Just five weeks after installing a Horizon BQ-270V single clamp perfect binder Chesham commercial printer Think PA says it has already paid back 25% of its original cost.

The business, founded in 1983, works with a wide customer base from local and national firms to art galleries. It offers litho and digital print on a five-colour Heidelberg SM74, a Xerox C75 and a Ricoh Pro C9100. The Horizon BQ-270V was its first step into offering inhouse perfect binding.

Explains director Andy Hurley: “We were sending all the work out before but with more short run digital jobs coming in taking the work to the finisher and then collecting it was time-consuming. We were also having to keep track of more and more orders. We needed something that could do the job and do it quickly.

“I did a lot of homework and looked at a number of machines. The Horizon BQ-270V was by far the best one. The others were not even close. It’s automation stood out. It can fold and crease the covers. The quality is excellent too.

“The first job we did on it was a 324-page report. We thought it would push it to its limits but it did it very well.

As for the impact the new system has made Hurley comments: “It has been in just over a month and already made a big difference. We have won two jobs I wasn’t expecting to win. So far, we have saved over 25% of the cost of the system. If we continue to win jobs like this we will get return on investment in no time.

The 500bph Horizon BQ-270V single-clamp perfect binder offers high-quality perfect binding and on-demand production of variable thickness books. The binder includes an automated, sensor-activated digital caliper system which consistently measures book block thickness and automatically transfers this data to the binder for quick, automated set-up for books of different thicknesses. It features a large 10.4″ intelligent color touch-screen, job programming, and a compact configuration.