Finishing Solutions
Steve Wenlock, managing director of Flexpress, said: ‘Since the pandemic, our whole strategy has been to do more work without increasing the staff count. This has meant a combination of automating certain things such as pre-press and dispatch and speeding up other operations.
‘Despite having two machines, creasing/folding was often still tying up staff for too long, so it made sense for us to put in a faster machine. We had a couple of older Morgana machines which we were able to part exchange for the new Morgana DigiFold Pro XL, and now we can crease and fold on one machine with just one member of staff the same volume of work used to take two machines and two staff members.’
The changes seem to be paying dividends swiftly for Flexpress – Steve has just announced that September 2021 was the company’s best ever month, with nine fewer staff than the previous best month.
‘The run up to Christmas prompted us to get the machine in as quickly as possible to cater for the upsurge in greeting card orders that we typically receive at this time of year,’ he explained.
The Morgana DigiFold Pro XL is built with an open design, and a suction feeder that handles stock sizes from 210 mm to 1300 mm in length. This heavy duty automatic creasing and folding system is designed to complement mid to high volume digital and offset production presses. This top of the range model folds up to 6000 A4 per hour, or in ‘crease only’ mode 7500 per hour. It has a maximum loading capacity 200 mm. The top fed vacuum feeder ensures stable production for long runs. Full cross perforation is also available, along with the ability to add up to five in line perforation/scoring wheels. The machine is able to create up to 30 creases per sheet.
The decision of who to turn to for the purchase was not a problem for Steve: ‘We do also have a competitor’s product, but each machine has its own advantages and disadvantages, so having both options keeps all bases covered. We have had an association with Morgana for many years and its kit seems to always ‘do what it says on the tin’, and as the company has always looked after us, we felt upgrading the Morgana DigiFold machines to the Pro XL made perfect sense.’
With regard to the version of DigiFold, Steve added: ‘It is a more versatile machine, but, for us, it was all about the increased running speed.’ And as to the work that it will produce, he also said: ‘In addition to the greeting card work that we expect at this time of year, the machine will also be used for four-page and six-page brochures. We also pre-crease thicker saddlestitched booklet covers, and because the DigiFold Pro XL is quick and easy to set up, it is handy for doing these too.’
The Morgana DigiFold Pro XL is designed to also complement the long sheet capabilities enabled in the today’s production printers. It features a standard pull out extension that enables sheet sizes up to 1300 mm to be handled with ease.
Ray Hillhouse, vice president sales and marketing for the Plockmatic Group Offline Business Unit, said: ‘It is a great pleasure to be able to assist Steve and the Flexpress team again. The top running speed of up to 6000 folds per hour was the feature that particularly appealed in this instance, but others such as the ability to handle long sheets, including producing six-page brochures, and the ability to include multiple creases in sheets, may well be able to assist the company in the near future. This latest version of the DigiFold machine really is the finishing product that can speed up production of a great many of the UK’s print businesses.’
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