The G&H Group has completed a significant period of change in its 40 year history with investment in an IFS supplied Horizon SPF/FC-200A bookletmaker.
Following its acquisition of the business from Blackburns, the Manchester sheetfed operation, founded in 1969, has expanded its digital capabilities with the 1,000th and 1001st HP Indigo 7600s – the first in the North of England. All the digital work will be completed nearline by the Horizon SPF/FC-200A complete with two VAC-Turbo 600 collating towers.
Sales and Marketing Director Christian Peacock states while The G&H Group’s rich heritage of litho production will be maintained the future also very much lies in a fast turnaround, responsive and high quality digital service. This will meet demand from the operation’s varied customer base that includes retailers, financial institutions, educational establishments and business to business collateral and Mr Peacock expects this business to grow as customers realise the quality now possible.
He explains a significant factor in the purchase was the level of automation and ease of use of the Horizon SPF/FC-200A bookletmaker : “Where our previous older bindery systems would have taken up to 25 minutes per job to set up, the new Horizon takes just a couple of minutes. We can save up to a third or even half the time now. We are more efficient and more effective and can provide an improved service.”
Mr Peacock said the 4,500bph JDF-ready SPF/FC-200A was chosen for three reasons: “The build quality was better than the competition, the functionality and flexibility provided by a single system was better than the competition and while the price was not the cheapest, it was good for what it does and what we can now do.”
The system features a 200-programme job memory storage for instant recall and an icon-based touch-screen for job set-up. The patented Horizon advanced suction rotor drum feeding system operates effectively on a wide variety of paper stocks at high speeds. Accuracy and reliability are assured by mis-feed, double feed and jamming sensors on each bin and the feed error history can be monitored via the touchscreen.
As for the collators he said: “They replace an older collator more suited to litho work and so are faster. They are also more highly automated which makes operation easier and improves production.”
