Seamless ‘book of one’ production at Printondemand-worldwide

Print Solutions

As part of its continual pursuit for highly automated, seamless book production, Printondemand-worldwide (PODWW) has gone live with a Screen Truepress Jet520HD press. Used in conjunction with Screen’s SC inks, the HD press provides the consistent quality and flexible production the company requires to serve its customers.

‘Printondemand-worldwide focuses on a ‘book of one’ approach. Shareholders want to hold content, not stock. Customers want books on-demand, they don’t want to wait,’ explained owner and managing director Andy Cork. ‘The ‘book of one’ is about producing books as they are needed, instead of having warehouses full of stock which may or may not be bought, whilst incurring cost and tying up much needed cash.’

He added, ‘The Truepress Jet520HD press contributes to that vision with its consistent high quality and outstanding productivity.

‘The speed and the impressive uptime of the press means we can produce in excess of 4000 books in a shift, even with our average run length of 1.75 books, with a focus to deliver them same day/next day depending on the product line.’

With installation starting in January, it took just three weeks to install the press and have it up and running. According to Andy, it was the SC inks and consistent quality without constantly cleaning heads that led to the investment: ‘As we drive our manufacturing facility towards being world class using Industry 4.0 methods, the Trust software built into the Screen device truly supports our technological vision of ‘connect, analyse and optimise’ particularly in the area of predictive maintenance – a must with such demanding service level agreements.’

‘The HD press combined with the SC inks was the turning point in getting PODWW to shift from a toner first to an inkjet first company,’ he said. ‘The ability to print directly onto offset coated paper, without the need for pre-treatment or expensive bonding agents means we can meet our customer’s quality expectations whilst making a margin.’