The 200cph Horizon device, which was supplied by Intelligent Finishing Systems (IFS), was installed at the south-east London-based firm’s 465sqm site around two weeks ago.
Catford Print Centre owner Russell Jones said the nine-staff firm has seen offset litho work declining and, having replaced much of this with digital work, found that paperback books was an area it felt it could develop.
“Prior to getting the three-knife trimmer, we were having to physically trim each book on all three edges on a guillotine,” said Jones.
“That takes longer to do and you obviously can’t bind a book and trim it on the guillotine at the same time so it’s two separate operations, whereas the three-knife trimmer trims the books while you are binding so it can be left alone to run independently.
“We feel we’ll be able to take on more work because we’re already noticing spare capacity.”
Jones said the HT-30C was “an obvious choice” because the company did not find any other entry-level machines on the market that use “green-button technology”.
“There was plenty of secondhand kit available but it was all old-fashioned technology that required people to have better engineering skills than they need to run the machine that we bought. Most things on the HT-30C are done on a touchscreen,” said Jones.
The business is also a long-term IFS customer, having used a Horizon BQ-270 perfect binder for the past eight years.
“We’ve been highly delighted with the BQ-270, which has been the most reliable machine in our company, and have also been very happy with our relationship with IFS,” said Jones.
The company took delivery of the Watkiss SpineMaster last week.
“For years, the booklets we have produced have appeared to be bulbous around the spine area whereas the SpineMaster now flattens them. This is important bearing in mind pricing in proportion, which is the Royal Mail’s way of deciding how much something is going to cost to post,” said Jones.
“If it fits through a small 5mm slot and is under 100 grams then it’s a letter rate but if it’s under 100 grams but doesn’t fit through that slot then it’s a large letter rate. Thus the SpineMaster saves our customers 20-odd pence per item.”
Catford Print Centre also operates two Konica Minolta bizhub Press 1060 colour presses and a Canon Océ VarioPrint 6250 Ultra black-and-white printer as well as two Ryobi offset presses.
The firm’s other finishing kit includes two Polar guillotines while an ageing Theisen & Bonitz 10-station collator was scrapped to make space for the new equipment.
