Sometimes, something comes along that has that magical combination of being the right product, at the right time, at the right price, and with a willing market eager to purchase it. Sales directors up and down the country go to bed dreaming of such devices. So we thought we’d ask a selection of finishing equipment suppliers a couple of simple questions: what’s your current bestseller that has hit a magical sweet spot in the market, and what product do you have high hopes for?

Despite the diverse array of equipment, applications and price points that emerged, some common themes did too. Whether it’s a machine designed for industrial production that costs hundreds of thousands of pounds, or a small desktop system costing a fraction of that, the market requirement for automation and flexibility on both high- and low-volume systems is abundantly apparent.

AUTOBOND
Bestseller: Mini 76 laminator, circa £60,000
High hopes for: 36 SUV spot UV inkjet varnish system, £130,000

John Gilmore, managing director, says: "The Mini 76 is our bestseller, if you ordered one today you wouldn’t get it until February 2012 – it’s in demand all around the world. The 36 SUV is a brilliant new line that uses Xaar printheads and takes us into a different field. It’s attracting new customers, as well as appealing to our existing customer base. You can add it to the back of any Autobond laminator and gain the capability to apply a high-build spot varnish. We’re planning to build 74 and 105 models that will use 10 and 15 printheads respectively. We’ve got machines on order all over the world already."

DUPLO
Bestsellers: DSF 5000 Pro bookletmaker, £139,000
High hopes for: DC-745 multifunction slitter-cutter-creaser, circa £85,000

Tony Lock, managing director, says: "The DSF 5000 Pro bookletmaking system has been a real success. As the integrity of data becomes even more important, this system guarantees the sheets are in the right order and the integrity of the final product. It will produce a barcode saying ‘Tony Lock’s book came off the system at 2.45pm’ and that data can go straight into an MIS.

"The DC-745 is the latest generation all-singing, all-dancing cutting and creasing system. We’ve had an excellent response from users who need higher speed than is available on the existing DC-645 model (which is also a bestseller for us) along with the new features on the 745. The 745 is a step up because it’s up to four times faster and includes kiss-cutting and micro perforating as standard. It’ll be on show at our upcoming London Calling event."

FRIEDHEIM INTERNATIONAL
Bestseller: Hunkeler high-speed paper processing system, from £25,000 to £150,000 plus
High hopes for: Tecnau dynamic perforating system, from £100,000

Peter Morris, managing director, says: "We have a big focus on the continuous inkjet digital printing market, and we are providing solutions to take printed reels and turn them into something that the customer can do something else with. Our bestsellers are the Hunkeler roll-to-roll or roll-to-sheet systems. Something we’re very excited by is the latest Tecnau system that has the ability to dynamically perforate – in both directions – at the top speed of the digital press. It really is far superior to anything else that’s available. I’m also keeping a close eye on developments in fully automated, short-run perfect binding."

HEIDELBERG
Bestseller: Stahlfolder automated combination folders, from £57,000
High hopes for: Eurobind Pro automated adhesive binder, circa £600,000; Prinect Postpress Manager workflow integration for finishing systems, circa £17,000

Mark Hogan, marketing director, says: "Post-downturn, guillotine and folder sales have come back very strongly, and automated combination folders have been doing very well – everything we sell is automated now. We have high expectations for the Eurobind Pro automated perfect binders that were launched at Ipex. The first in the UK has been installed now, and while this machine is not targeted at a volume market it’s a high-value one. Prinect Postpress Manager is also a product whose time has come – customers who are really pushing their XL presses want this."

INTELLIGENT FINISHING SYSTEMS
Bestseller: Horizon Stitchliner 5500/6000, from £95,000
High hopes for: Horizon BQ 470 four-clamp perfect binder, circa £55,000

IFS joint managing director Bryan Godwyn says: "More and more traditional printers are finding they cannot afford to send any finishing out. The Stitchliner is so quick to change from job-to-job, or it will just run and run on a long job. We have more than 150 UK installations now. The 6000 is the next step up. You can wheel in a stack of digitally-printed pre-collated sets and it will count the sets in. Or you can reel-feed it via a Hunkeler or similar system.

An exciting technology for us is the Horizon BQ-470 perfect binder. It’s a fully automated machine so it changes the size automatically. You can have a PUR tank that’s interchangeable with an EVA tank, so it’s a flexible option. You can produce books in runs of just one. Week on week we talk to our salesmen and customers and that’s the way it’s going. Younger, forward-looking companies are going to look at equipment like this and see what the technology can do for them."

MORGANA
Bestsellers: AutoCreaser Pro from £9,590; and DigiFold Pro £22,990
High hopes for: CardXtra Plus cutter and creaser, £13,990

UK sales manager Ray Hillhouse says: "Touchscreen operation has resulted in a huge increase in sales of both of our AutoCreaser models. And the run rate on the DigiFold has doubled, it’s a very successful product.

One of our products that’s starting to take off is the CardXtra Plus. In its original version, it was primarily used for business cards, but now it’s a creaser and cutter in one box and it’s going into a lot of digital print shops who needs something with that flexibility. It opens up a lot of opportunities because it can produce other card products such as greetings cards, as well as business cards. And it can trim an SRA3 sheet down to A3 or A4 sheets and people find that a very useful feature. This sort of green button operation, flexible technology is really finding favour in the market. We’re just about to launch it in the States at Graph Expo."

PERFECT BINDERY SOLUTIONS
Bestseller: Darix short-run casemaker, circa £30,000
High hopes for: Horauf Universal high-speed casemaker, £350,000-£400,000

Partner Steve Giddings says: "Casemaking seems to be a hot topic and the digital market is driving demand to produce hardcover books or photo albums efficiently, whether it’s one or 100 cases. The Darix casemaker is a short-run, quick changeover machine that can handle a flat case size of 1,000x460mm meaning an A3 landscape photobook case can be made, and the changeover time is less than one minute.

The new casemakers from Horauf, which we sell into the stationery market, can make cases down to very small sizes at 3,600 copies an hour, or 60 a minute – for volume production it’s a beast."

ROLLEM
Bestseller: JetStream/JetSlit 8,000sph cutter and multi-finisher, from £55,000
High hopes for: PhotoSlit photobook finisher, from £60,000

Managing director Stuart Murphy says: "For the last two years, our bestseller has been the JetStream. We’ve changed the cutting technology so people can make minute bleed cuts, allowing them to fit more business cards on a sheet and reduce waste. Most of our systems are bespoke because everyone wants something that’s unique to them to give them a competitive edge.

Our new PhotoSlit is going down very well. It brings in the option for on-the-fly changes. Customers can pre-set two or three different sizes – for example for photobooks – and it will change the setup automatically in less than 50 milliseconds. So changes are absolutely on-the-fly with no speed penalty whatsoever. Every single system I’ve sold in the last 12 months has been for a web-to-print application. The data is completely variable, but the outputs sizes are standardised. We’re seeing a return to large batch sizes and that suits our machines."

WATKISS
Bestseller: PowerSquare bookletmaker £38,000-£53,000
High hopes for: PowerSquare Sheet Feeder £25,000

Sales director Paul Attew says: "Our biggest seller is the PowerSquare bookletmaker, with is the only machine on the market that can make a stitched 200pp book with a square back. We can put in up to six stitches using just one head, meaning users can produce multiple books in one pass. We’ve sold more than 350 worldwide and our order book is full until November. The new high-speed Sheet Feeder option enhances it as a near-line or offline option for digital printers. It’s extremely powerful."