The machines, which were installed at the firm’s 1,400sqm factory in February, were bought from Intelligent Finishing Systems (IFS) and replaced two existing towers, which were part-exchanged.
The VAC-1000s run at up to 9,900 sets per hour and feature Horizon’s rotary suction feeding system, which can handle a wide range of paper stocks.
According to the manufacturer, the device can handle a variety of applications at high productivity, with flexible, powerful programming and colour touchscreen operation. There are high-intensity infrared LEDs at each input for double feed detection.
Thomas Loughlin made the investment, alongside the addition of a Horizon ST-40 deep-pile stacker, to enhance its service portfolio.
Managing director Tony Aspey said: “Being much newer technology than we had before, it’s improved our productivity. Workflow is much smoother now so throughput is faster.
“We can now criss-cross collate, which makes a huge difference to one of our monthly 5,000 long-run jobs. There are 80 leaves and so with 20 bins that is four passes. But now we can criss-cross them it is much easier and faster to find the unit.”
The towers are also helping with the collation of calendars for wire binding.
The business researched the market but Aspey said the firm’s long-term relationship with IFS and Horizon was a key deciding factor.
“We had two existing towers but they were more than 10 years old so it was time to upgrade them. We were very happy with them so chose their current replacement. We know and trust Horizon and the new towers have enabled us to expand our capabilities.
“We have grown 8% year-on-year for the past two years and with interest in our miniature portfolio and matchbox books growing we think this will continue. Having installed the latest in collating technology can only support us further in our growth.”
Founded in 1891, Thomas Loughlin has 30 staff and also operates in-line perfect binders, saddle stitchers, folding machines, wire-binding, miniature saddle stitchers and miniature perfect binders.
It produces items in both miniature and normal format for customers throughout the UK including large supermarket chains and colour printers.
The business is soon planning to make a further investment in a new miniature trimmer and will take on two additional members of staff.
