The company has also purchased a Palamides Alpha 700plus mobile stacking delivery system, supplied by Friedheim International, as an addition to its kit portfolio.

The Scottish colour printer, which runs two Speedmaster XL 105s, one a 12-colour perfector and the other a six-colour-plus-coater, wanted to ensure its finishing kept pace with the presses and folders.

Managing director Kevin Creechan wouldn't disclose the costs but said both machines were due to be installed at the end of this month.

He said: “It's hard to get a perfect balance across folding, cutting, lamination and stitching but when we put in our two MBO folding machines we found the Wohlenberg guillotine too old to keep pace.

“The new Polar will become our main machine: we are trying to iron out bottlenecks in the department. The Polar isn't faster but it is more sophisticated and reliable.”

Creechan added: “Our Heidelbergs are very efficient and therefore we shifted our focus to the prevention of bottlenecks in finishing.”

Materials handling specified by J Thomson Colour included a pile hoist lifting device, a jogger to align sheets for cutting and a Transomat downloader to remove finished work.

The Polar will run 24/6 to meet the demands of the company’s customer base and boasts intelligent operational guidance, programmability and slick Optiknife knife changing device.

Late last year the commercial litho and digital printer spent a six-figure sum on the two new MBO folding machines, a K8-RS and a T800, to almost double its folding capacity.

The machines, installed in December, replaced two of its three existing MBO folders. The K8-RS is billed the world’s fastest folding machine.

It is capable of 18,000sph and production speeds of up to 275m/min, matching those of sheetfed offset presses.

J Thomson Colour Printers has 110 staff and a turnover of around £13m. Clients are predominantly blue-chip companies in sectors including advertising, construction, design, education and retail.