Finishing Solutions
Gloucester commercial digital printer Inky Little Fingers has increased production capacity with investment in a Horizon four clamp BQ-500 iCE Binder from Intelligent Finishing Systems.
Laurence Felton, managing director, explained: ‘Perfect binding is central to our business. The higher production speed and enhanced automation of the BQ-500 gives us a significant boost in productivity with the same number of staff. We liked the enhancements it delivered over our existing single clamp Horizon BQ-280 system. There is also an upgrade path to integrate this machine with the HT-300 for higher automation should we need this in the future.’ Laurence made the decision on paper. He expanded, ‘Due to Covid evaluating other manufacturers equipment would have been very difficult if not impossible. We chose the Horizon BQ-500 primarily because we trust IFS and Horizon to deliver a reliable product that does what the company says it does. We are a long standing customer and IFS had made us aware of this machine before its launch.’ The Horizon BQ-500 four clamp perfect binder builds on the successful tried and trusted features of its BQ-470 and BQ-480 predecessors. Its enhanced functionality includes highly automated set up via a large 12.1 inch colour touchscreen, memory storage of up to 999 jobs, pre-installed variable software capability and variable thickness production of 5 mm.
It is pre-installed with Horizon’s cloud based Ice Link workflow that provides access to an intuitive, easy to use dashboard that reports real time production analysis for improved efficiency and profitability, remote update capabilities and scheduled maintenance, resulting in less downtime.
It also incorporates new design features that aid easy operation. They include a status light that indicates, at a distance, how the binder is running, and an ergonomic design where all the operator required actions are on the same side.
On the new equipment Laurence stated, ‘As with all of our Horizon equipment, we expect the machine to perform to a high standard for many years. It has only been installed for a few days, but we are pleased with the machine so far. Our product quality on the BQ-280 was excellent. Our product quality on the BQ-500 is also excellent. The difference is that we have greater capacity with the same number of staff.’
Pictured: Laurence Felton (right), Inky Little Finger’s managing director, with his son and production manager Luke in front of the Horizon BQ-500.
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