Supplied by Grafitec and installed at the Birmingham-based mailing house this week, the machine cost CMS around £40,000 and features the DSF 5000 sheet feeder with a separate cover feeder that can handle coated substrates up to 300gsm, and a rotary side slitter than can top and tail stock to size.
It also includes in-line creasing to reduce cracking of thick coated stock, a fore-edge trimmer to finish the booklet to size, and a stitch fold module.
Also featuring a long conveyor, the machine can process 12,000 A4 sheets per hour, meaning it can produce around 5,000 booklets per hour. The maximum paper size is 356x508mm, with a minimum of 120x170mm.
CMS managing director Mitesh Chouhan told Printweek the company has an existing small bookletmaker that "is very slow and only nets about 500 booklets an hour".
“More and more clients are moving from litho to digital, and because we’ve got all that digital firepower with our new Konica Minolta and Xerox presses, we were having to outsource the bookletmaking.”
He said that, in many instances, the print was also having to be outsourced so that jobs could be printed and finished in tandem, “but now we’re going to move all of that work in-house”.
The existing bookletmaker is at the end of its life and is likely to be scrapped, Chouhan added.
The investment marks the company’s first purchase from Grafitec, he said.
“I contacted Duplo and they put me in contact with Grafitec. These bookletmakers are pretty rare, and it looks as new so it was too good to say no to.
“We’ve also recently purchased Mintsoft software, which is an e-commerce platform – we’ve now entered the e-commerce world with Central Fulfilment Services being the new company for that. We’re also just about to purchase a new MIS, which is going to be a big investment.”
Late last year the business bought a third CMC One paper wrapping line, joining two other CMC machines with stream feeders. This followed the completion of a £1m digital spend last summer to completely reequip its print offering, which included half a dozen production machines from Konica Minolta, a trio of Xeroxes, and a Nipson DigiFlex.
Chouhan said the likely next kit investment for CMS will be a laminator. The business currently employs 90 staff and has a turnover of £17m. It operates two sites totalling around 5,575sqm space.
