Bookbinder Adds On-Demand Print Facility to Offer Bespoke Service

Acton’s Blissett Bookbinders is balancing traditional techniques with state-of the-art technology to secure its future success.

The highly respected third generation family firm of library bookbinders has built an unrivalled reputation and boasts prestigious clientele for its binding and book conservation services. It serves library information/document centres Europe-wide as well as private companies and individuals.

And the west London company has its eyes clearly focused on the future with the launch of sister operation BDD. Blissett Digital & Design provides a bespoke design, print and bind one-stop-shop facility for libraries, archives, Local Studies Libraries, publishers and general customers. The on-demand run-of-one service allows 'out of print' titles to be reprinted or short runs of multiple copies to be printed and bound as facsimiles of the originals (copyright permitting of course).
“Business is increasing every month,” says Managing Director Gary Blissett.

Now, to help smooth out production workflow and assure the ‘drop-of-a-hat’ turnround service, a Horizon HT30JDF robotic three-side trimmer has been introduced to run alongside the BQ270JDF single-clamp perfect binder GAE installed in 2005. 

“It has taken the strain off our guillotines in the bindery,” explains Mr Blissett. “It has saved space and streamlined production so that the books are coming off the line and are ready to go straight out rather then having to go to the guillotine. We’d known about the benefits of the HT30 for a while but it was just a matter of getting the timing right. The increase in business created a trimming bottleneck and this is the ideal solution.”

The new Horizon has had the added benefits of improving the look of the final product and relieving staffing pressures: “We have found that it has increased the quality of finish as the blades last longer giving a better finish. We used to have two separate operators  - one binding and one cutting – but now it only takes one person to do the job, freeing up the other operator to work elsewhere.”
 
The HT30JDF three-side trimmer rotates the books to trim three sides with a single knife. Features include an easy-to-use touch-screen control for automated set-ups, hydraulic knife operation and book clamping and the ability to trim books of different thicknesses (up to 51 mm) which are fed automatically from the in-feed hopper. On its final stroke the direction of the knife is reversed to avoid the tell-tale distortion of the book’s spine. An easy maintenance system reduces knife change time to a third compared to normal trimmers and it is supplied with a tungsten-carbide tipped trim knife as standard for longer life.