The Weston-super-Mare-based trade finisher is hoping the move will help it to both attract new customers and increase its offering to existing clients.

Both machines, which were bought from Intelligent Finishing Systems (IFS), were installed at a recently opened third 700sqm unit at the firm’s 2,100sqm site around a month ago.

UK Bookbinders general manager Lee Gray said the business can now deal with short-run work more efficiently and cost-effectively.

“We’ve got two large multi-station Muller Martini perfect binding lines and to set those up for short-run work is a bit of an interruption to what we do and a bit cost prohibitive for the client.

“And in terms of the way digital work is produced, to get our machine running we need a certain amount of overs for spoilage and I think digital presses are designed to avoid unnecessary overprinting and therefore this meets a need that we can see developing in the market.”

The company typically handles run lengths as low as 50 books, though Gray said it could now finish as few as half a dozen books if requested.

“The other advantage this gives us is that if a client wants a sample copy or a dummy, we’re able to make that up relatively quickly,” he added.

The fully-automated BQ-470 can bind products up to 65mm thickness. The business specified the four-clamp option rather than a single-clamp to give it greater production flexibility.

“We can now offer a service to existing customers who probably haven’t used this service from us before and it’s also enabled us to speak to printers who are exclusively in the digital market,” said Gray.

“There are three or four digital printing houses in the area that we can now approach and it also gives us the opportunity to approach some mailing houses. They often have short run pieces of work they need to mail and get out quite quickly and we think we can turn a 500 copy job round in a couple of hours.”

The HT-30 three-side trimmer, which features automated job set-ups and quick changeovers, operates off-line to trim perfect bound books at speeds of up to 200cph.

“This machine will be ideal for when we ramp up the orders. It will streamline the process and we can also be confident in the quality of the results,” said Gray.

UK Bookbinders, which has 30 staff, finishes litho print with two Meccanotecnica thread sewing machines, four MBO folders and two Polar guillotines alongside the aforementioned Muller Martini kit.