Installed just over four weeks ago, the bookletmaker was purchased to support a Ricoh C7200x digital press that was installed last October and to enable the firm to bring longer run booklets inhouse.
“Demand for booklets has grown significantly since we installed the Ricoh C7200x press. Although we can finish them online, we wanted to improve our productivity and quality. In addition we wanted to bring all the bookletmaking in-house because we were outsourcing 25% of the longer runs,” said director Iain Cox.
The Ricoh and the Kasfold were ordered through resellers Automated Systems Group and Ashgate respectively.
The 11 staff group operates from two sites, one in Cirencester and one in Swindon. Running a variety of narrow web, sheetfed litho and digital presses across the two sites, including Xerox Versant 180 in Swindon and the Ricoh and a mono Xerox Nuvera in Cirencester.
The firm has operated throughout the lockdown on a reduced staffing level, with a handful of employees placed on furlough.
The firm’s new KF 640, which was launched in 2017, can create A4 landscape products and booklets up to 320x320mm. Corinium evaluated a number of machines before opting for the KF 640, which it configured with an inline Squarefold 104 unit, which sits in-line between the bookletmaker and the KF 640T inline trimmer.
“It is ideal for our type of work, not only because of the formats it can handle but also because it finishes a range of stock. It is quick to setup and change sizes and although it is hand fed, we can produce 800-plus booklets an hour,” said Cox.
The bookletmaker was installed by Ashgate four days after being ordered with all onsite training adhering to social distancing rules said account manager Fiona Wise, who described the KF 640 as “brilliant”.
According to Cox, following training the booklet line went straight into production: “Which was useful because one of the first jobs was to finish a quarter of a million booklets. We would never have been able to do this job in-house without this machine it has speeded up production by well over fifty percent.”
