and meet deadlines.
Because my clients are aware of this they are coming to me with projects we otherwise on which we would have missed out." He added: "We are doing a variety of work now from village newsletters to the Ford Europe magazine and it is the first time we have done work for the European market." The GAE package includes a three-tower VAC-100 Powercollator with Stitchliner, an AFC-544A 4-plate combination buckle and knife automated B2 folding system with Tri-Creaser option and a Perfecta 115TVC flowline guillotine with side tables.
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There is also a Toppy rechargeable powered pallet lifting truck and optional Autotrim facility (the table opens up and swallows the waste.
The programmed bindery upgrade was amended when Stone began to look in to the new systems on the market.
He explained: "Originally, we just intended to update with a Stitchliner but then we saw the Autotrim and began to see what a difference it could make to productivity and trimmings and, though we needed a folder, we had been intimidated by the complexity of setting-up and running the larger machines.
The Horizon equipment resolved the issue so we ended up with them all." The addition of the folder made an impact from day one, as Stone added: "Almost the first job that went on it was a 200,000 run 12-page DL leaflet.
It made the decision a lot easier for me." One of the key selling points was the ability of the equipment to be networked via Horizon's i2i Net Work Flow System.
It creates an i2i job ticket that travels with the work with automated systems setting-up remotely and production information updating the JDF/MIS master files.
As a result, the user is offered a bindery management facility that can be independent or integrated in to the customer's overall JDF/MIS network.
For Stone the third phase may also come sooner than expected: "We want to use the latest automated systems and if they can be networked we want to be able to do that.
Now we are at the stage of looking to see how it is all going to work.
But, whether that is right away or in the future, it has to be of some value to me." He said that the service GAE offered was important too, something Colourplan became aware of after installing a Horizon SPF20A bookletmaker five years ago.
Stone added: "GAE was our first port of call but there were a lot of others to look at.
What clinched the deal was the space we had available.
The new equipment is smaller than its competitors because we had a lot to shoehorn in.".
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