Full service litho and digital print specialist ESP has invested in a Tecnau BookReady B3 dynamic cut & stack solution to improve efficiencies, reduce costs and explore new market opportunities.

The Swindon operation chose the Tecnau BookReady to run inline with its Canon varioPRINT iX3000. Nearline production support is being provided by a Horizon StitchLiner saddlestitching system, a Horizon BQ-470 perfect binder and a Horizon BQ-500 perfect binder inline to a Horizon HT300 trimmer. Further upgrades are planned.

Dave Woloszczynski, Head of Digital Production & Operations, comments: “ESP is always looking at ways to automate the production process, to be more productive, and improve the customer experience. We handle a high volume of short run PUR, hardcover and print on demand binding jobs. Before the Tecnau BookReady was installed, to make it more efficient for binding, we had to trim the books from SRA3 sheets, then sort the book blocks by jogging each individual book. But this relies on human intervention, which obviously has a considerable cost attached to it.

“We had been looking for an automated process for the last five years without any luck, until we saw the BookReady at Drupa last year. Our printing process is completely automated. For example, batching the books by size and spine thickness has eliminated the need for guillotining and sorting. Now we just have to wheel the pallet of jogged book blocks straight to the Horizon binders. This makes the finishing process more efficient and gets books out quicker for our customers.”

The Tecnau BookReady is a completely automated system for short-run and book-on-demand production. It slits, cuts and stacks up to B3 size sheets printed in 2up and 4up imposition into final size separated book blocks such as A4+ and A5+ ready for near-line book binding. Applications can be changed on-the-fly without any manual intervention at full printing speed and all jobs are automatically setup on-demand and with no manual intervention.

Adds Woloszczynski: “The install was seamless and was completed, along with training, within three days. Since then we have been running non-stop. It is operating like a dream.

He continues: “It has made a huge impact on efficiency and cost savings. The whole production process is much quicker, so much so we can now take more work on. It will enable us to have more capacity so that we can expand into other markets and consider new opportunities, especially in publishing. We usually have an expected return on investment of equipment of around three years. The Bookready will definitely achieve that and in a faster timescale.”