The US-built Scheffer represents an investment of 750,000 and it will arrive at the Kettering plant in July. The line will enable Eclipse which also runs a bank of B1 Heidelberg long-perfector sheetfed presses to produce a variety of leaflets, media inserts and other special products in one-pass production.

Using a turner bar the printed web can be diverted before it reaches the press' inline folder and into the Scheffer, which features five folders, gluing, perforating, cutting and stacking.

Managing director Simon Moore said the device would cut out significant work in the bindery.

"One-hour printing on the web can produce nine hours in the bindery," he said. "We cannot get skilled bindery operators to cope with the volumes we are producing. We always knew this and that the solution would be to automate it."

Moore said he expected a fast return on investment. "If we get 20% utilisation, it's paid for itself. If we do better than that, which we will it'll be the icing on the cake."

A 12-colour Speedmaster, ordered at Drupa last May, will also arrive in July and replace a three-year-old model. Eclipse has also recently invested in two Palamides paper banding machines from Friedheim International.

Story by Lauretta Roberts