The success of its online print operation Route One prompted Rotherham general commercial printer Bluetree Design & Print to add perfect binding to its list of services with investment in a Horizon BQ470 perfect binder from IFS.
“We set up Route One in 2012 as the trade arm for the Bluetree business,” E-commerce Director James Kinsella explains. “the brand has grown very quickly which we put down to our slightly different approach, rather than just offering competitive prices Route One’s primary focus is on service and its relationships with clients.”
He continues: “Route One already produces a lot of stitched books but customers have been increasingly asking us for perfect bound options. It is important for us to have full control of production and quality management so if we were going to offer perfect binding it had to be something we did in house.”
IFS was the first port of call as the business already had a StitchLiner. “We did look at other options but having a StitchLiner we were aware of the Horizon quality, ease of use and reliability. It is our reputation that is on the line with customers so we needed to be sure.”
The small-footprinted 1,350 books per hour BQ-470 four-clamp perfect binder is ideally suited to mid-range soft back book production with higher production speeds, instant make readies for runs-of-one. It can bind up to 65 mm (2.55”) thickness and offers fully automated set-up through an intuitive icon based LCD touchscreen.
The investment follows the addition of a Xerox iGen 150 to support the group’s output from existing iGens, B1 and B2 Heidelbergs and two large format HP Scitexs.
“We also needed a system that could handle both litho and digital work,” states Kinsella. “The perfect binder does that and also gives us the flexibility to easily change the size of jobs. This is what we need in a market where runs are getting shorter and shorter.”
Kinsella concludes: “The BQ470 has allowed us expand the range of options we can offer to the resellers we partner with and produce a greater variety of book size choices”
