Optichrome expects to improve the speed, quality and reliability of short-run landscape book production following investment in a Horizon SPF-200L bookletmaker from Intelligent Finishing Systems (IFS).

The Woking operation that celebrates 60 years in 2023 specialises in high quality litho and variable personalised digital print and mailing. It runs a five-colour Heidelberg XL 105 and a five-colour Heidelberg XL75 litho presses and two Heidelberg Versafire digital colour presses.

John Heywood, Managing Director, explains the investment: “We had a similar machine, but we needed something more reliable, user friendly, versatile, and faster. The Horizon SPF-200L was recommended by a trusted individual who works for another equipment company. We did look at other systems but we liked this one because it proved to be the best on test with the easiest set-up. We particularly liked the fact it was simple to use and produced good quality results.

As a result of the investment John says: “We expect to see improvements in speeds, quality, and reliability. We will be capable of handling more job types, too, while also improving throughput and turnaround times.

He adds: “Hopefully it will help with some with new jobs that we couldn’t handle before but on the whole, we expect it to just deliver an all-round improvement. We expect return on investment in three years.”

As for working with IFS John says: “We found IFS positive and encouraging. The team was also very responsive, helpful, understanding as well as very straightforward to deal with.”

The 4,500bph Horizon SPF-200L landscape feed bookletmaker combines stitching and folding with the ability to handle sheets up to 640mm in length. JDF-ready, it offers instant set-ups via a large icon-based colour touchscreen for user-friendly operation. The screen can be used for on-the-run fine tune adjustments as well as the storage and recall of up to 200 jobs.