Print Solutions
Stephens & George Print Group will complete a £5 million finishing investment programme in March when it takes delivery of a third high output Stahlfolder TH82-P from Heidelberg.
‘We are an expanding company, having last year acquired MPC,’ said Andrew Jones, managing director. ‘We have added two binders, two stitchers and five folders in our quest to put through higher volumes, more quickly. That is good for us and good for our customers. This folder is the last piece of the jigsaw.’
An efficiency focused business, Stephens & George runs five highly specified Speedmaster XL 106 presses with a very overall output. Each month it handles about 14 million 16 page sections and four million 32 page sections.
The first Stahlfolder TH 82-P was bought for 16 pagr section work and the second for 32 page work. This third will further beef up 16 page folding capacity. The company retains ten folders in total but Andrew concedes that some will be made redundant by the much higher output capability of this latest generation folder from Heidelberg.
The Stahlfolder TH 82-P with PFX shingle feeder can output up to 16,400 16 page A4 sheets an hour at a machine speed of just 140 metres a minute. The shingling or overlapping of sheets allows the machine to fold a higher quantity without ramping up the speed which means better sheet control and higher quality folding along with much greater output.
Earlier this year the company replaced two Polar Flowlines (guillotines with materials handling) with one £350,000 Polar Pace 200, with Prinect Cut Manager and Polar Compucut. Reams are now taken automatically from the jogger and the gripper systems then automatically turn and position the paper in the cutter before delivering the finished product to the Transomat Downloader.
