Moo buys second Polar cutter in two years

Web-to-print company Moo Print has purchased a second Heidelberg Polar N 92 Plus cutter, replacing an outgoing Perfecta cutting system.

The cutter is the second of its model to be bought by Moo in the last two years. It was installed on 26 May and began operating the following day.

Moo operations manager Andy Whale said: “We’ve got an arm in the US and we’ve got a guy out there who procures the machines and they had two out there. We got our first one here two years ago.

“We’ve been happy with ours, they’ve been happy with theirs, so when the next one came up for renewal it made sense to follow the same path.”

Whale said London-based Moo shopped around before making the purchasing decision but considering it had already purchased a Polar machine, it made sense to purchase another.

The Polar N 92 cuts widths of up to 920mm with a feed depth of the same length and knife speed of 45 cycles/min. Meanwhile its 470mm touchscreen colour display features automatic graphic programming. 

Whale added: “We use multiple programmes as most companies with guillotines do, but it’s easy to set a programme. It is physically a good size for our factory, and for the sheets that we are putting under it.

“It ticks all the boxes: quite easy to maintain; reliable; we get good service from the engineers and can get hold of parts reasonably easily.” 

Whale said speed of production has increased once again with the second Polar as operators can now fit five batches of 25 cards into the cutter in one job, rather than four.

Moo Print specialises in web-to-print, producing items such as business cards, greetings and postcards and stickers. In October, it teamed up with creative paper company Arjowiggins to launch its new range of smart business cards. Whale said these cards have been generating a lot of interest since the launch.

Along with the two Polar cutters, it runs two HP Indigo 7800 digital presses and an HP Indigo 5000, an SCS die-cutter for round-cornering, an Autobond laminator and an MGI i-foil foiling machine. 

Its headquarters are in Farringdon, with a print, finish and fulfilment arm in Stratford. It also has a production plant in Rhode Island, US, and two offices in Boston and Denver.

It employs approximately 300 staff across all of its sites, including US.