Elanders Hindson brings lamination in-house with bindery spend

Newcastle-based Elanders Hindson has overhauled its bindery by investing in a Horizon stitch-fold-trim booklet production line and a GBC Aspira 6052 laminator, which has allowed the firm to bring its lamination work in-house.

The North Tyneside automotive and educational booklet printer, part of the Swedish Elanders Group, has improved turnaround times with the GAE-supplied SPF200A production line.

The £16m-turnover company has been running its Toyota contract work through the new machine, which ties in with the firm's plans to introduce JDF throughout its operation.

Elanders Hindson production manager Shaun Du Randt said the printer was looking at integration throughout and "once the prepress and press departments are fully compliant, the bindery will be the next step".

The Horizon SPF200Ajdf system runs at speeds up to 4,500bph and features a 200-program job memory.

Du Randt said: "We have also been finishing 2,000 copies of production manuals with 50 to 60 pages."

He added that "the ability to chop and change between jobs a lot more quickly has made a great impact on the way we can operate".

The bindery spend included a GBC Aspira 6052 laminator, which runs at 15m per minute incorporates a hand-fed system and semi-automatic feeder.

Du Randt said the machine has allowed the 100-strong firm to bring lamination for its short-run work, printed on its HP Indigo digital presses, in-house.

He told printweek.com: "Before we'd be charged a £50 setup fee for each lamination job then more on top of that for the work produced. We didn’t want to keep doing that so we decided to bring that in."