John Brailsford Printers installs new Uchida AeroCut One for faster, automated production
Print Solutions
John Brailsford Printers has purchased more finishing equipment from Morgana Systems in the shape of a Uchida AeroCut One multi-purpose finishing unit and a Canny Bander machine. The products were purchased directly from Morgana Systems, a leading UK provider of equipment for digital finishing, and follow on swiftly from a Pro 450 laminating system installed in November of last year.
The Rotherham and Barnsley shop fronted business has been a long time fan of the Japanese manufactured Uchida products, with the new AeroCut One replacing another similar unit that had been in use for seven years at John Brailsford Printers – that machine has now been sold to another printer to continue its productive life.
Commenting on the arrival of the new machine, John Brailsford, company owner, said: ‘Our previous Uchida had been a great servant to the business, but this new model comes complete with a bar-code reader, and that really is a game changer. We didn’t really appreciate the difference it would make until we had the machine installed for a trial period. Our Xerox print unit adds a bar-code to the regular job imposition before printing, and this contains all of the job information. The AeroCut One picks up on the barcode and sets itself up for slitting, cutting and creasing as is required for the job. It is amazing to see it in action. It’s fast, accurate and needs no operator intervention.’
John says the reaction of his team has been one of delight: ‘We should have bought this sooner! It is easy to use, saves time on every job, saves any operator errors, and just moves the job speedily through production with the minimum of touch points.
‘As we often do, we looked at a number of machines, and sampled some of them with in-house trials. There was a Chinese manufactured machine that was certainly a lot cheaper than the Uchida, but it quickly became apparent to us that it was not sufficiently robust to give us good service. It might have been OK if you only whizzed two or three jobs a day through it, but we expect a machine to be capable of accurately running at top speed all day, for five days a week. I have no doubt that within and year or two we would have thrown it out and bought the Uchida anyway!
‘The Japanese manufactured Uchida is a quality build – just what you would expect from Japan. It is fast, reliable and 100% accurate.’
To complement the Uchida the company has also purchased an additional banding unit: ‘The Canny Bander sits beside the Uchida finishing unit so that we can band the business cards and postcards prior to packaging. It helps to present a neat, finished job to our customers – and they do comment on the presentation of the work when delivered.’
The AeroCut One from Uchida is a compact slitting, cutting and creasing unit. Creasing can be set at five different levels, while two single blade and two double blade slitters trim the top and bottom margins of sheets. The durable guillotine can handle stocks up to 400gsm. The patented Tri-Suction top-feed system can feed a variety of stock including coated papers. The Flex Mode even allows users to cut multiple sizes of cards from a page and add a desired number of creases. Two perforating wheels can also be added to the system.
Commenting on this latest order, Ray Hillhouse, vice president offl ine business at Morgana, said: ‘The Uchida AeroCut One shows how automation can take a job swiftly through post press production with the minimum of operator intervention. John Brailsford Printers illustrate perfectly how print companies can be set up to get the maximum production from staff and equipment to create a successful and profitable business.’
