New Horizon Boosts Preston Trade Finisher

Trade finisher D Sanderson (Bookbinders) of Preston has boosted production of saddlestitched catalogues, brochures and booklets by 20% following its investment in a Horizon StitchLiner from GAE.

As well as improving performance on existing work, the new system has helped win new contracts from local printers by reducing costs and improving turnround. Director John Doherty explains: “The StitchLiner eliminates the folding process so printers supply their jobs as untrimmed 4-page sections ready to run. Because the Horizon sets up so fast and is so productive, we can deliver them finished and boxed in the tightest deadlines.”

John Doherty, who joined Sanderson in 1970 and took over the reins 15 years ago when the last of the Sanderson family retired, continues: “We began promoting the StitchLiner before it arrived and almost immediately we increased production by around 20%. We do a lot of work for a company in London and on the old machine the job would have taken all day to complete but now we can finish two or three similar runs in the same time.

“This is partly down to the three-knife trimmer because previously the job would have required trimming head and foot before being finished. Now this is done in one pass on the StitchLiner. But the ease of set-up also saves us so much time, which means we can produce more work. We do a lot of business for Baxi boilers as well, including a regular 60-page 10,000 run job. Thanks to the StitchLiner it is finished much faster and to a higher quality.”

JDF-ready, the StitchLiner features fully-automated makereadies and works from flat four-page section, eliminating the need to fold into signatures - saving time and energy. It runs at speeds of 5,500 bph, has an icon-based LCD touch screen for easy set-up and job memory storage for quick job change over.

The investment also helps D Sanderson to make a profit on lots of smaller runs - a strategy the operation embraces.  Mr Doherty says: “We complete a lot of bookletmaking and would rather run ten jobs of 1,000 than one of 10,000. We don’t like to put all our eggs in one basket. But we are also seeing an increase in small runs so we needed a system that would quickly and easily switch jobs. With the job memory storage the StitchLiner does just that and the touch-screen control makes it very easy for our operators to use.

“Since it was installed it hasn’t stopped running. We are even talking to companies again who stopped using us when our older machine got tired. Customers have noticed the difference too and are impressed by the quality of the finish – especially the cleaner edges left by the three-knife trimmer. If I had the chance to buy another bookletmaker tomorrow I would definitely buy the StitchLiner again.

As for working with GAE he says: “Nothing is too much trouble for GAE. You can always find someone to speak to and they are always willing to help with any questions you have.”