Clays, the UK’s biggest book printer, has chosen an IFS-supplied Petratto Cordoba heavy duty folder gluer to support its bindery evolution.

The 200-year-old company was recently bought by Italian firm Elcograf for £23.8m and it wanted to introduce two-up book production to make operations more cost effective, efficient and streamlined. It prints around 150m books a year and also offers a distribution service.

Paul Bullen, general manager, explains: “We needed a system that could fold and glue two-up. We were outsourcing the work but our suppliers could only produce one-up. Two-up is much more efficient and we wanted to start completing more jobs that way.”

The operation first considered the Petratto Cordoba in 2013 but for a number of operational reasons the project was put on hold and picked up again 12 months ago.

The Cordoba range uses a matrix system to crease substrates prior to folding. It incorporates a traditional folding section with a knife and matrix creasing unit. The folder has a modified roller configuration and fold plate angle, which eliminates cracking and curls when folding heavy stocks.

It can crease a wide range of substrates from 80gsm to 600 gsm, including heavy boards or plastics, lamination, cross grain and digital print, and fold from 140gsm to 600gsm.

Bullen continues “We liked the fact that it easily manages short runs too – from 100 to 100,000. The best thing about it is its fast change over. Other systems glue and plough fold and that can take up to an hour to change jobs on. This is much faster.”