The device, which was bought from Intelligent Finishing Systems (IFS), was installed at the Torbay, Devon-based firm’s premises in December.

“We have tried over the past few years to invest in machinery that will keep us competitive and also enable us to keep work in house. This was the deciding factor for investing in the AFC-566 AKT,” said director Andy Cousins.

“We were doing more and more folding jobs for our customers, especially short-run digital work, and the Horizon fit the bill. Being automatic, we can set jobs up in a short time and save them for future use.

“We also purchased Tri-Creasers to go with it and they have proved ideal for creasing and folding digital work, virtually eliminating any cracking on the spine.”

The 230m/min AFC-566 AKT is suitable for folding items such as leaflets and brochures as well as anything requiring perforation or tri-scoring. It has a semi-automated set-up and 17 different fold options accessed via an LCD touchscreen.

“Having looked at various other machines, we felt the Horizon was the most suitable option in terms of being compact and very versatile. IFS was good to deal with and the training was extremely thorough,” said Cousins.

The business also operates a five-colour Komori NL 526 ES litho press, Xerox DocuColor 260, Canon imagePress C6011 and Canon Océ CS665 digital machines and a Roland DG Versacamm VS-640 large-format device.

It also runs a wide range of finishing equipment including a Polar guillotine, a Duplo System 5000 collator and bookletmaker, a Neopost DS 200 mailing and inserting machine and a Heidelberg Cylinder.

AC Print, which has 11 staff, produces a wide variety of general print including business cards, banners, posters, flyers, exhibition graphics, POS and direct mail for customers including retailers, theatres, design agencies and end-users.