Clays is buying a new press for its Bungay factory and, rather than a further investment in digital printing, the company is buying a web offset machine: a Manroland Goss Lithonan IV coldset book press.
The company has been among the largest users of Timson presses in the world, but with the British company no longer manufacturing printing presses, it had to look elsewhere. Clays operations director Ian Smith says: “From the very outset of this project we were happy partnering with Manroland Goss. With the great depth of experience and technical expertise across both teams, we can be confident of delivering this substantial installation successfully.”
The press is due to arrive in 12 months’ time. It is a two-unit press, printing on a 1260mm wide with a 1105mm cylinder circumference, capable of 48pp sections of two-up signatures at up to 37,000iph. It is configures with a DyaChange flying plate change for zero make ready on mono book sections.
While one print unit is running, plates are changed on the second unit. When the time arrives to switch, the second unit accelerates to full speed and as an impression is sprung off on one unit, the second drops into impression, with minimal white paper waste.
It will amount to a substantial increase in capacity for B format paperbacks, coming on the back of continuing investment in digital print capacity since acquisition from St Ives by Elcograf in 2018.
The company is currently installing a new perfect binding line, in time for this year’s peak season. The new press will be in in time for the 2022 peak.
Once in operation it will have capacity to produce 50 million books a year. Paul Hulley, Clays CEO, says: “The investment demonstrates our strong confidence in and long term commitment to the UK book market.
“Over recent years, we have concentrated investment in digital technology in response to market changes. Now with advances in technology, we are focused on updating our litho press hall which still produces the majority of our volume. We are making an unprecedented series of investments across printing and binding, this is a very exciting time for the business.”
The press supplier is not unknown to Clays as the printer purchased the Manroland Goss FormerLine unit to cope with format changes on high speed inkjet web presses in 2018.
Manroland Goss worked in building the press to meet Clays’ specifications. “We carried out in depth analysis of Clays’ production requirements and followed this up with extensive testing,” says Manroland Goss managing director John Ellis. “We have also agree a five-year service level agreement to support Clays and to ensure the highest level of performance is maintained.”
