The family-run Slough, Berkshire-based business took delivery of the machine, which was supplied by Intelligent Finishing Systems (IFS), on 17 January.
Vario Press specialises in highly personalised marketing campaigns and produces B2 litho print on two LED-UV Sakurai presses and B2 and B3 digital print on HP Indigo and Xerox presses.
Managing director David Clarke said: “It was time to update our binding equipment. Our B3 and B2 Indigos can now print and pre-collate multi-page documents, i.e. manuals, etc, and now the sets can come off and go straight on to the BQ-500.
“They are then trimmed on our three-knife trimmer. It speeds up the whole process. Recently we printed, bound, and trimmed 1,200 A4 84-page manuals in a four-hour work period.”
The four clamp BQ-500 iCE binder is equipped with cloud-based iCE LiNK workflow that provides access to a dashboard that reports real-time production analysis for improved efficiency and profitability, remote update capabilities, and scheduled maintenance, resulting in less downtime.
“We only looked at Horizon as we know the quality of its solutions is always very good,” said Clarke.
“Of the many features the BQ-500 has, we especially liked the book block thickness caliper that measures the thickness of the book block accurately for automatic setup and the gentle soft drop delivery that prevents damage to more delicate books.
“The system has only just been installed but there are already signs that it will be a strong addition to our bindery.”
Pricing for the EVA version of the BQ-500 iCE binder starts from £136,500.
40 staff work at Vario Press, which has an annual turnover of £5m.
