Finishing & Screen Printing
Horizon Folder Eliminates Bottleneck at Lavenham Press
Tuesday 04. May 2010 - Improved productivity and efficiency is being enjoyed by The Lavenham Press following the installation of an automated Horizon B2 folding system from IFS.
The Suffolk specialist in the production of magazines and periodicals, which hopes to hit the £4m turnover mark this year, has eliminated a time-consuming and costly bottleneck with the addition of the easy-to-use AFC564A folder.
Managing director Terence Dalton, who took over the firm in 1983 from his father, said: “It was the high level of automation that made this model stand out. We liked the ability to store repeat work while jobs, particularly complex ones, can be easily set-up.”
As well as the Horizon folding systems highly automated set up and its 200-job on-board memory store, Mr Dalton liked the 17-fold pattern pre-selection program and 40,000sph production speed.
The investment coincided with the addition of the operations five-colour B1 Heidelberg SpeedMaster 102 explained Mr Dalton: “Folding was already a bottleneck in the finishing department and we knew the higher productivity press would put more pressure on the process. The AFC564A was chosen because of its flexibility to complete smaller runs and different-sized work.
He explained that although the operation has B1 presses, as much as a third of work is smaller and can be folded on the B2 system. This enables its B1 folders to left to exclusively complete the 16-page and 32-page jobs eliminating time spent on their makereadies. And where before four, six and eight-page publications could be uneconomic to fold on the larger machines, the new Horizon is perfectly suited to completing these jobs.
Mr Dalton adds: “It is so quick and easy to set-up making it ideal for runs of 100 or 200 as well as all the others. It will have a measurable difference on our business, making us more efficient and therefore more profitable. “
Mr Dalton thoroughly researched the market before making the investment: “We conducted a very detailed analysis of the folders available looking carefully at prices and capabilities and there is a big choice in this sector. We have become more and more aware of IFS in recent years, plus we liked its support and it was genuinely interested in helping us improve our business.”