"Some 80% of our titles are perfect bound, so we needed a machine that would be capable of producing high quality binding for both long and short runs," said Gomer Press managing director Jonathan Lewis.

Gomer's 6,000cph Golf was specified with a 12-station gatherer and gauzing unit, with bound books then being trimmed through the in-line three-knife trimmer.

The Golf offers removable glue-tanks, meaning it is capable of using hot-melt, PVA or PUR glues. Gomer plumped for hot-melt. "But if they find in the future they need to change to PUR they can do," said Ian Pollard, finishing sales manager for MAN Roland GB, Wohlenberg's UK agent.

The Golf has been brought in as a replacement for a 2,000cph hand-fed Wohlenberg Quickbinder, to offer additional capacity. "Because we've worked with Wohlenberg equipment before, our finishing team found it easy to move across to the new machine," said Lewis.

The firm is currently in the process of adding a Rima RS33 stacker to keep up with the new binder and aid packing.

Story by Darryl Danielli