The Presto II saddle stitcher
Around 13 graphic arts companies based in Great Britain and Ireland have invested in a Presto II or Presto II Digital saddle stitcher from Muller Martini over the past year. This means they are equally equipped for both traditional offset sheetfed printing and for the strong growth in digital printing with its numerous short run jobs.
David McGinlay, sales manager of Muller Martini Great Britain, said, ‘One of our Presto II customers recently produced 247,000 brochures with 817 job changes and an average run of 302 copies per title in nine days. The data for all of these jobs was imported from the customers’ management information system (MIS). There are two main reasons for this growth in demand of short run lengths. On the one hand, the web-to-print market in Great Britain and Ireland is growing significantly. The volumes in this segment have increased dramatically recently.’
As a result, Variable Data Printing (VDP) with its multi-job function has become increasingly important. Traditional print finishing companies wishing to enter new markets have comfort and confidence in the Presto II, because of its future proofed design and capabilities. In order to also use the saddle stitcher for digitally printed signatures, all that is needed is the addition of a plow folder and a processing folder. ‘The high level of investment protection is the hallmark of the Presto II and a key reason why it is so popular with our customers,’ said Mr McGinlay.
London-based Premier Print and Direct Mail Group invested in a Presto II last year. ‘In addition to a Valore, we opted for this saddle stitcher type for two reasons,’ said Darren and Gary Goodson, directors at the company. ‘On the one hand, the quick setup times and, on the other hand, because it also gathers digitally printed signatures as book blocks and thereby also supports the efficient production of our perfect-bound short run jobs.’ The fact that the Presto II is digital ready is also a benefit for the two company directors, ‘We always have more orders in digital printing. The Presto II is the perfect digital inline finishing system.’ The company used to gather the signatures for short run jobs by hand.
‘Thanks to the new Presto II, already the third Presto in our business, we are equipped for future challenges, can expand further in digital production and thereby have a crucial competitive edge in the market,’ commented Karen Taylor, director of MacKay and Inglis. The printing plant based in Glasgow, Scotland, which employs 19 people, has integrated an inline hole punching device in the three knife trimmer 1565, which was added by Muller Martini. ‘This additional feature relieves the other punching machines and has boosted our efficiency and productivity considerably.’ said Ms Taylor.
Liam Cody, managing director of Kilkenny Modern Printers based in Kilkenny, Ireland, said of the saddle stitcher, ‘We commissioned the Presto II instead of a second-hand Prima and thereby not only reduced our make-ready times significantly, but also hugely increased our production reliability.’
