Educational Printing Services Picks SPF/FC-200A From GAE

Educational Printing Services has awarded top grades in speed, set-up and build quality to the Horizon SPF/FC-200A from Graphic Arts Equipment.

The Blackburn specialist printer of school books, diaries, teachers’ resources and educational literature put a number of equipment suppliers to the test before finding the integrated JDF-ready SPF/FC-200A a clear winner.

Features on the 4,500 bph book production line include a 200-programme job memory for instant recall and set-up of jobs and external waste removal that cuts downtime. Educational Printing Services’ investment also included three 10-station VAC-Turbo PowerCollators and an extended delivery conveyor.

“Our Bourg system was getting long in the tooth and we decided it was time for an upgrade,” explained Martin Philbin, director of the £1.5m annual turnover operation.”

“We first saw the prototype system at IPEX 06 and then went to see one being run at a local print operation we know and respect. Straightaway I could see that it had a superior build quality and was simpler to use. The operators love it because it makes their life a lot easier.”

And after a few months in operation it continues to impress says Mr Philbin: “It is faster and the set up takes just a couple of minutes instead of the hour or so we were used to on the other machine.”

“We tend to finish three sizes of book on a regular basis and, before, we had to hold jobs back and batch them to run all the same sizes together… we would work on one size one day and move onto the next size once all the work was done. This meant more planning and delayed turnaround times. But now we don’t need to pick and choose what work we run next.”

“We can store the set-ups in the system’s memory so in minutes we can switch from one size to the next. This gives us much greater flexibility and the freedom turn work around much quicker. I am sure this faster operation will enable us to open up more avenues of work in the future.”