Browns Print has followed up investment in a ten-colour Cutstar XL75 in March with installation of a Horizon StitchLiner III.
This will mean greater levels of production than the older StitchLiner that has served well over a few years says managing director Danny Baldwin. “It was a great machine. A fantastic piece of kit. We were running our Muller Martini stitching line at full capacity constantly and the StitchLiner was taking more and more work. We needed more capacity. We talked to the IFS team and they suggested the StitchLiner Mark III with two-up kit would be faster and more flexible. We didn’t look at any other options on the market because we know and trust Horizon systems. They are very reliable.
“We also liked the fact it could produce landscape work. For those jobs, especially short run work, it was time consuming to finish them in-house. We were also sending some of that work out or we would price ourselves out of the job. Now we can say yes to everything knowing that that it can be completed quickly and cost effectively in house.”
The StitchLiner MkIII has a faster running speed than its predecessor at 6,000cph, or twice that number of two-up products. More importantly make ready is much faster as well as capability being enhanced to increase output.
Baldwin continues: “With an increase in output of circa 25% the machine will pay for itself in no time. It is quick to set up and easy to run. Originally, we only had one operator trained on it so our bindery manager was also trained and he picked it up very quickly.”
He concludes: “It just doesn’t skip a beat. It is running full speed every hour of every day. In fact, we are looking at putting another shift on.”
While the StitchLiner will handle work from the long perfector, Browns also runs an XL106 and both Versafire and Linoprint generation digital presses. The company has ring fenced £2.4 million to a future proofing strategy that has included the press and StitchLiner to date. An updated website is under construction.
