Spingold has installed a rotary die cutter from IFS to increase its die cutting capacity and to be able to crease boxes at the same time as cutting them.
The business located near Colchester took delivery of the Horizon RD-N4055 DM only a couple of weeks ago. It will be up and running and well bedded in before the company’s busy season starting in the summer as customers selling though Amazon stock up ahead of the Christmas season, says managing director Ed Oakes. Alongside general commercial work Spingold has developed a speciality in printing playing cards, selling these through websites.
“We have been producing playing cards for ten years, says Oakes. “For the first two or three years it was a steep learning curve, then we bought out first Duplo rotary die cutter in 2016 and that’s when we really started going places.”
It has since installed a second Duplo as well as a Konica Minolta C14000 to join a brace of Xerox Versants as trading took off during the pandemic and people needed entertainment at home. “We have doubled turnover in the last three years and expect similar growth this year. It’s not just about cards – we have been rebuilding our generic print website,” he says.
The Horizon has two cylinders where dies are attached by strong magnets. Kocher & Beck is producing these dies. Where the new machine offers more than the Duplo in being able to cut out using the upper die and to apply creases using the lower die. The company will be able to increase productivity as a result.
The die cutter runs at 6,000 cycles an hour, has a stepping process to repeat the same die cut along the sheet and can cope with up to 400gsm/500 microns which is more than enough to accommodate playing cards printed on 350gsm material. Getting hold of this has been a problem as the mill that produces the board used stipulated a seven-month lead time as it struggled to cope with the aftermath of lockdowns. That problem has gone.
“Everything we do is driven by service and quality,” Oakes says. That has underpinned the growth and led to the need for investment. This in tern was helped by a £25,000 grant from the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership growth through innovation fund run by Suffolk County Council. This “meant that we could make the investment without any further need for financing”.
The Duplos are being retained to handle shorter runs and to provide that additional capacity when it’s needed. “As a business we are always looking to push on. We know that there will be others starting to look at this market and we want to make sure we are staying ahead. We are very excited about the Horizon,” says Oakes.
