It's been well documented over the past few months that getting finance to invest in large pieces of equipment is extremely difficult in these tough economic times. Signing away large amounts of money on finishing kit right now is not a decision you can make on the spur of the moment.

But the good news is that for £10,000 or under, there are a number of post-press devices that can give print firms a solid return on investment without breaking the bank - an absolute must in these frugal times. So with that in mind, PrintWeek has taken a snapshot of the market and found several finishing machines that fit into this bracket.
Sometimes, smaller investments that can yield the biggest returns and, in an industry where volumes are falling, these machines may have just found the sweet spot in the market.

Duplo DC-445 DuCreaser  
In the past, a major problem for digital print was that the sheet would crack when folded. Launched in 2008, the DC-445 DuCreaser is designed to solve this problem and fits neatly in the sub-£10,000 bracket.
Priced at around £6,000, the machine is very much targetted at digital print shops, with straightforward set-up and a comfortable working height for reloading.

Other target markets include small- to medium-format commercial printers, larger printers with digital departments and inplants.

Peter Jolly, Duplo UK marketing manager, says that one of the reasons why the DC-445 represents such good value for money is the "fantastic automation and top-fed design". The latter is set up to ensure "accurate and smooth delivery". The top-feed principle is less prone to cause marking on the bottom sheets, which can often happen with the weight of a stack pressing it down.

The sector is well populated with competition from Morgana's AutoCreaser range and the Tech-ni-fold Speedcreasa. The DC-445 is capable of 3,000 sheets per hour and can handle a maximum stock thickness of 350gsm. The maximum number of creases in a sheet is 15, while the maximum sheet size is 320x650mm.
In addition to the DC-445, Jolly has a few other hot picks in Duplo's range of £10,000 or less machines, including the DB-200, an automatic binder, and the DF-1000 folder.

Horizon BQ-150  
Many of Graphic Arts Equipment's (GAE) Horizon binders, collators and folders are aimed at the heavy-duty user and investments can often spiral into the £100,000 plus bracket. But dig a little deeper and there are some lower-cost options.
One example is the Horizon BQ-150 perfect binder, which comes in at around the £10,000 mark. The single-clamp, offline machine features an automated nipping clamp. It can handle EVA and standard hotmelt glues.
According to GAE, the machine targets smaller printers, such as copy shops and digital on-demand specialists, but it does have wider appeal. Suffolk-based Micropress hit the headlines at the start of the year investing in a second Heidelberg XL Speedmaster. The company also spent money on a BQ-150, proving that even the B1 market is considering smaller investments to ensure things keep ticking over.

GAE is also keen to flag up the resale value of the machine. If a firm decides to trade up to the next size of perfect binder, then it can get a good deal. GAE refurbishes the machines and sells them on in the secondhand market.
Other GAE machines that fit into the £10,000 bracket include the Horizon EF-35 folder, which comes in at £7,848, as well as the EF-354, which is priced at £10,355. The latter product has four folding plates and allows for an optional knife crossfold.

Matrix 530  
This laminator has proved to be a bit of a star for supplier Presco. There has been plenty of interest since its launch, with several sales registered, according to the Swindon-based company. Priced at around £8,000, the single-sided laminator runs at 7m per hour and can handle sizes of up to SRA2.

With more print companies aiming to bring finishing in-house, laminating is one area that can help save money. On short runs, shipping out laminating jobs is costly and time consuming; having a device like this that can avoid outsourcing controls costs, as well as improving turnaround times.

This is certainly the market the Matrix 530 is pitched at. It's not a heavy-duty machine, but, according to used machinery sales manager Ben Trafford, the advantage is that a small, digital print firm no longer has to outsource laminating.
"Many firms have been sending out laminating and, whether its 1,000 sheets or 10, that costs them money," he says. "By bringing it in-house, turnaround times become much quicker. If a customer wants 200 business cards for the next day, then a printer can meet this deadline."

The Matrix 530 was launched in April and other advantages include a large heated roller, allowing plenty of pressure on the sheet. With such a big surface area of heat, there is no chance of silvering on it either. Another selling point, according to Presco, is the small footprint.

Plockmatic ACF 510
Part of Litho Supplies, Muro Digital specialises in the kind of entry-level kit that is ideal for the smaller printer in the bookletmaking market. The Plockmatic ACF 510 is one such product. Priced at £7,000, comfortably under the £10,000 mark, the ACF stands for ‘air separator, collator and feeder' and can handle 1,800 books per hour. It's also capable of handling 10,000 sheets an hour.

"It's a very good starting point for the digital market," explains Adrian Brooks, Muro Digital national product manager. "Companies need to do very small jobs quickly and the digital market is particularly good for us - lots of small companies and copy shops are looking at what the machine can do for them. This machine is also very easy to use."
Essentially, the machine is made up of three different units: an AC 510 air collator with a Plockmatic BM 61 binder and the 104 squarefolder. And while the machine is well-equipped for the on-demand digital print firm, it can collate stock from litho presses.

So far, take-up in the UK has been slow, with the rest of Europe, and the US, forming the bulk of the worldwide installations. This is a bit of kit that does not cost the earth and the theory is that, while a digital press will churn out another job, the Plockmatic could prove to be a solid workhorse for any small to medium-sized printer.

Rachner RD800
It might not be considered the sexiest of processes, but a pile turner can go a long way to assisting a print firm of any size. According to CyanX, the UK agent for pile turner manufacturer Rachner, they shift paper quickly onto pallets, straighten uneven stacks and, perhaps most importantly, lighten the workload.

The Rachner RD800 costs around £10,000 and ,according to Andy Patrick, sales and service manager at CyanX, any print firm is likely to get years of good service from such a device. The RD800 is designed for a maximum paper format of 860x600mm and has a lifting capacity of 800kg. CyanX's argument for buying such a device is that paper piles are turned quickly, so that the correct side is facing upwards, and are fed into the printing machine.

"Sorting your paper is good practice," adds Patrick. "It enables work to go through and can speed up your workflow. I visited one of our customers, a smallish litho printer with a couple of presses. He had a Rachner pile turner and it was still going strong after eight years."

According to CyanX, the pile turners are suited for digital, small-, medium- and large-format printing. There are add-ons, including optional aeration, vibration and ionisation - the latter removes static from the sheet.

Renz DTP 340A and WP300/ECL 360
Listing two machines might sound like cheating, but, according to Renz UK sales and marketing manager Daniel Pooley, they complement each other nicely. Both have levels of automation designed to boost productivity for any small to medium-sized print firm.

Combining the DTP 340A, a puncher, with the semi-automatic bench-top binding machine brings the total cost to around £10,000.

The DTP 340 is a semi-automatic device that can operate at speeds of 21,000 sheets per hour. The machine has interchangeable dies for all punching styles, including wire, calendars, coil and plastic comb binding. All of the dies come with a quick size adjustment allowing for format changes in less than one minute. It costs £4,450.

The WP300/ECL 360, priced at £5,200, is also a semi-automatic device that, according to Renz, "can speed the binding process by 50%". It binds up to 340 sheets in wire and is aimed at bridging the gap from cut length wires to spool-fed kit. It can automatically deliver cut pieces of wire to the closing unit, allowing for quick loading and closing of binding wires.
"Both these systems give the user the most semi-automatic punching and binding available on the market," says Pooley. "It's ideal for short to medium-length runs and addresses the new pressures in the finishing sector from the print-on-demand market with faster, more automated equipment."

Schneider Senator Profi-line pile hoist
When asked, it didn't take Friedheim International managing director Peter Morris long to come up with a machine for under £10,000 from the distributor's wide range of equipment. For him, a pile hoist is an "absolute no brainer" for anyone with a guillotine.

The pile hoist can go alongside any guillotine from 78mm to 115mm. It is available with forks, platforms, lateral air blasts and pre-piling devices.

The machine also has an ergonomically designed control panel, which can be mounted on either the right or left side and allows all lifting and lowering manoeuvres to be automatically controlled.

As with many devices like this, one of the main selling points is that it takes the strain out of loading sheets onto the guillotine. For operators, that doesn't just mean a health and safety boost; the pile hoist can speed up the whole process.
"This kind of device gives you a 30% improvement in output," says Morris. "It's a simple solution for operators to cut out repetitive strain injury. It takes all the lifting out of the process."

The pile hoist goes alongside Schneider Senator's Profi-line range of guillotines, joggers, re-stackers and paper handling systems. Friedheim International has been distributing these products for several years.

The only problem is that Morris is concerned that there aren't enough takers. "The headline for this feature should read ‘why aren't you buying?'," he says. "There are plenty of companies out there that don't see that there is a good return on investment in such low-cost machines."