Print Domain is underpinning its growing print-on-demand and web-to-print business with investment in a Petratto Mini Bat Plus with Roboperf from Intelligent Finishing Systems.

Established in 1961, the family-run Rotherham operation has steadily increased its on-demand digital print business over the past couple of years and now runs eight Ricoh and Konica Minolta digital presses. This, coupled with its web-to-print service, has also opened up a number of niche markets which has meant a change in expectation of the capabilities of the bindery. Not only does it need to complete jobs faster but there is also demand for more creative solutions that add value and tie-in longer term customer relationships.

Steven Swiffen, managing director, explains: “We identified demand in the market for a greater range of end products such as CDs, tickets and vouchers. We don’t like to outsource work because of the question of delivery times and the reliance on a third party supplier. We prefer to keep everything in-house and, before this investment, we were turning these kinds of jobs away. You can’t always expect to be able to build in one or two extra days into a job and wait for it to come back. That is why the time was right for this investment.”

Improving throughput for digital jobs was also important, comments Mr Swiffen: “We had a Horizon folder but because it was semi-automatic it took some time to make ready. With an increased number of shorter runs we decided a more automated and faster to set up system was necessary.

“We looked around the market but there wasn’t anything else like the Petratto Mini Bat that could do everything we wanted it to. It is unique. It combines a number of elements we wanted to add – the quick fast folding, ease of set up and the ability to add a perforated voucher or loyalty card in the middle of the sheet.

Important too was the expert support from Intelligent Finishing Systems: “We have a good, long-standing relationship with IFS so we knew the system would do what we wanted it to,” comments Mr Swiffen. “That confidence was very important in making the final decision.”

Since installation Mr Swiffen has been very happy with the Petratto Mini Bat’s performance: “One of the jobs we ran on it was for CDs and previously changing these over would have taken an hour but with the Petratto this was just minutes. This saving in time means our bindery team can move onto other work.”

But for Mr Swiffen a crucial benefit of adding the Petratto is that it has changed the type of conversation his sales team can have with customers. It also changes the contacts they are talking to. He expands: “It enables us to be more creative and produce more lucrative work. It also stops our customers shopping around and finding somebody else to work with. We can talk to designers now and help them come up with solutions they would have not considered before.

He concludes: “Short run creative finishing is a rare combination but one the Petratto has enabled us to offer.”

A compact die-creasing and perforating machine, the Petratto Mini Bat is the original true creaser. It utilises the rule and matrix method of creasing traditionally used in die cutting machines – the most effective option for creasing cross grain. Additional improvements are greater corner accuracy and the ability to process lower grammages.

Print Domain’s Mini Bat is also equipped with Petratto’s unique Roboperf system which allows complex perforation patterns in the x and y axes.