Oxford Commercial Printer Holywell Press has invested in a Horizon HT-30 three-side trimmer from Intelligent Finishing Systems to eliminate bottlenecks in the bindery.

Founded in 1890 by Harry Burrows and Jack Doe, Holywell Press initially produced work for Oxford University and Morris cars but later expanded its reach, by becoming a publishing outlet for local authors and printing the University magazine Isis.  Today, its workload is a wide mix of general commercial and educational print.

It chose the new system to support completion of work produced by a Horizon BQ-270 single-clamp perfect binder bought in 2013. The operation also has a Horizon CRF-362 folder creaser.

Managing Director Ben Burrows, a fourth-generation family member, explains: “We bought the binder and were finishing the books on a guillotine. However, with a varied mix of short run and longer run work of up to 1500 it was becoming a bit of a bottleneck.

“We looked at a couple of options on the market but liked the Horizon. The perfect binder has been very reliable and is easy to set up and run. We are impressed with the build quality of the Horizon equipment and have seen the HT-30 in operation at the IFS show room and trade shows.

“It took us a while to make the decision because of the cost and the fact it is not adding a new service, like the binder was, but was streamlining processes already in place. That makes it harder to quantify its return on investment but we know that it will make a key contribution to the smoother operation of the bindery.”

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.