The Muller Martini Primera stitching kit is due for installation on 11 April and runs at 14,000cph or 28,000cph in 2-up format.

Sales director David Bland said the Muller Martini and the KBA four-colour Rapida 105, which was installed last year, totalled around £1.4m in cost.

“We bought the Muller Martini for its speed: the ability to process a 2-up job quickly and makeready from an A4 to a 2-up A5 job fast is very important.”

Makeready times, he said, had gone from 75 to 15 minutes and the new stitching line, which replaced a smaller Muller Martini, could keep up with the KBA. 

“Speed of turnaround is a key element of our offering and the ability to print and dry any material instantly on our 16,000iph LED-UV press is priceless,” said Bland.

“This high-speed stitching line adds to our ability to produce high-quality products at speed and it brings a better balance to our manufacturing output.”

Blackmore, which is based in Shaftesbury, Dorset, is 116 years old, has 62 staff and a turnover of £7.5m. Bland hopes the new investments will add another £1m this year.

“This will be down to the KBA press being able to process work so much faster. In seven months we've increased customer numbers by 99% because of the press.”

Blackmore also runs a five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 102 and two five-colour Komoris: a Lithrone S40 and a Lithrone S29.

“The KBA offers big environmental savings and the ability to dry ink instantly is priceless. It uses 60% less electricity than a conventional press and 35% less ink on uncoated paper. It doesn't need spray powder, sealing or coating.”

The Muller Martini Primera meanwhile features automatically synchronised feeders that calculate the optimum feeding position of the signatures and couples the feeder in that position.

The feeder also automatically sets the signature stop, while the three-knife/five-knife trimmer and compensating stacker are quickly and automatically set to the required size.