Page Visions, a commercial printer in Slough, has installed the UK’s first Fastbind Pureva Smart binder to complement the Fastbind Casematic A46Z Smart casemaker and the Fastbind EVA XT hot melt binder which it recently bought from Ashgate.   

‘The Fastbind equipment suits us perfectly because it is so easy to use and produces a quality product every time,’ explained finishing manager Iwona Wytrzymala. ‘This is very important because we have a large finishing department with 15 people in two shifts, operating all the Fastbind machines.

‘Whenever Ashgate bring out something new where we can see the benefits of faster, easier and more consistent production, we always look at it first. We’ve known them and appreciated their service for so long. In the last seven years we have bought seven machines from them, including casemakers, binders, gluing equipment and laminators, all of which are still operational. Sometimes we are so busy that we have to bring one of our older pieces of Fastbind equipment out of store and it works every time.’

Page Visions, which runs digital presses from Canon, HP and Vario Print, has an online department where customers can order over the web. ‘During the lockdown, more and more customers placed their orders over the web and are still doing so,’ Ms Wytrzymala continued. ‘If they place their orders in the morning then we commit to finishing them the same day which can be quite a challenge. In my department we finish a wide range of hard and soft back books, photo albums, school books from one to whatever the customer wants but the cut off is usually about a hundred.’

The Pureva Smart semi-automated binder is the natural succession to the Fastbind Pureva XT manual binder. Both machines can bind both soft and hard back books up to A3 portrait with the choice of PUR or EVA glue adhesive applications. Page produced books in A5 and A4, portrait and landscape format.

‘We work well with Ashgate,’ Ms Wytrzymala concluded. ‘They are friendly and helpful. In many cases they can sort out our queries over the phone but if we do need them to come out, they are very quick to respond, which is essential in a busy finishing department like ours.’