Both machines were supplied by Morgana Systems, a Plockmatic International company, and installed in late March.
The BM4000 suite of bookletmakers, launched at The Print Show last year, are suitable for work produced on low- to mid-volume digital production printers. The BM4050 can feed long printed sheets to produce a wide variety of applications, including A4 landscape booklets.
“We had been outsourcing an ever-increasing amount of binding work. When we examined the numbers in detail, and the amount of margin that we were giving away, it was clear that we should now be producing this work in-house with our own equipment,” said Apprintable managing director Peter Haddad.
“The new bookletmaker is very robust – and it just eats up the work, faster than we can print it sometimes. There’s no doubt that it could keep up with two print engines working full-time – but that’s for the future.
“The fact that we can use the two bins on the feeder to produce the jobs at high speed – one bin for the heavier weight, laminated cover perhaps, and the second bin for the inner pages – is just great for now. It really does produce booklets quickly and efficiently.”
Haddad also liked the machine’s easy setup, and said its SquareBack finish was “a great enhancement for us to speak to people about”.
“It’s not something that we were ever offered when we were outsourcing, so it’s a new feature for our customers. The ‘perfect bound’ appearance is something to promote to graphic designers, in that the spine can now be printed on for the larger pagination booklets.”
The company prints with a Xerox Versant 280 although its predecessor, a Ricoh Pro C5300s, was retained as backup. It also operates a VeloBlade 64+ digital die-cutter from Vivid Laminating Technologies while its other Morgana kit includes a 450 Pro laminator and an Aerocut Prime.
The new EBA Ideal 56 guillotine has helped Apprintable speed up production on the shop floor.
“Our previous guillotine was fairly basic – yes, it cut paper, but the new EBA Ideal 56 can store a multitude of different cut combinations. It can then guide the operator through each stage of the process – telling them when to turn the paper, and when to cut.
“It really does speed up the whole process, and it is usable by any of our team. You don’t need to be a guillotine expert anymore.”
Apprintable moved to larger premises in September to continue its growth and is now housed in a 279sqm leased site in an industrial part of Wembley.
“We’ve invested over a quarter-of-a-million pounds in the past two-and-a-half years into our own production equipment, despite the circumstances of the pandemic and recent toughening of market conditions,” Haddad added.
The business, which was established in 2015, mainly serves the hospitality and drinks sectors.
