The Suffolk-based commercial, magazine and book printing specialist has invested in the Tecnau device to run inline with its first production inkjet press, a Canon VarioPrint iX3200 sheetfed machine that was installed earlier this year.
Representing a rough investment cost of £120,000, dependent on specification, the Tecnau BookReady should be installed at the end of Q3.
It follows Micropress’ prior £3.5m spend that included the Canon press as well as an additional automated Stahlfolder TH82-P from Heidelberg and a Horizon CABS4000V nine-clamp computer-aided PUR binding system with gathering line, supplied by Intelligent Finishing Systems (IFS).
The company had also built a new 1,600sqm extension at its Reydon, Suffolk site to house its new short-run printing division.
Micropress joint managing director Rob Cross said: “As a business we are on a continual automation drive and always looking to push the boundaries in becoming more efficient. This investment ticks that box nicely.
“We first saw it at an IFS and Tecnau open event in May last year. We did look at alternatives on the market but we really liked the simplicity of the BookReady and the automation it offered.
“It is also already setup to go on the back of a Canon iX so we don’t need to complete a collaborating exercise as this has already been done. It should be an out of the box solution.”
The subject of a Printweek Star Product last year, the Tecnau BookReady is a completely automated system for short-run and book-on-demand production that runs inline to the Canon VarioPrint iX-series and is also available for the Canon VarioPrint 6000 series Titan cutsheet black-and-white digital toner presses.
The BookReady slits, cuts, and stacks up to B3 size sheets printed in 2-up and 4-up 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 as the BookReady is fully integrated with the Canon Prismasync Controller in the iX3200, so all jobs are automatically set up on-demand and with no manual intervention.
Jason Seaber, technical sales director for IFS, commented: “We are delighted that Micropress has chosen to invest in the first Tecnau BookReady in the UK.
“Finishing inline with sheetfed digital presses is not new, but normally for toner laser printers rather than high-speed inkjet presses like the iX. Fully automating the production of different size, different thickness book blocks for near-line binding will help Micropress to increase production efficiency and book binding productivity.”
Cross further added: “Since installing our Canon iX3200 press at the start of the year we have increased the output in our short run division significantly which in turn has created a bottleneck in cutting within this area of the business. This investment will completely relieve that bottleneck.
“But what I like about it, is that we are relieving it through automation as opposed to weighting more resource at it.
“We do a lot of short run PUR bound work and this machine will cut the sheets inline to create book blocks before they are then fed into our new Horizon CABS4000V binding line. It saves the whole process of cutting them offline which we currently need to do.”
IFS is the distributor for Tecnau in the UK and Ireland; Micropress’ Tecnau BookReady will be supplied and fully supported by Canon UK.
Micropress works with a range of clients including print managers, other printers, and end users producing books, catalogues, magazines, and other commercial print work. It also offers warehousing and pick and pack services.
The 191-staff business achieved sales of around £30m in 2023 and is targeting sales growth of 10% in 2024. The firm has total space at its site of 9,600sqm.
At last week’s IPIA Annual Networking Lunch in Birmingham, Cross gave a presentation on how Micropress – a former winner of Company of the Year at the Printweek Awards – has adapted to critical industry trends, significantly strengthened its sustainability and grown.
