Lea Printers has installed a Horizon StitchLiner MKIII, the Kent-based printer made the investment so it can ‘manage increasingly varied run lengths and a broader work mix.’

With run lengths getting shorter and turnaround times getting tighter managing director Tristan Gill said that the operation wanted a solution that would enable greater production flexibility and agility.

‘We had an older Hohner but demand has changed with runs getting smaller and smaller,’ Mr Gill explained. ‘We looked around and found the Horizon StitchLiner is the industry standard. We liked its ability to fold which removes the need for the separate process and saves time. It is also easy to set up so any operator is comfortable running it. We can complete a lot more short run jobs faster and that will enable us to expand capacity.’ 

Lea Printers’ 6000 sheets per hour system includes the new high capacity VAC-L600H collators and their 130mm deep trays. They are more than double the depth of the 55mm trays on 10 station collators. This equates to 2.3 times less down time for loading and greater uptime.

The company, founded in 1992, produces digital work on a Xerox Versant and two black and white HPs. It serves clients including Sony, the London Stock Exchange, Grey Goose, Bollinger, Bacardi, and football governing body UEFA. The StitchLiner was installed as part of a five year plan and it is expected to play a key role in streamlining production as the business returns to pre-pandemic levels.