North Queensland-based Whitsunday Graphic House has installed a Heidelberg Stahlfolder Ti52 after struggling with a 34-year-old folder, which was a constant source of delays and resulted in high levels of outsourcing. "I was the only one who could operate the folding machine and it was very time consuming. An average run A3 job which had to be folded to DL would take six hours to complete adding a day to the production," says Danny Stockow, Whitsunday Graphic House owner.
The Stahlfolder will be used to finish the company’s staples of stationery and four-colour promotional materials.
Stockow says a key highlight of his Heidelberg solution is its flexibility to produce a wide range of work, as well as the productivity improvements it offers.
"If we are to meet our customers needs we have to be able to efficiently produce a broad variety of jobs. The high operating standard of the Heidelberg equipment enables us to meet these demands often within tight timeframes," Stockow says.
"I can confidently say that since the installation we are running some jobs four to five times faster than had previously been possible. Our customers are simply astounded and we are able to complete jobs before the required deadline."
Stockow says the greatest benefit of the installation has been the massive reduction in the volume of work being outsourced. "Outsourcing is fraught with perils ranging from blown-out deadlines to poor quality work over which you have no control."
The Stahlfolder Ti52 is capable of folding items in the most common print format class of 50x70cm up to a maximum size of 52x84 cm. The folder’s features include a variable arrangement of the buckle folding unit and the knife folding unit enabling a variety of configurations to be set.
Whitsunday expects that this purchase will precede the planned upgrade of the company’s printing capacities with a Speedmaster 52 two-colour press.
