Halstan will be the first company in the UK with Canon’s latest ProStream inkjet press when the continuous feed machine arrives at the Amersham company in July.
At the same time as the press is installed, the book printer is taking delivery of a Tecnau Revolution 50 automated sheeter, also a UK first, and a Horizon BQ500 binder and HT1000 three-knife trimmer, not UK firsts.
The ProStream 2133 is a more compact version of the flagship ProStream technology, but even so has to be fitted carefully into the factory. “We needed to measure it on the floor plan to make sure it would fit,” says chief executive Rupert Smith.
“A lot of equipment was coming to the end of its life, so that spurred a lot of thinking, This is a natural progression for us as colour work has started to build up and because we are getting a reputation for really high quality work.”
That has followed investment in Canon’s cutsheet inked press, the VP iX3200, which followed a first generation of the technology in 2019. “The Canon inkjet systems have helped us win significant new business,” he says. “As volumes have built up, the next logical step was to move to the reel fed ProStream, not just to provide the additional capacity but to further streamline production.”
The press will run reel to reel in order to cover the wide range of book formats that Halstan already offers. This will be expanded as the new press will be able to deliver oversized coffee table books as well as more regular formats and the open flat music scores for which Halstan is well known.
The investment will also enable Halstan to bring in-house work that has been outsourced. “We do a lot of thread sewn work for music publishers, many in oversized formats, which also suits coffee table books,” says Smith.
The frequent switching between formats and impositions and different papers is a reason for running finishing as a nearline rather than an inline set up which is better suited to a more limited set of book formats. Nevertheless the set up will introduce additional automation and increase the ability to cope with shorter runs. This in turn opens up further possibilities for publishers. Halstan is the closest book printer to London, the only one accessible by Underground, and the only printer with both cut sheet and continuous feed Canon inkjet.
It aims to be in production before the end of August after which it will be inviting existing and new customers to see the set up and explain the benefits that are possible.
Before then Halstan will have to get to grips with an increasingly digital-first production platform. The company has skills in prepress and is already familiar with Canon’s inkjet technology says Smith. That does not pose a challenge. Handling reels of paper may well be something that the company will need to learn to get to grips with, literally so. “Our suppliers will be helping us,” he says, “that is where we are going to have a learning curve as we get used to scheduling, printing and moving reels.”
The Technau will cut and stack printed pages, shifting instantly between formats without manual intervention. The gathered pages can then feed into the four-clamp binder to marry with the cover. IFS is supplying both the Tecnau and the Horizon equipment.
Halstan is also working with Canon to reequip its German subsidiary. Canon toner presses, saddle stitching and perfect binding are due later this year.
