Finishing & Screen Printing

Cutting capacity increased at Stephens & George

Friday 03. May 2013 - Stephens & George Print Group is upgrading its materials handling around a third Polar 115XT guillotine to bring parity across its cutting lines.

“Two of the three lines had joggers, pile turners, Transomat downloaders and weighing scales to measure the piles and when operators were asked to cut work they always opted for one of these flow lines, meaning the standalone Polar 115XT became just back up,” says Marcus Partridge, bindery manager. “We want parity across all three lines so we have made this materials handling investment which gives us capacity to cover cutting throughput even during peak periods. It’s a slick and smart way to work.”
The operator sets the scales initially by weighing ten sheets and then calculating the weight and therefore total sheet count. This gives confidence in quantifying accurately all products which are cut.
Materials handling increases the productivity of the cutter, freeing the guillotine operator to cut more sheets by reducing the manual handling involved. In addition it provides added Health & Safety benefits.
Another factor in Stephens & George’s quest to maximise efficiency in cutting is the imminent implementation of Postpress Manager. The company already runs Pressroom Manager and has seen the benefits of linking production to MIS to provide real time information and data and now this will be extended into the bindery.
The Stephens & George plant in Merthyr Tydfil is 120,000 sq ft and works around the clock to produce both commercial and publications work for a UK wide customer base.