Southend-on-Sea general commercial printer Urban Design and Print has chosen to support demand for its digital print with investment in a Horizon SPF/FC-200 bookletmaker and a B3 Foliant Vega 400 laminator from IFS.
“We have had a Kodak NexPress for three years and interest in digital short-run work is increasing,” explains Jeff Chaplin, Managing Director.
He continues: “We have a Muller Martini saddlestitcher but also needed something to handle the faster turnaround shorter run digital jobs more efficiently and cost effectively.”
The 4,500bph Horizon SPF/FC-200 was chosen as it is JDF-ready and offers instant set-ups via a large icon-based colour touchscreen for user-friendly operation. The screen can be used for on-the-run fine tune adjustments as well as storage and recall of up to 200 jobs.
“We had been looking around for a while at what was on the market but liked the Horizon for a number of reasons. One of the main ones being that it takes a flat sheet and turns it into a booklet. There is no separate folding. Manually this would have taken us time before, now the jobs can be completed so much faster. This saves us time and frees up staff to work on other jobs. It is quick, easy to use and does everything we wanted it to do.”
The B3 Foliant Vega 400 laminator was added to replace a hand-fed laminator: “This was a much faster decision,” says Mr Chaplin. “It was a no brainer. We saw it in operation at Print Efficiently – it is quick and cost effective. Now a job that was taking half a day takes just an hour or so.”
Capable of 18mpm, the Foliant Vega is ideal for digital or litho short to medium run lengths. It features an intuitive colour touch screen control for easy set up and fast makereadies and low level housekeeping as there is no need for regular cleaning. It also has a compact footprint.
Mr Chaplin adds: “Both investments were about increasing automation to improve throughput and production speed. This makes the whole operation much smoother and enables us to profitably take on more short-run work.”
