Booklet production line helps draw new business

Establishing a successful operation in a new market sector is a tricky manoeuvre and finding the right supply partners is half the battle, as Rotherham's Hanley Swiffen discovered.

When the family-run UK variable data print specialist wanted to capitalise on demand for digital short-run colour, it chose to the Horizon SPF/FC-200A booklet production line from Graphic Arts Equipment (GAE).

The integrated JDF-ready Horizon system was picked to complete output from Hanley Swiffen's Heidelberg DI press.

The company's managing director, Steven Swiffen, who stepped in to his father, Hanley's, shoes in 1995, says the new addition has paid off: "We are getting through three to four times more work than before and with less staff.

Before we would have one person dedicated to setting up our old machine and he needed to use spanners.

Each time this could take up to 45 minutes and he was the only person that could do it correctly." He explains: "Now, with the high level of automation, set-ups take much less time.

This means we can get more jobs finished in a day.

Also most of our eight members of staff can run the machine so when our main operator was off sick recently any one of a number of people could step in and produce work of the same high quality." Features on the integrated JDF-ready SPF/FC-200A include a running speed of 4,500bph, a 200-programme job memory for recall, icon-based touch-screen for job set-up and external waste removal that is inherently safer and also saves downtime.

Hanley Swiffen's investment also included the 10-station VAC-Turbo Powercollator and a long delivery conveyor.

Before making the decision Swiffen researched the market: "We looked at everything that was available from Duplo to CP Bourg but nothing shone as much as the SPF/FC-200A.

The level of automation is very high and we liked the touch-screen console and the job memory storage.

Another important factor was the resale value and the Horizon machine holds its value much better than the others." Not only has the addition transformed the operation, it has also won new work, as he adds: "We have taken on a few local village magazines since its installation.

That is partly because we are able to produce them quickly and easily, which enabled us to be more competitively priced.

With the old set-up this was not an area we could compete in but now we are more flexible.

Each run is different and people are coming to us with a variety of sizes, such as A5 landscape and A5 portrait and we can make quick change-overs because it is much simpler to set up.

Productivity is very fast.

We are doing more work and at the same time eliminating bottlenecks.".

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