The need to offer both PUR and EVA binding in house prompted Essex trade finisher Filmdie to invest in a Horizon BQ470 EVA/PUR perfect binder and a Horizon HT30 three-side trimmer.

“It is all about being able to deliver faster,” says Filmdie managing director Gary Ross. “Orders can be made in the morning with customers wanting it the next day or even that afternoon. We don’t want to turn anything away and so we needed to be able to offer all the binding in house.”

The business did have an old Horizon perfect binder and Ross says: “We could complete EVA binding but we were sending PUR out. We have a lot of covers that come in and they need PUR binding. We wanted to bring all that in house, take control of the turnaround costs and save time and money on sending work out.

Ross did review the competition but comments: “We saw the system at a show and then had a demo. We also knew that Horizon systems are robust, easy to use and fast to set up. That made the decision easy. It was the right machine to buy.”

The Horizon BQ-470 is ideally suited to mid-range soft back book production with higher production speeds, instant make readies for runs-of-one. It can bind up to 65 mm (2.55”) thickness and offers fully automated set-up through an intuitive icon based LCD touchscreen.

As for the Horizon HT30 he adds: “The guillotine was a bottleneck for us. There was no point investing in a binder and completing the work quickly only to have to wait for the guillotine.”

The Horizon HT30 three-side trimmer features automated job set-ups and quick changeovers with the ability to store up to 40 different book jobs in memory. It operates off-line to trim perfect bound books at speeds up to 200 cycles per hour. A colour touch screen allows all set-ups to be performed with full automation.

The impact made was felt immediately says Ross: “We are 50% faster and that has significantly increased our capacity. Our turnaround times are much faster. The systems will easily pay for themselves in a couple of years.”