Gloucester commercial digital printer Inky Little Fingers has increased production capacity with investment in a Horizon four clamp BQ-500 iCE Binder from Intelligent Finishing Systems.

Laurence Felton, Managing Director, explains: “Perfect binding is central to our business. The higher production speed and enhanced automation of the BQ-500 gives us a significant boost in productivity with the same number of staff. We liked the enhancements it delivered over our existing single clamp Horizon BQ-280 system. There is also an upgrade path to integrate this machine with the HT-300 for higher automation should we need this in the future.”

Laurence made the decision on paper. He expands: “Due to Covid evaluating other manufacturers equipment would have been very difficult if not impossible. We chose the Horizon BQ-500 primarily because we trust IFS and Horizon to deliver a reliable product that does what they say it does. We are a long standing customer and IFS had made us aware of this machine before it’s launch.”

The 1000bph Horizon BQ-500PUR (1350bph EVA) four clamp perfect binder builds on the successful tried and trusted features of its BQ-470 and BQ-480 predecessors. Its enhanced functionality includes highly automated set up via a large 12.1 inch colour touchscreen, memory storage of up to 999 jobs, pre-installed variable software capability and variable thickness production of 5mm

It is pre-installed with Horizon’s cloud-based iCE LiNK workflow that provides access to an intuitive, easy to use dashboard that reports real-time production analysis for improved efficiency and profitability, remote update capabilities and scheduled maintenance, resulting in less downtime.

It also incorporates new design features that aid easy operation. They include a status light that indicates, at a distance, how the binder is running, and an ergonomic design where all the operator required actions are on the same side.