The family-run Whyteleafe, Surrey business, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, installed the Horizon BQ-270V binder in early August.

“The addition of perfect binding completes our binding services. It also now means we are able to confidently take on work for high quality perfect bound books. We can be more responsive and we know the quality is there,” said managing director David Podd.

The commercial printer runs a sheetfed digital and litho kit as well as wide-format.

The 500cph single-clamp machine features an automated, sensor-activated digital caliper system which measures book block thickness and automatically transfers this data to the binder for quick, automated set-up for books up to 50mm thick in formats from 135x105mm to 320x320mm.

Podd added: “We originally looked at the smaller Horizon BQ160 but soon realised the Horizon BQ270 was more suited to the kind of work we would be managing inhouse.

“We did also look at other systems on the market but liked the ease of set up on the BQ270 and we were confident that it could do what we wanted it to do.”