The machine, which was supplied by Intelligent Finishing Systems (IFS), will support production at the group’s Sheffield site which produces litho print on two RMGT 920s, one with five units and one with four units, and digital print on two HP Indigo Series 4 presses and two Indigo Series 3 presses.
Sheffield site production director Graeme Parry said: “We already had a Horizon StitchLiner 5500 for short to medium runs. It was supported by a Muller Presto for longer folded section work.
“We identified a load balancing issue between the two pieces of equipment with a disproportionate amount of stitching volume leaning towards shorter runs than the longer Muller type of work. We needed to address this with a system that would give us flexibility to cover the capacity shortfall.
“The MK III had been on the radar for investment into the Sheffield site for some time. We had seen numerous marketing pieces and spoke to our Dagenham site about the benefits the system had delivered there.”
Parry also liked the machine’s ability to move quickly and easily between job sizes, as well as the design improvements compared to the StitchLiner 5500.
He added: “The ability to produce A4 landscape was a massive selling point. Not only this, but the differing collation towers over the Horizon StitchLiner 5500 had clearly been thought about and redesigned with the operator and productivity in mind.
“We produce large quantities of personalised stitched brochures so to have the barcode read and verification capability was vital to the specification and output of the kit. Underpinning all of the system though is great build quality and efficiency.”
While the company also looked at other options on the market, it found the StitchLiner MK III to be the best fit for its requirements.
“What the kit now gives us is a solid platform to drive the volume of short run work. We can also increase productivity in stitched brochure work that previously was a pinch point for the site. It will give the site scale,” said Parry.
“We can now grow this sector of the business by not having the constraints on volume. We can expand on the throughput but also improve on our SLAs for our customers.
“This is something that we are using to help customers rethink how they are procuring print. We can help them migrate towards a more print-on-demand model so they can get their products and services out to their customers quicker.”
The 6,000bph machine was installed in March, and Parry described IFS’ full end-to-end service as “exceptional”.
“The team understood the requirements and tailored the specification to meet our needs. The install was quick, the training was excellent. I really feel that we were well looked after.”
Pricing for the StitchLiner MK III starts from £175,000, depending on the configuration and options selected.
Precision Proco Group, which was formed when Precision Printing, Prime Group and ProCo merged in 2020, recently acquired the trade finishing arm of Cliftons Bookbinders and took delivery of an HP Indigo 100K at its Dagenham site. The group employs more than 530 staff across four production sites.
