Princes Press has increased its collating capacity for perfect binding books by investing in a 10 station Horizon VAC-1000A collator and Horizon ST-40 stacker from IFS.

The family owned commercial printer produces digital work on two Konical Minoltas, a C3070 and C605. Established in 1996 the company now boasts a total factory space of 4000sqft, eight employees and a turnover in excess of £500,000.

The Horizon VAC-1000 takes advantage of Horizon’s feeding technology and performs a ‘wide range of applications with flexible but powerful programming and user-friendly operation.’ The addition of the collator means that the Kenilworth-based firm now has 20 collation stations at its disposal.

‘The collator has helped us with our job workflow and book production management,’ explained owner Dave Plumb. ‘We have seen an increase in demand for perfect bound books and by adding the new systems we have doubled our capacity. The workload is a lot easier to handle now.’

The productivity of the collator has been enhanced by the Horizon ST-40. Any errors are delivered to the built-in reject tray for maximum non-stop operation and a continuously cycling tail jog keeps all sheets well positioned for superior stack quality.  

‘Having the ST40 is like having an extra bin which is another gain,’ Mr Plumb finished. ‘Both systems were a much-needed addition to our bindery. It was a case of having to have them to meet more demanding turnaround times. We are very pleased.’