Warners has ordered a high speed perfect binding line from Muller Martini. The Publica Pro will arrive early next year and will provide additional capacity at the web offset magazine printer.
Before then a Primera saddle stitcher will replace an ageing saddle stitcher. “We are hoping that the perfect binder will be delivered in January or February,” says marketing director Michael Warner. “We have space in the new factory building.”
This houses the Manroland Goss Lithoman 32pp web press installed three years ago.
“The Publica is an addition to the existing equipment we have. We are seeing a growth in demand for perfect binding, so the new machine will help us keep up with the growing demand,” says Warner.
Warners already runs a Corona C13 perfect binder and an Allegro PUR binder. The new machine will be built in Germany and is based on the Kolbus Publica technology with a package of enhancements developed by Muller Martini. “When we demonstrated the equipment, Warners could see the value and innovation we have added,” says Muller Martini sales manager David McGinlay. “Warners are the first in the UK to buy this system.”
It will be fed from logs that gathered from the folder on the web press and craned into position, increasing the speed of makeready and making life easier for staff, says Warner. The press can deliver in fours and eights as well as 16pp and 32pp sections and delta folds. “It is all about speed of changeover – it’s like a Formula 1 pit crew – minimising waste and down time,” he adds.
The perfect bound products will be finished in an Orbit three-knife trimmer at up to 15,000 cph.
The stitcher that will arrive before then is also faster than that it replaces, with a more automated makeready and the ability to produce A5 products and other non standard formats, opening the door for Warners to increase its product range.
But it will not be looking for the long run work that has been released by the collapse of the York Mailing companies. “We have noticed a lot more phone calls,” says Warner. “We might be able to help with some projects.”
Warners‘ forte though is mid run to short run products, as low as 3,000 copies being possible thanks to the automation and makeready speed of the press. “Now the bindery needs to keep up and to be able to match the output of the press,” he says.
