Cirencester-based Corinium Colour has invested in a KAS 640 bookletmaker, boosting its finishing capability after installing a five colour Ricoh C7200x.
‘Demand for booklets has grown significantly since we installed the Ricoh C7200x,’ explained director Iain Cox. ‘Although we can finish them online, we wanted to improve our productivity and quality. In addition we wanted to bring all the booklet making in-house because we were outsourcing 25% of the longer runs.’
Mr Cox evaluated three machines before placing an order with Automated Systems Group in conjunction with Ashgate, the UK distributor. He took several jobs with different formats and stock to Ashgate’s showroom for testing and found, ‘The KF640 was head and shoulders above the rest. It was the only machine with so much versatility for the price.’
The KF640 produces a maximum booklet size of 320mm x 320mm alongside more common sizes like A4 landscape and 12 x 12in booklets. It will also handle a maximum sheet size of 640 x 320mm which means that the sheets do not require pre-trimming of the short edge on a guillotine prior to producing an A4 landscape booklet.
‘It is ideal for our type of work, not only because of the formats it can handle but also because it finishes a range of stock. It is quick to setup and change sizes and although it is hand fed, we can produce more than 800 booklets an hour,’ Mr Cox continued.
‘We went straight into production which was useful because one of the first jobs was to finish a quarter of a million booklets. We would never have been able to do this job in-house without this machine it has sped up production by well over fifty percent.’
