The UK's favourite print show - MacMate

INNOVATIONS & INVESTMENTS
First Inca Onset S40 goes
to Kolorcraft after beta
KOLORCRAFT, OSSETT, has
become the first customer for
Inca’s latest Onset flatbed inkjet
press.
Following several months of
beta testing the company is
now the first user of the Onset
S40, a 400sq metres/hr version
of the six-colour UV press. The
£1 million investment was
funded through an asset
package put together by
Lombard, part of RBS. The Inca
press was supplied by Fuji
Sericol.
The flatbed inkjet boosts
capacity at the £25 million
turnover business. It will run
alongside a six-colour KBA
Rapida 162a installed little
more than two years ago.
“When compared to raising
£2 million for our large format
litho investment, this asset
funding exercise offered many
more challenges. It takes
courage and confidence to
invest in new technology,
especially in the current
marketplace, but Lombard was
fully supportive and receptive
to our needs and the needs of
our customers,” says finance
director Steve Stothart.
Kolorcraft specialises in
retail display work offering
screen and B1 litho printing as
well as large format digital and
10 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
Martin Hampshaw says success
means working smarter.
litho. It is a highly competitive
sector says sales and marketing
director Martin Hampshaw. “To
be successful we have to work
smarter, use the latest
technology to improve quality,
make efficiencies and reduce
costs.
“The flexibility and quality
of the Onset S40 is already
helping us deliver new
products to our customers and
enabled us to open new
markets. We recently produced
large format fashion graphics
for one client which featured
30 different image changes.
Using conventional technology,
this would have involved
producing 120 large format
plates and considerable
makeready times. The Onset’s
direct to print ability enabled
us to bring forward the in-store
date and deliver cost savings
back to our client.”
The company runs round
the clock and employs 250 in a
180,000 sq ft facility in West
Yorkshire.
“Our strategy is to do more
of what we do well to grow the
business,” says Kolorcraft
managing director Phil Findley.
Ahead of the purchase, the
company carried out a
thorough investigation into
what else was available on the
market, deciding that the
combination of Inca technology
and Fuji ink and support
offered the best combination.
“This plus the quality,
productivity and flexibility of
the machine were all decision
factors behind the investment,”
he continues. “Not only has the
Onset significantly increased
our production capacity, but it
has also enabled us to offer
competitive new products and
compete in new sectors.”
The Onset prints at 600dpi
at 400sq metres and hour. This
equates to 94 full bed sheets,
aided by automated handling
systems for loading and
removing sheets.
Kensett installs MBO folder from
Freidheim ordered at Ipex
SUSSEX TRADE BINDER
Kensett has commissioned an
MBO K800.2/4 S-KTL folder
from Friedheim International,
which it ordered at Ipex last
year.
The latest folder marks a
return to MBO and comes with
a Palamides stacking delivery
system. “It’s going to help
prevent bottlenecks in the
production process,” says
managing director James
Wheeler. “Already we have
found that we are in a position
to handle up to twice the
amount of work as previously –
depending of course on the
nature of the jobs involved.”
The family owned business
operates from Hove and in
tandem with K+L Laminators
located a few hundred metres
away.
Combined, says Wheeler,
this adds up to a one-stop shop,
with minimal transportation
between the processes that may
be needed to complete a job.
“It’s all about trying to
diversify, installing the right
equipment to do jobs quicker
and better and offer that little
bit extra service and support to
help customers as much as
possible,” he adds.
The investment in the
highly automated folder fits
this strategy as did the Muller
Martini Acora perfect binder
that the company had installed
two years ago.
l BENSON GATESHEAD has taken
delivery of the first of two Bobst
Masterfolds that the company
bought at Ipex last year. The
installations follow investment in
press and die cutting areas,
creating a bottleneck at the
folder-gluer stage. Andrew Pybus,
operations manager at Benson
Gateshead, says: “The folder-gluers
at the plant were some of the
oldest in the group and the
strategy behind ordering the new
Bobst Masterfold lines was to
balance capacity at Gateshead.”
Bobst provided an audit of the
plant’s requirements which
underpinned the decision to
replace four ageing Bobst Alpina
lines with the two new
Masterfolds. The model specified is
the 75 A1. This is the highest
speed folder-gluer in the range,
running up to 700 metres/minute.
l IPSWICH PRINTER HEALEYS has
taken delivery of a Horizon HT30
three sided trimmer in order to
reduce pressure on its guillotine
operators. Philip Dodd, managing
director, says: “We had three
guillotines but only had two
guillotine operators. So we
calculated that it would be more
economical to sell one of the
guillotines if we could find an
efficient way of trimming the
books coming off our Horizon
BQ470 perfect binder that
wouldn’t impact the other
guillotining work.” The company
was one of the first in the UK to
install the BQ470 four clamp
perfect binder. The trimmer can be
wheeled into place on the binder
when required, saving the process
step of loading bound books into
the guillotine. There is a 20
settings memory and it can handle
500 books an hour from a deep
pile feeder. The HT30 was supplied
by Intelligent Finishing Systems.
l PROOF THAT NOT EVERY printer
has converted to direct imaged
plates comes with recent
platesetter installations. At The
Practical Printer in Leicester a
Highwater CTP Cron TP36
platsetter has replaced an
imagesetter and printing down
frame arrangement. The thermal
platesetter is loaded with Kodak
Thermal Direct plates and
controlled through a Studio Rip
workflow edition. Neil Womersley,
managing director, has already
noticed the benefit. “We recently
had to produce 50 plates for a
booklet that we were printing. It
took us just two hours. Using our
previous equipment that would
have taken at least two days,” he
says.