Horizon BQ470 proves perfect first time investment

Print Solutions

Ilford trade finisher Blue Star Print Finishers has picked the four clamp Horizon BQ470 PUR perfect binder from Intelligent Finishing Systems to support its service expansion into perfect bound books.

‘We should have done it years ago,’ commented director Lee Harvey. ‘It has surpassed our expectations. We expect return on investment in less than 18 months. It will help us retain existing customers and extend the services we offer them while making us more attractive to potential customers.’

Pictured: Blue Star director Lee Harvey and operator Ian Richardson with the new Horizon BQ470 perfect binder supplied by IFS.

He explains how a visit to a neighbouring printer prompted the decision to add perfect binding as a service: ‘I saw a lot of jobs waiting to go out that were not for us. I could see they were going to be perfect bound. I then rang round my customers to see what their demand was and soon realised there was a need.

‘We also looked at the work we don’t do for a lot of customers. Some of them produce more digital jobs than litho and as we have a PUR binder we can now complete that digital work for them.’

Lee reviewed a lot of the market available perfect binders and second hand options but said: ‘We saw the BQ470 PUR a couple of times as well as others but kept coming back to it because it could handle short, medium and long runs. It had to cover every eventuality. It has already completed a 4000 run for Tesco as well as short runs.’

‘It is so efficient, easy to use and operator friendly,’ he said adding, ‘What made it stand out was its diversity. It can go from 1.8 mm thick to 520 page brochures of 50 to 60 mm. It can produce an excellent book. In fact one of the first jobs we ran was a 520 page A4 brochure and the comments back from the customer were very positive about its high quality.’

The Horizon BQ470 PUR offers fully automated set up through an intuitive icon based LCD touchscreen and can produce books up to 65 mm thick. It is equipped with two large application rollers for strong, high quality binds and a separate side glue tank for added flexibility.