The Printroom is on target for a double-digit percentage increase in turnover after investing in the UK’s first Horizon StitchLiner 6000, supplied by Intelligent Finishing Systems.
The Liverpool commercial printer has increased production capacity and improved responsiveness since it introduced the 6,000 bph, book production system – the fastest in the Horizon range. The StitchLiner 6000 uniquely feeds sheets on the long edge for increased speed and paper stability.
“The StitchLiner is very productive,” states Managing Director Dave Mann. “One of the first jobs we completed was a 40,000 A5 20pp brochure running at 6,000 per hour, the job was finished in eight hours. Before the StitchLiner it would have taken 40 hours on our old machine. The StitchLiner will provide us with significant increase in production capacity.
“It also eliminated the bottleneck we had in the finishing department. If someone came to us and said they wanted a job by Wednesday we would have said it needed to be signed off by Monday. Now we can be more flexible. The investment has opened up more slots in our production schedule.”
Mr Mann adds: “For each of the last three years we have increased our turnover by 10% and we expect to do the same again thanks to the contribution the StitchLiner will make.”
The new addition replaces a horizontal MKW and Mr Mann did consider alternatives including the Duplo DBMi. He explains: “We went to IFS’s Perivale showroom with half a dozen jobs and we could see straight away how easy the machine was to set up and how much difference the automation makes. We are used to working with flat sheets so that also helped make operation simple.”
With user-friendly set up through a colour touchscreen and high level of automation the StitchLiner 6000 assures short make-readies for quick turnaround. Make readies can be completed in minutes and job memory storage enables the specifications of repeat work to be easily recalled. However, Mr Mann comments: “When we first looked at the StitchLiner we liked the ability to access repeat jobs and interrupt longer runs, if we needed to, for fast turnaround jobs.”
An environmentally conscious operation, The Printroom has also eliminated outsourcing for saddlestitching and the accompanying carbon emissions from transportation.
Established in 2003, by a team who previously worked together in the print department of a major financial organisation based in Crosby, The Printroom runs a B2 manroland 500 alcohol-free press and has just been awarded EMAS certification, one of only 10 printers in the UK to have the certification. It is also ISO14001 & FSC certified.
The StitchLiner 6000 is the latest evolution in Horizon’s saddlestitching family of systems first launched more than ten years ago. It is based on the same fundamental design aimed at achieving high quality with maximum efficiency. Because it takes a flat sheet, then folds, stitches and trims in one complete process the time and cost of pre-folding signature sections or pre-trimming is eliminated.
Like the StitchLiner 5500, the new system can also incorporate a centre knife in the three-knife trimmer to double running speed to 12,000 bph in two-up production. Its new landscape feeding and straight saddle-stitching flow enables the smooth production of thinner paper stock and larger, landscape-oriented sheets. The new VAC-80S collating towers are equipped with eight landscape feeding stations for improved substrate control. Mr Mann says the towers are faster resulting in productivity and accuracy ‘that our customers need’.
The StitchLiner joins an IFS-supplied Perfecta 115 guillotine and Mr Mann adds: “The service from IFS has been fantastic so we know what level of backup we are getting.”
