Knole Academy’s office apprentice, Kyra McDonald using the new equipment
Knole Academy in Sevenoaks, Kent, has expanded its reprographics capability with the installation of a suite of finishing equipment from Morgana Systems.
The products include a System 200e bookletmaker, a DigiCreaser and an EBA compact guillotine. The post-press hardware sits alongside a Konica Minolta BizHub digital printing machine.
Christine Hewitt, office manager, said, ‘Adding professional finishing equipment to the excellent printing capabilities of the Konica Minolta machine almost turns us into a fully fledged repro studio! The bookletmaker creates very professional looking stitched products, and is ideal for our newsletters and prospectus products, as well as the day-to-day output of student programme booklets and exam papers.’
The academy came into being three years ago with the merging of two existing educational establishments. The all-ability school is in the process of adding new, state of the art facilities including sports, performance space, and vocational training areas that will cater for the future needs of students from across the Sevenoaks district.
The System 200e with ACF510 represents the cutting edge of bookletmaking, with the flexibility to produce booklets by combining printed work from both digital and litho sources, as well as combine coated or laminated covers. The product includes a two step roller system that gives a sharp fold without marking or tearing the sheet. The operator interface, featuring a large LCD programmable display, can also operate downstream modules. The bookletmaker is capable of producing up to 3000 finished books per hour, or up to 4000 collated sets per hour.
‘We are getting up to speed with the operation of the equipment quickly, and are looking forward to handling work that used to cause us some difficulties: our sixth form course guides, for example, are on 2/3rds A4 width stock. With the new guillotine and the bookletmaker these will be much easier for us to produce,’ added Christine Hewitt.
The creasing device is set to assist the office with production of many publications, including a number of tri-fold leaflets that are produced.
‘Once we had made our decision regarding equipment, Ethos, the supplier of our Konica Minolta printing product, was able to provide the Morgana machinery. We are delighted with the equipment: it’s exactly what we needed.’
The office uses its printing equipment to create an income stream by servicing the needs of a number of local primary schools and even some nearby businesses.
