Banbury, Oxfordshire-based KSP purchased a DA 900 box-wrapper, a DA 905 3D printer and a DA 1004 Casemaker, all from Italian manufacturer Industria Meccanica Lombarda (IML), in doing so claiming to be the first UK company to install the box-wrapper.
The 3D printer is in the main being used to make the specifically sized set of tools used to wrap boxes.
KSP director Jason Cleary said the outfit made the decision to bring box-wrapping in-house after it was commissioned for a job in July for the wrapping of 1,000 three-piece rigid boxes, which it was having to do by hand. It has since been commissioned for two more 1,000 runs of the same job for a Kent-based company.
“We flew to Milan at the end of November after seeing IML at a show and were stunned by the simplicity of how the box-wrapper works and how fast it was going. So we got talking to Perfect Bindery Solutions, flew to Milan and were pretty much sold on it,” said Cleary.
“It frees up a worker as we don’t need to individually hand-wrap, frees up a second person to carry on with productivity gains on casemaking, which in turn frees someone up to help with growth on screen printing.”
He added that it will be able to wrap around 300 to 600 rigid boxes an hour. It will be installed on 14 December, with the 3D printer coming in the following week.
The DA 1004, due for installation in February, is a four-edge turning Casemaker, only the sixth to be installed in the country, and has an automatic cover-feeder with a hot glue station and viscosity control. Cleary said it will increase productivity by four times on paper-over-board binders.
In July, KSP announced plans to purchase a new flatbed, to go alongside its pre-existing Canon Océ Arizona 360, but Cleary said the decision had been made to invest in finishing instead, after it continued to get repeat work for box-wrapping. It is likely the flatbed investment will be made next year.
Previously business development manager with Oxfordshire-based Lynx DPM, Cleary bought a stake in the eight-staff business in May, and now works alongside its founder Kevin Woodcock.
With significant investments, the two are looking to boost turnover by the end of next year.
