Birtwells has reinvested in Horizon technology with the addition of three VAC 600H Collators from Intelligent Finishing Systems (IFS).
The Accrington operation that delivers a nationwide trade print service runs a 4 colour Heidelberg SM52-4+LX Anicolor, a 5 colour Heidelberg SM52-5P SpeedMaster and two single colour Heidelberg GTOs as well as a Konica Minolta C7000 and Heidelberg Versafire.
The new additions were a like-for-like replacement as managing director Nick Birtwell explains: “About 80% of our work is collating and NCR sets and 20% booklets. We have three collating towers on our bookletmaker and three stand alone towers. It was time to replace the stand-alone towers and it was an easy decision to invest in Horizon again.”
He continues: “They are well built reliable towers and they suit us really well. They were quickly and easily installed. We have seen runs getting smaller and the easy to set up and operate collators enable us to complete the work more flexibly.”
The collators are equipped with Horizon’s unique rotary suction feeders that operate effectively on a wide range of paper stocks. The VAC-600H towers, which can be placed in-line with Horizon bookletmaking systems, feature a high-power double feed detect sensor and image checking system.
The investment also included PJ75 Horizon Joggers for easy paper handling.