Bookletmaker Boosts Trade Printers' Productivity

With an eight bin Watkiss DigiVAC vertical collating tower Restart Print has boosted productivity in its finishing division.

The Tamworth (UK) trade printer's DigiVAC functions on-line to a Watkiss' Bookmaster, Trimmaster and Spinemaster bookletmaking modules.

The investment has proved so successful that the company forecasts profitability will increase at unprecedented levels in the coming months.

Deane Merrick, owner of Restart Print, said: "It is amazing that such a compact system can have such a huge effect on our output.

Before we installed the Watkiss machine, we had four separate processes to produce booklets and magazines for our customers.

The operation involved running the printed material through a folding machine, collating it by hand, stitching it with a single-head stitcher and finally guillotining down to final size." He added: "For a 30,000 run, it would take us over a week to complete the stitching process alone, so to finish a job of this size we would normally have outsourced it to a third party.

The Watkiss system has truly revolutionised our production and we are now able to complete the same job in two days.

It collates, folds, staples and trims sheets before creating a high-quality, professional Squareback finish with the Spinemaster module - all in one pass.

As a result, our production speeds have increased and the quality of our output has improved." As a result of being the only vertical collator to adopt bottom-feed technology, The Watkiss DigiVAC collating tower is claimed to be unique in that each bin can be loaded 'on the run', without the operator having to stop the machine for loading.

The system allows for continuous operation with a single bin, giving it a small footprint - a feature that particularly appeals to Restart Print, added Watkiss.

Merrick explained: "We are a privately owned company of just seven employees and have limited floor space to dedicate to our finishing department.

Housing the Watkiss system meant the removal of just one bench; as such, disruption at the point of delivery was kept to a minimum and we have been able to retain our existing machines as back up." In addition to the financial benefits from accelerating production and reducing outsourcing costs, the Watkiss collating and bookletmaking system has helped Restart Print identify another, lucrative business sector that the company is now in a position to exploit.

Merrick commented: "Because the system is able to process digitally printed material, we have been able to advertise our finishing services to local printers and copy shops.

The DigiVAC running on-line to the bookletmaking components has provided us with a new service from which we expect to gain extra revenue.

Furthermore, its installation means we are now prepared for expansion if we were to ever decide to complement our Heidelberg offset services with a digital print-on-demand facility." Restart Print produces booklets and magazines, mainly for design agencies, print brokers and printing companies in the UK.

It owns a design studio, CTP system and five-colour offset press from Heidelberg, as well as a range of stand-alone systems in its recently-extended finishing department.

The company was established in 1996 and has a turnover of GBP370,000 per annum.

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