Glasgow printer MBM Print is adopting automated handling in its East Kilbride factory, adding a Palmides Delta 502 Pro stacker to the recently acquired Muller Martini Primera stitching line. The unit is supplied by Friedheim International and is the first of its kind in the UK.
It was installed in April and is already having an impact. Products that would need to be removed from the delivery table, knocked up and packed by hand are now presented for an operator to simply pack into a delivery carton, without the risk of bundles slipping and ending up on the floor.
“The drive is to reduce labour costs,” says operations director Bryan Munro. “And to fill the gap because the availability of labour has dropped. The Palamides sits there and gets on with the job.”
The company produces a wide range of material using sheetfed, digital and a web presses, including operator manuals for the likes of Toyota Motors, Mitsubishi Electric and Canon’s camera division. The Delta 502 delivers neat bundles of these sometimes awkward products.
These, like books, can be printed on the company’s Strachan Henshaw Variquik mono web presses. It operates two of these and acquired a third from a printer in Canada, aiming to refurbish one at a time and keep the presses running. These deliver the sections for stitching or binding as required.
The company also runs six- and eight-colour Komori Lithrones and Ricoh presses on the digital side.
The new Palamides follows an earlier machine that is inline to one of the company’s folders. The second would have arrived earlier, had the order not been delayed because of the uncertainty created by Covid and lockdowns, Munro explains. “We might have had it a while ago, but did not know when restrictions might end. It is now in and the operators are getting used to it.”
Over the Covid period MBM Print stayed open replacing some of the work that was suspended with testing kits for one of its life sciences customers. “We are now coming out of that period and it’s time to invest to give us the technology moving forwards.”
