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USARichardson & Son, based in Hawick in the Scottish Borders, has invested in a Morgana AutoCreaser Pro XL, purchased through Morgana dealer CLC.
Richardson & Son, based in Hawick in the Scottish Borders, has invested in a Morgana AutoCreaser Pro XL, purchased through Morgana dealer CLC.
Commenting on the need for the AutoCreaser Pro XL, Jamie Richardson, Co-Director, said:
“We do a lot of creasing and perforating on our Thomson Platen machines, but it takes quite a bit of skill and time to make-ready those machines. A lot of the jobs we do are small runs, like sock bands and swing tags, for example, so make-ready was taking longer than the time to actually produce the work.”
“One of the team had seen something about more automated creasing products online, so we made enquiries to three of our print finishing equipment suppliers. All of them came back with the same answer – that the Morgana AutoCreaser Pro XL would be able to handle our needs. We knew the Morgana team, as we have a few other Morgana machines on-site, so then, because of our location, we needed to find the best service solution as well as the best price. Although pricing was pretty close between them all, CLC offered an on-site demo, so in the end we went with them.”
Would this new arrival make the existing trusty platen products redundant? “No, we’ve kept the platens, and our Titan cylinder. Although the Titan will probably never run again, we are not really short of space, and it is an impressive bit of kit – also I guess we could be a little sentimental. The platens though are still used for die-cutting, and creasing heavier stock on a regular basis.”
The Morgana AutoCreaser Pro XL paper creasing system is an easy-to-use product with a highly efficient vacuum top feeder. The unique creasing rule in the AutoCreaser Pro XL eliminates paper tearing and, therefore, cracking. The Pro XL runs at a maximum of 8,500 A4 sheets per hour, with no loss of accuracy.
The product is Morgana’s most productive creaser to date, complete with the ability to handle longer sheets. The new AutoCreaser Pro XL takes a sheet size of up to 385 x 1,300mm with the table extension. Its feeder boasts an ultrasonic double sheet detection, an inline rotary perforation system with the capacity for up to five perforations at the same time, as well as the option of a cross perforation unit.
“The machine has done a lot of varied tasks. It perforates our raffle tickets, creases menus, order of service sheets, greeting cards, sock bands, swing tickets, and many more. The biggest plus, of course, is the make-ready time between jobs – it’s just so quick and simple. The machine runs every day, doing a variety of different jobs, and has definitely helped us increase our productivity.”
About Richardson & Sons
Richardson & Sons is a family run business based in Hawick, Scottish Borders. Established in 1946 by Jimmy “The Printer” Richardson, the company started out from premises at Dovemount Place and remained there until 2001 when it moved to the old Hawick News building, Lochpark Industrial Estate. From here it continues to offer a range of professional printing and finishing services to the public and the trade. The running of the business continued with Murray Richardson taking over when his father retired, and is now run by Murray, his wife Ebie, and their son Jamie. The business has grown from strength-to-strength with three other employees: David Finnie, our printer, who has worked with us for over 40 years; Robert Scott, our graphic designer and pre-press operator; and Christine Rodger, our secretary and book keeper.
For more information, see richardsonprinters.com
Jossimo Print t/a MinuteMan Press
“I love talking Plockmatic!” – Simon Crabtree, Owner MMP Melbourne locations Simon is the owner of three Minuteman Press locations in Melbourne; Knox, Glen Waverly and Hawthorn. We recently had a chat about his business and where Plockmatic has been an important chapter in his story. I was also able to spend some time talking to his production manager Mel Shilland, who has worked for Simon for the past 9 years.
The reason I wanted to talk to Simon was that he has been a long-time user of the Plockmatic range and as he states, “Plockmatic got us started, and helped us grow”. I have worked with Simon for many years and after having this discussion I came away with a better understanding of the breadth of his business and how Plockmatic has played such an integral role.
Simon did not come from traditional print, but rather the call centre industry. He came into the MMP franchise with a fresh sense of wonder and a keen drive to succeed. The first store for Simon opened in 2009 at Glen Waverly. Here he got into his first Plockmatic BM2000 in 2012 configured with a 510ACF collator/ feeder. He added a BM2000S stitch head model in 2014. He still uses that system today for many booklet jobs.
In 2015, Simon added the Knox location to his franchise bailiwick. This also was where Simon added a Fuji Xerox C800 with Plockmatic Pro50, their Kirst Plockmatic inline bookletmaker. Mel tells me, “inline bookletmaking changed my world!” This gave them the opportunity to produce books at printer speed and deliver to the customer sooner while saving two hours of binding time.
In 2016, another FX printer was added, this time the C1000 with a Pro50 inline. However, the BM2000S was still used for jobs that were printed on other sources or needed to be combined with other print. Even though the 510ACF can feed pre-collated sets, they have found that their workflow works best as individual sheets. Meaning, they print all the pages, then load the 510ACF to collate the sets into the BM2000S.
In 2017, Simon adds the Hawthorn location as a satellite store and purchases a KM1 press for the Glen Waverly store. The B2 sheet size meant much of the bookletmaking needed to be done offline. Most of that work goes into a new Horizon Stitchliner, but the BM2000S still takes on many offline bookletmaking jobs.
And last year he added some Ricoh printers to the mix, one of them a 9210 with inline PBM500. As with the Pro50’s, Mel and her team Kind that inline bookletmaking offers the ability to produce books as they print. This saves time and cost, providing the customer with a quality booklet on demand. The Plockmatic SquareFold process has also given these MinuteMan Press stores the difference in the market to stand out. “I love SquareFold, it is absolutely amazing!”, is what Mel tells me. Producing books with SquareFold gives a perfect bound look for a fraction of the cost and time. It also allows for printing on the spine and easy handling when the books are complete.
With so many options to produce print within the group, the hand feed capability of the PBM500 has been beneficial. During my visit to review the operation, I witnessed the operators running the Ricoh 9210 with PBM500 at the same time hand feeding a booklet job with cover that had a fold out on the inside of the cover. This job would be difficult on many finishers, but easily produced by the unique function of the hand feed on the Plockmatic inline bookletmaker.
Producing over 15,000 books per month keeps Simon and his team quite busy. Typical applications range from Marketing brochures to perfect bound novels. The substrate range is from 80-350 gsm, however most jobs would have 128gsm body stock and a 300gsm cover. The benefit of the 50-sheet version of the inline Plockmatic bookletmaker is the ability to easily bind stocks of heavier weight, including textured substrates. Many books that may have been traditionally done by perfect binding, can now be done at the same time as printed with the PBM500.
At the time of this publication, Simon was looking at the Plockmatic BM5050s, our newest addition to the bookletmaking stable. This model is an industry first, able to produce landscape A4 books up to 50 sheets with up to 4 stitch heads. One of the reasons this model is attractive to Simon, is that the Horizon Stitchliner that is capable of making landscape A4, cannot produce SquareFold books. Since Simon’s teams typically produce SquareFold on the many Plockmatic devices, their customers have become accustomed to the quality finish and expect it on all jobs they produce. In the meantime, Simon has added an offline Plockmatic BM500 with vacuum feeder and an additional Ricoh printer with PBM500 inline. Plockmatic is happy to be part of their success!
Snap Melbourne
Snap Little Collins St in Melbourne is owned and operated by Michael Waugh and this Case Study presents his experience with the new Plockmatic SD500 inline booklet maker and how it has helped his business grow. Michael has owned the 18 year old store for the last 8 years. They specialise in onsite digital print and finishing along with wide format and graphic design. One can also get offset print done through this Snap location but the jobs are outsourced. The main operator, Jarrod enjoys the ease of use of the SD500 along with the increased productivity.
Equipment
Michael has another printer equipped with an inline bookletmaker, but it is one that does not keep up with productivity nor does it have full bleed trimming. So prior to installing the SD500 Plockmatic inline bookletmaker on his new KM printer, all of the booklet work was slower and required another offline process to trim the head and foot of the book on the guillotine. Also on hand is a digital creaser/folder and Renz book binding equipment. The SD500 with Rotate Crease and Trim capability allows for full-bleed booklets to be produced at printer speed with no additional operator.
Application
Most of the books produced through the SD500 are corporate brochures and booklets on 80gsm text with a 350gsm cover. At 150-250 books per job and averaging 15,000 books per month, the SD500 keeps up easily with the productivity.
Michael’s impression of the machine is that he loves it since it has saved him and his team time and effort. One improvement he would like to see is a better way to handle trim waste from the side trimmer. I was able to direct him to the Plockmatic Trim Waste Conveyor, that would help him keep the booklet maker productive.
Michael mentioned that the SD500 has not missed a beat and has resulted in quite an advantage in the market due to better lead times and a quality, professional book. The other benefit of the SD500 with 200 page booklet capacity, is the number of jobs that used to be perfect bound that now can be produced inline at a lower cost. Perfect binding requires a set up fee plus a premium charge over stapled booklets. However, since the capacity of the SD500 is up to 50 sheets of paper, many jobs that typically require perfect binding can now be run inline at printer speed at no extra labour or time.
Snap Queen Street invests in Plockmatic Pro 35
Snap Queen Street uses a remote site to produce much of the production work submitted into the city location. Simon Morcom is the franchisee and also owns the Snap in Maroochydore north of Brisbane and in Latrobe Melbourne. He has a Pro50 on Color 1000i at the Melbourne location, so familiar with the quality of Plockmatic products.
In addition to the Fuji Xerox Iridesse press, this location houses the Versant 180 and D110 printers. The main operators Dan and Jake, both expressed how easy the Pro35 is to set up and use. They enjoy that the books are completed at the same time as the printing. The team at this Snap need to operate many types of equipment, often simultaneously, to keep productivity high. The Pro35 fits well in this environment due to the automation and quality output.
Typical booklet jobs for this Snap are manuals and newsletters produced on 150-170gsm stock with covers up to 350gsm. The average book size is A4 with 40-60 pages. Asked what they would change or improve on the Pro35, the team agreed that the Cover Feeder could be more robust. Adding to the requirement for automation and less touchpoints, they cited the need for a cover feeder before the side trim module. For this reason, Simon will be adding a D1 inserter to the configuration.
The Pro35 is part of the Plockmatic family of 35 and 50 sheet booklet makers designed for Fuji Xerox printers. The robust design of the systems delivers the quality and precision that meets the requirements of either the CRD in-plant or commercial print environments. The adaptive folding technology, along with the trimming and creasing functions, guarantees the production of up to 140-page booklets in the most cost-effective way possible. The technology eliminates the risk of cracking of toner, thus enhancing the booklet’s appearance. Plockmatic’s Pro35/50 inline booklet makers are designed from the ground-up to work with today’s demanding paper stocks. The robust design of these systems makes it possible to produce booklets made from a wide range of media weights.
Apprintable offers a same day print service for London based clients, and runs a web-to-print service for clients nationwide. The company is following a clear growth strategy centred around its previously announced Ricoh digital print engine. With regard to this latest post-press addition, Peter Haddad, Managing Director of Apprintable, said: “We were spending a fair bit on outsourcing lamination; it made good business sense to keep that money in-house, and bring control of job back into our own hands. Because of the investment in the Ricoh press last year, we’ve been able to bring a lot more production in-house and bringing laminating back here was the obvious next step.
“We had a small Chinese manufactured machine most recently that we were using for very urgent jobs, but that was a very manual process, and the unit was also difficult to use. It got the job done for the very short run work, but the quality does isn’t even close to that from the Morgana unit.”
Designed for easy operation, the Laminator Pro 450 is a unique high-pile automatic feed laminator. It features an integrated compressor and pneumatic system for high quality print lamination up to 450mm working width. This revolutionary compact machine combines speed and ease of operation with quality.
This deep pile, automatic suction feed system can achieve speeds of up to 1,875 of SRA3 sheets per hour. A micro-perforation and scissor roller cutting system provides for perforation and separation of sheets. The Laminator Pro 450 is ideal for the on-demand printer. It is both easy to set up and very versatile, being capable of foiling and spot gloss as well as straightforward laminating.
“We bought our AeroCut Prime from Morgana just before Christmas. It was ordered and delivered within a week. I was so impressed by Morgana and their focus on what the client needs, as well as their ability to assist us so speedily. I can just trust those guys.
“I was impressed by the fact that they didn’t want to sell me something that I didn’t need, such as an higher spec version of the Prime. I felt that I could really trust them and that they cared about my business – their representative used to be a litho printer. We then bought a Canny P50 bander from Morgana following the Prime purchase. It made good business sense to go back to Morgana for this latest purchase.
“I did look at other laminating products, just to confirm my selection. There was one with a separate feeding unit – but that gave me doubts because I have seen disconnected systems fail badly. It made sense to stick with Morgana as our finishing machine provider. They gave a fantastic demo of the product, and that gave me a lot of confidence in the purchase.”
With the machine now installed and running, Peter adds: “The speed, the ease of webbing it up, and the fact that we can just let it run almost completely unattended have been the obvious benefits for our productivity.” With regard to the work that the new machine will be used for Peter said: “Laminated business cards, flyers, and POS work, as well as more unusual products such tent cards and coffee cup sleeves. We can use matt, gloss, and soft touch finishes, and will also be adding matt biodegradable material, in keeping with our sustainability focus.
“The Laminator Pro 450 can also produce digital foiling, and this is something that we are currently experimenting with, and will be bringing that work in-house too. It was the foiling capability that really helped to clinch the deal for me. It costs so much to outsource foiling compared to the actual raw material costs involved, so we see this as another huge opportunity.”
Overall capital expenditure for products from Morgana in the past three months has totalled £48,000. “It’s a great company to work with. They understand what we need because their team has worked with printers of our size for decades. The individuals that we have met know printing and can understand what we need.”
“We are now already looking at new premises for 2023. Our recent equipment purchases have filled our current factory!”
“The Laminator 450 and 450 Pro offer a range of printers the ideal in-house laminating solution. Apprintable is a growing business that is looking to bring as many services in-house as they can. Peter and the team can appreciate that’s where the margins for printers can lie. Using external suppliers just eats into your profits.”
Apprintable is a London printing company with a graphic design service busines and an on-line portal for a variety of printed products. The company specialise in print for businesses across the country. An in-house digital printing service is what helps to make Apprintable an agile and flexible service provider with different delivery options that will suit customers’ needs, from express printing to same day print delivery in London. There is no need for you to look no further!
No matter what printing and design services a brand needs, Apprintable can assist with high-quality printing services that are sure to go the extra mile. A focus on customer service is what makes the company’s ratings exceptional, with product delivered to the highest of standards.
For further details see the https://www.apprintable.com web site.
