Finishing & Screen Printing

Latimer Trend & Company Ltd.: Glasgow to Plymouth in 19 Days

Friday 02. November 2012 - In just 19 days, Muller Martini shipped a complete Bolero perfect binding line from Glasgow to Plymouth, while also managing to dismantle and completely reassemble the machine in such a short time frame. Journal and book printer, Latimer Trend & Company Ltd. is now able to offer highly competitive binding with an exceptional quality product with a wide range of binding products.

The short time frame of just over two weeks must surely be a record: Latimer Trend ordered a used Bolero from Muller Martini England, on January 9 of this year, and had it shipped from Glasgow to replace its Monostar perfect binder that had been in operation since 1999. On January 23, the experts at Muller Martini disassembled the Bolero and, within 19 days, transported it 780 kilometers across Great Britain from Scotland to the southern English coast, completely overhauled and cleaned it whilst simultaneously disassembling Latimer Trends Monostar binding line – and on February 10th, they pressed the start button.
MM England offered the Bolero line, originally installed by them in 2006, as one of the most highly specified binding lines in the United Kingdom with very low operating hours. In addition to this one of the deciding factors for investing in the Bolero line, according to Finance Director Ian Crocker, was the fact that Muller Martini England as a general contractor was able to complete the entire relocation project including the overhaul the machine (adding new pressing stations, examining the glue pots, the VPN/PUR nozzles, and the Zenith S three-knife trimmer and introducing new software) in such a short time frame. “Without this professional support, we would have never considered purchasing a second-hand perfect binder,” he said.
Optimal Customer Support
For Bruno Müller, CEO of Muller Martini, Latimer Trend is a typical example of the increasing importance the service business is gaining in the graphic design industry: “With our MMStartup module, we have been contracted by customers to relocate several hundred machines within plants and to refurbish them according to the specific customer needs. We also support customers who have opted for used Muller Martini machines both in the purchasing process and during the subsequent installation, reconditioning and commissioning of the equipment. We will continue to increase our activities in this important field, with the declared aim of providing the best support to our many customers worldwide in optimizing their production equipment.”
Training Included
The extensive service package for Latimer Trend also included training for two machine operators for the comprehensive Bolero line – consisting of a 21-station gathering machine, a Universo stacker, book block feeder, a book data center (BDC) and a Zenith S three knife trimmer. One of the operators took part in a one-week training at Muller Martini’s book academy in Felben, Switzerland, which was followed up with training for both operators over a three-week period on-site working directly on the Bolero line. “As we made a great technological leap from the Monostar to the Bolero, it was particularly important for us to receive targeted training for our personnel,” says Production Director Andy Ogden.
A Fast Make Ready and PUR
There were two critical factors that Latimer Trend was looking to address with this investment. The first of these was the declared goal of significantly reducing changeover times for short print runs which the Bolero offers, as well as a significant increase in running speeds. The second, as just as important factor, was the need to be able to offer its customers a full range of binding products which includes PUR binding, a growing requirement within the industry. These were the main reasons why the company, founded in 1880 and taken over by Paul Opie, Ian Crocker and Andy Ogden in early 2012, and which has 60 employees, decided in favor of the Bolero. “In addition, the Bolero offers a great advantage with the VPN nozzle, as it enables a simple and fast changeover between the PUR and hotmelt methods,” says Production Director Andy Ogden.
The Last Gap Closed
Latimer Trend had made the switch to new machines in all of their book production processes, except for perfect binding. “With the Bolero, we have closed that gap,” emphasizes Finance Director Ian Crocker. “Not only have we succeeded in increasing our efficiency with significantly improved make ready times and production speeds, but we can, more importantly, now offer our customers a wider range of high quality bound product including perfect bound and PUR bound books.”
Paul Opie, Managing Director, added “this investment has come at absolutely the right time, with the right machine, for the company and its customer base and the installation carried out by MM England confirms that they were the only logical choice as partners in this project”