The fully-automatic £220,000 machine, which was supplied by Friedheim International and installed last month, is additional to the Saltash, Cornwall-based firm’s bindery and will sit alongside existing MBO B30 buckle folders.
Deltor managing director Sam Shannon said the firm is already producing 32pp A5 booklets at a rate of around 12,500sph on the machine.
“We wanted to be more competitive on the longer run section work against some of our competitors. We’re quite a small company but we’ve got quite big firepower because we’re running a 10-colour Manroland 700 perfector and now with a high-speed folder, it just allows us to be a bit of a thorn in the side to some of the big boys.
“We’ve been firing on all cylinders since it’s gone in – we’ve probably doubled our folding speed. As we’ve also got PUR binding and stitching in-house, we were previously coming in some days and it was a case of having to fold and get the binder running overnight or fold and get the stitchers running.
“But now we’re coming in and all of the booklet machines are able to run. So where we’re seeing the biggest impact is on other areas of the finishing department – while we’ve really increased our folding speed, it’s allowed us to be more efficient in all areas.”
The company also looked at alternatives from suppliers including Heidelberg but found the MBO machine to be best suited to its requirements.
“Friedheim have been really good – they said if we needed any more additional training we could have it, but we haven’t. We were worried initially going from buckle to combination but the guys took to it easily,” said Shannon.
£3m-turnover Deltor Communications has 37 staff and operates from a 2,300sqm site. The company was formed in 1976 and specialises in work for government bodies, but also serves end users.
Late last year the firm installed a Ricoh Pro C9100 and a Komfi Sagitta 76 thermal laminating machine. It also operates a five-colour B2 Komori Lithrone 29 and a raft of other finishing kit.
The environmentally-friendly business has a 120kW solar panel system on its roof, which it draws 40% of its power from. It has just secured a small amount of European funding to install sensors on its distribution board to measure its power consumption, with a view to potentially moving into lithium-ion storage to continue to reduce its carbon footprint.
