The family-owned commercial printer, which specialises in short-run, fast-turnaround colour work ranging from business cards to bound books, has significantly reduced the amount of finishing work it previously outsourced.

The company was initially planning to buy a similar replacement for its Bourg bookletmaker, but after seeing the StitchLiner operating at another company, decided to upgrade.

The JDF-ready machine features fully automated makereadies and works from a flat four-page section, which eliminates the need to fold into signatures.

It runs at speeds of 5,000bph, has an icon-based LCD touchscreen for easy set-up and a memory allowing quick changeovers.

Jerry Spiers, Driftgate's finishing manager, said: "We were having a lot of bottlenecks and sometimes had to lift jobs to complete shorter runs by the deadline. But the new machine runs so much faster, we don't have to chop and change."

The company is also saving time and achieving higher quality finishing because of the StichLiner's three-knife trim, which eliminates the need for pre-guillotining.

"We are now running 5,000 28-page booklets and it is taking just two to three hours and saving us a lot of time. One job was an 85,000 twelve-page A5 booklet that was running at more than 5,200 per hour. The maximum on the old machine was 2,000 an hour."

The Horizon AFC566 folder replaces a four-plate machine. Its features include a colour touchscreen, 17 standard fold patterns (including roll fold, zigzag fold and DL fold), and a 200-job memory.

A patented advance rotary drum suction feed system means that the machine can work at speeds of up to 42,000sph.