Last month saw us install our latest and arguably the largest install of machinery in recent years at our premises in Stoke-on-Trent.
IFS installed our new Horizon SPF-200A automated booklet maker – a huge step up for the guys in our print finishing department from running our old Horizon MC-8 system, I must add a great bit of kit that really stood the test of time in our booklet making department.
The new SPF-200A is certainly a serious bit of print finishing kit, the automated set-up cuts down our start-up times between jobs, allowing less spoilage and downtime.
Print and design company Sherwin Rivers has invested around £60,000 in a Horizon SPF-200A bookletmaker with two Horizon VAC-1000 collating towers to boost its capacity and efficiency.
The kit, which was supplied by Intelligent Finishing Systems, was installed around six weeks ago at the Stoke-on-Trent-based firm’s 370sqm site.
It will be used in place of a 20-year-old Horizon MC-8 system, which may be kept on as a backup.
Managing director Steven Stanley said the business looked at a wide range of alternatives but chose the Horizon both for the build quality and the reliability of its previous machine.
“The production speeds are so much faster, setup is considerably faster, and having more capacity is really important for us,” he said.
“We only made the decision to upgrade because we had started producing a 72-page booklet and we didn’t have enough collator capacity. We were collating a section and then dropping it on, which was time consuming.
“Since we installed the bookletmaker the 72-page job takes half the time. In the first three days we completed almost 11,000 booklets. It sets up in three minutes as opposed to 15 to 20 and it is so easy to change over book sizes.”
He added: “We were used to running a five-day week on the old bookletmaker and now we only need to run a four-day week. That means we have much more capacity and can start looking for new work.”
The SPF-200A can produce 4,500bph. The JDF-ready machine offers instant setups via a large icon-based colour touchscreen, which can be used to store and recall up to 200 jobs.
Sherwin Rivers produces a variety of print, including leaflets, brochures and business cards, for clients ranging from public authorities and large corporates to end users.
Last year the 10-staff company installed a Xerox Versant 80, a Graphtec FC8600 plotter-cutter and a Bubble Free Pro mounting table. It also runs Heidelberg litho presses and Roland DG wide-format printers.
Article from Print Weekly By Richard Stuart-Turner, Friday 11 May 2018
