ESP elevates in line digital production with BookReady technology

Print Solutions Finishing Solutions

ESP has invested in a Tecnau BookReady B3 dynamic cut and stack solution to improve efficiencies, reduce costs and explore new market opportunities.

The Swindon operation chose the Tecnau BookReady to run in line with its Canon varioPrint iX3000. Near line production support is being provided by a Horizon StitchLiner saddlestitching system, a BQ-470 perfect binder and a BQ-500 perfect binder in line to a Horizon HT300 trimmer. Further upgrades are planned.

Dave Woloszczynski, head of digital production and operations, commented: ‘ESP is always looking at ways to automate the production process, to be more productive, and improve the customer experience. We handle a high volume of short run PUR, hardcover and print on-demand binding jobs. Before the Tecnau BookReady was installed, to make it more efficient for binding, we had to trim the books from SRA3 sheets, then sort the book blocks by jogging each individual book. But this relies on human intervention, which obviously has a considerable cost attached to it.

‘We had been looking for an automated process for the last five years without any luck, until we saw the BookReady at drupa last year. Our printing process is completely automated. For example, batching the books by size and spine thickness has eliminated the need for guillotining and sorting. Now we just have to wheel the pallet of jogged book blocks straight to the Horizon binders. This makes the finishing process more efficient and gets books out quicker for our customers.’

He continued, ‘It has made a huge impact on efficiency and cost savings. The whole production process is much quicker, so much so we can now take more work on. It will enable us to have more capacity so that we can expand into other markets and consider new opportunities, especially in publishing. We usually have an expected return on investment of equipment of around three years. The Bookready will definitely achieve that and in a faster timescale.’