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IFS enjoyed double digit year-on-year growth in 2015 as printers created leaner and smarter operations by delivering the highest quality post production services.
On the back of a 40% uplift in business in 2014, the post press supplier has recorded a 12.5% increase in 2015.
“We have had another good year,” states Bryan Godwyn, managing director of IFS. “We have seen significant growth over the last two years and for the coming years our focus will remain on continuing to improve the customer’s experience. We will also ensure that we bring to market the right finishing solutions for our customers to be able to meet today’s fast paced, ever-changing needs.”
He continues: “We would never have expected anything like the previous year’s growth as 2013 was still a recession year and very tough. This was reflected in 2014 when printers started to come out of the recession and began to reinvest in machinery. But this year business has grown, driven by strong interest in lamination, both B3 and B2, perfect binding, both single and multi-clamp binders, and folding. We have enjoyed some niche market orders via Petratto and Tecnau too. We anticipate this momentum will continue well into 2016.”
The buoyant figures follow a period of reinvestment by IFS in staff, premises and spare parts and logistics as well as training for technical engineers. This mirrors Horizon’s transformation of its European headquarters into a full academy and training centre.
Godwyn concludes: “We remain totally committed to the finishing market here in the UK and Ireland and have seen significant investment from our customers. We see this continuing and we are constantly striving to improve our back up and service levels as our customers remain under incredible pressure from end users for quality and fast turnaround. With that in mind we have a comprehensive, fully stocked, spare parts service and a working demonstration suite at our IFS showroom at Hemel Hempstead. We also have other demonstration solutions at Apex, Hemel Hempstead and Fujifilm, Bedford. This shows our continued commitment to the fast growing digital market but also our involvement in the very significant litho field of print.”
Horizon has launched the SmartSlitter, an all-in-one smart sheet processing system that can slit, gutter cut, edge trim, cross-cut, perforate, and crease in one pass.
The highly automated system that is quick and easy to operate via a colour touch screen, perforates and creases in both horizontal and vertical directions in the same pass. Skip perforation is also available for producing T-perfs and L-perfs which are ideal for coupon and ticket applications as well as business reply cards.
The system can deliver multiple up greeting cards with or without creasing, table tents, invitations, and much more with both matrix and rotary creasing.
For applications such as accordion folded pieces or perfect bound book covers, up and down creasing can also be performed in one pass. Standard size business cards can be printed 21-up on a sheet and processed to a receding stacker for easy handling.
Jason Seaber, Technical Sales Director for IFS, the exclusive distributor for all Horizon products in the UK and Ireland says: “The SmartSlitter is yet another example of how Horizon continues to develop innovative finishing solutions suitable for both offset and digitally printed output.”
He continues: “Its flexibility to complete every-day jobs and those that add value ensure it will be a valuable addition to any busy operation looking to stand out from the competition and create higher margin and ultimately more profitable work. We expect a very high level of interest.”
Designed for both offset and digital output, the system comes equipped with print mark registration to accommodate image shift in both directions. And, in highly-automated Horizon style, simple and easy operation includes job setup via barcode. The system accepts sheets up to 370 x 670mm and can deliver finished sheets down to 50 x 50 mm.
The SmartSlitter was officially launched at IGAS 2015 and GRAPH EXPO 2015. Demonstrations included the production of coupons with multiple perforations, direct mail pieces, business cards, card decks, and photo books for perfect binding.
Tecnau’s newest portfolio addition, the TC 1550 HS PLUS dynamic perforator, is now available in the UK and Ireland through exclusive distributor Intelligent Finishing Systems.
Launched at Graph Expo, Chicago, the TC 1550 PLUS HS is based on the well-established TC 1550 family that already has hundreds of installations worldwide.
“The new system offers greater production flexibility with a top speed of up to 800 fpm and corresponding reduction in minimum horizontal perforation repeat lengths,” states Dawn Kelley, Digital Solutions Sales Specialist for IFS.
The 800 fpm TC 1550 PLUS HS has a minimum horizontal perforation repeat lengths of 3” for the TC 1550 HS PLUS 1, 1.5” for the PLUS 2 and 1” for the PLUS 3.
“As with all Tecnau solutions the systems are quiet, accurate and dependable,” comments Kelley who adds: “And the best part is that existing Tecnau TC 1550 PLUS customers can field upgrade to the new HS platform to suit their production demands.”
The TC 1550 PLUS HS was showcased at Graph Expo alongside Tecnau’s Stack 2320 cut/stack system, WebVision EXspect quality monitor and the new WebVision PreView remote programming station for inspection template creation and template publication to multiple WebVision inspection stations.
The Stack 2320 included Tecnau’s Cutter c23, offering double-cutting for removal of flush-lines (as well as processing of bleeds) ideal for today’s high-speed colour inkjet printers while WebVision EXspect guarantees print quality, and offers significant data integrity and workflow testing capabilities.
