Wakefield commercial printer Charlesworth Press is has chosen a Horizon BQ-70 four clamp perfect binder, from IFS, to help its continued success in personalised print.

Traditionally a journal printer, the firm also operates as trade binder Hammond Bindery. It produces litho print on an eight colour KBA Rapida 105 and a five colour Heidelberg SpeedMaster 102 and digital print on a recently added HP Indigo 7600 and HP Indigo 7800.

Last year the operation had a change in management and has since refocused its portfolio of services. The traditional journal printer has expanded into personalised book production. Among its customers is a personalised book which, during its busiest period in Q4, can generate orders of anywhere from 500 books per day to 6,000 to 7,000 books per day.

It was managing the peaks times in a cost effective and efficient manner that prompted the investment in the Horizon BQ-470V. The operation already had a Kolbus binder and a seven-clamp Horizon as well as an HT-30 but wanted a way to quickly finish the personalised books. The new system will also work alongside the seven-clamp Horizon that is being refurbished to expand production capacity.

Explains Lee Hewitt Operations Director: “Personalised book orders vary in length depending on the recipient’s name. Because the BQ-470 has an automatic caliper it can quickly be set up ready for each book block. This also helps us ensure we adhere to our 36-hour turnaround promise. It also means we can get the work for all jobs out of the door faster.”

As for choosing the Horizon he says: “We knew what we wanted. We liked how easy it was to set up and we had seen it demonstrated at various shows and open houses. Our other Horizons run every day of the week and in their 11 years I cannot recall them ever breaking down. We work them hard and now that our volumes on short run perfect binding have grown we needed another automated binder. The obvious choice for us was Horizon.”

As for the impact it has made he states: “It has been one of the most reliable bits of kit we have had to be honest. It is a robust system. We cannot afford to let work build up and with this we can get it finished much faster. We also know we can comfortably handle any increase in demand.”

He adds: “With increased orders from our customers and the ability to promote the service to other customers we expect ROI in 18 months.”

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.