Fabulous five for Crescent Press

Print Solutions

Crescent Press has picked five Horizon systems supplied by IFS to complete a £1.5 million digital print and finishing investment programme.

The Solihull general commercial printer has invested in a Horizon StitchLiner MKIII, Horizon Smartslitter, Horizon BQ-270v, Horizon HT-30 and Horizon CRF. They will all support short run fast turnaround production on a new HP 12000 B2 digital press.

Andy Matthews, managing director, explained: ‘We have made the investment to enhance our overall digital offering and enable us to offer a full range of printed products, produced in house with fast turnaround and minimal waste. It includes hardware and software to create a smooth and streamlined process with as few bottlenecks as possible.

‘The Horizon equipment, together with the HP Indigo 12000, all feature full automation to give the highest efficiency possible from order to completion of the finished product.’

Crescent Press’s Horizon StitchLiner MKIII has been configured with a high speed sheet feeder designed to take printed sheets from the Indigo 12000 and transform them into saddlestitched books up to A4 landscape format. The automation enables make ready times of under a minute and results in virtually no waste. The system can run at speeds of up to 6000 books per hour and features highly precise folding, stitching and three knife trimming to deliver the highest quality books.

Andy continued, ‘We looked at other systems but liked the build quality of the StitchLiner. It is very robust. We also like the ease and speed of set up and the quality and consistency it delivers.’

The Horizon Smartslitter, a highly automated multi-finishing device able to crease, perforate, dynamic perforate, slit and cut in one pass at speeds of up to 54 sheets per minute, will help the operation offer new services. Barcode reading aids automatic set up and allows it to finish multiple jobs including as business cards, coupons, flyers and greeting cards. Image tracking also helps to assure production quality.

‘We will now be able to offer new possibilities such as tear out coupons and short run business cards,’ said Andy. ‘It will help us maximise the capabilities of the Indigo press confident that we can complete the work.’

Crescent Press has also created a complete perfect binding line for on-demand books with the Horizon BQ-270v Perfect Binder and HT-30 book trimmer. A single operator can bind pre-collated book blocks from the HP Indigo and trim the final books at up to 500 cycles per hour. ‘Because the BQ-270v is a fully variable binder runs of ones are possible and the first bound book is a saleable product,’ said Andy.

With the Horizon CRF-362 Crescent Press can now crease, folding and perforate in one pass at speeds of 4500 per hour. ‘Our old solution took half an hour to set up,’ explained Andy. ‘With the Horizon set up is in seconds. We can be much faster and that is what you need with digital print.’