Finishing & Screen Printing
Anton builds up its bindery to cope with direct mail demand
Tuesday 11. November 2008 - The Anton Group has made more major investment in the finishing area, re-equipping to cope with work from its battery of Speedmaster long perfectors and its burgeoning digital printing side.
A third Stitchmaster ST 450 has been added, replacing one of two remaining Muller Martini lines, along with a Stahlfolder with stop-start perforating capability and a transportation and materials handling system working in conjunction with the companys Scitex inkjet personalisation system.
Bindery manager Michelle Knight says: “The ST450 comes in this week with four stations but with a chain length for eight stations. We have two six-station ST 450 models already and we will be able to move stations around so the new line could run with up to eight feeders, depending on the jobs were handling.
“We handle runs of 20,000 to 8 million, probably averaging 1 million copies. With a Stitchmaster its very easy to interrupt a job and fit another in because the set up times are so good. Its a very flexible line. With the eight year old Muller Martini we are replacing we couldnt makeready fast enough or get any speed improvement. We have the experience to know what the ST450s can do.”
For the digital department the company is taking delivery of a Stahlfolder TH 56 with stop start perforating enabling it to have response mechanisms or coupons of various sizes. Anton chose this system because it can handle a range of stocks and its proven reliability.
In addition Anton will install a TH82 SSP on which the buckle plates have been replaced by three scoring shafts making it perfect for preparing sheets prior to personalisation on the UFS mailing tables connected downstream. This new unit will be set up next to the Anton Groups existing Scitex TD112 B1 format Scitex inkjet system.
“We have three Flexomailers and the existing TD112 personalisation system so the new TH82 with Scitex heads gives us additional capacity and is in line with our current expansion plans,” says Michelle Knight. “There is massive demand for personalisation. The gap between junk mail and direct mail has widened and direct mail is getting clever and targeting better. During the credit crunch people will be wanting to target individuals and to increase response. We are finding that peoples databases are getting better and the lists supplied more comprehensive.”