East Kilbride commercial printer Core Image has enhanced its bookletmaking and increased production capacity following investment in a Horizon StitchLiner 5500 from Intelligent Finishing Systems.
The latest addition is part of a £200,000 spend that includes a Heidelberg Versafire. The operation, that is this year celebrating its 25th anniversary in business, also runs a five-colour Heidelberg SpeedMaster 52L and a Konica Minolta Bizhub. It works mainly with design agencies and marketing departments.
Explains David Hunter, Managing Director: “We had an old SetMaster which was long overdue for replacement. Upgrading was pushed back in the last couple of years as we invested in other areas of the business but this year we vowed to bring our finishing up-to-date. We looked at a few options but liked the StitchLiner because of its inline three-knife trimming, creasing, folding and ease of set-up.
“The StitchLiner was definitely the way to go. It is a fantastic machine and is making such a difference already. Before installation we had one job which took nearly two days with, at one stage, four people involved. On the StitchLiner it was finished in one hour. In terms of productivity, sanity – mine and everyone else’s – it was a no brainer. IFS were a delight to work with and I’d like to thank the whole team from Stewart in sales, all at Head Office and Charlie the demonstrator who went above and beyond.
“We used to have a bottleneck in the bindery and now we don’t. We are looking to make the whole operation lean and part of that is streamlining production where we can. Our operation is now more effective.”
The Horizon StitchLiner incorporates a high definition icon-based colour touchscreen for set-ups in less than two minutes. It can work from flat four-page sections, eliminating the need for separate bindery stages to be undertaken such as signature folding and guillotining.
Its integral ACF-30 Accumulator with scoring, plow-folding and heavy-duty HTS-30S Three-Knife Trimmer means there is no need to pre-fold into signatures or pre-cut sections top and tail – resulting in significant time, waste and energy savings.
Hunter concludes: “We don’t have an ROI target but the StitchLiner has already made a huge difference, both to productivity and quality of finished product, and will pay for itself very quickly.”
