AB Print Group reinvests in new Watkiss PowerSquare

Print Solutions

AB Print Group of Batley, West Yorkshire, has invested in a new Watkiss PowerSquare 224 bookletmaking system. The company chose the near line configuration of the PowerSquare as the optimum solution for finishing the work from an assortment of different printers.

Explaining his choice, director Richard Walmsley said, ‘We have been using the hand fed version of the PowerSquare for three years and it is a cracking bit of kit. So when we were looking for increased automation, we naturally looked to Watkiss – I am determined to buy the best on the market that we can afford. Everything has to satisfy two criteria – deliver brilliant quality and improve our automation and productivity.’

AB Print Group is a multi-disciplined business that provides litho printing, digital printing, screen printing and print finishing, working with both agencies and direct clients to produce anything and everything from short run digital outputs, through prestigious, long run brochures to large format display materials and special substrate jobs. They provide a complete One Stop Shop service all the way through to print finishing.

The company runs a diverse range of presses including two five colour Komori Lithrones, a Nexpress 2500 and a Xerox Color 800. Finishing capabilities are impressive – as well as the usual cutting, creasing, folding and stitching, plus digital finishing including lamination and wiro binding, AB Print Group can hot foil, emboss, gum, spot UV, even create scratch’n’sniff and silver/gold latex scratchcards, all in-house.

The new Watkiss PowerSquare 224 system combines a high capacity PSF sheet feeder with the PowerSquare bookletmaker to produce SquareBack books up to 224 pages thick. The PSF feeds up to 10,800 sheets per hour and has two feeders – one with 500 mm capacity, plus a 140 mm cover feeder. AB Print also chose the PBS high capacity book stacker, which delivers huge efficiency gains by allowing the PowerSquare to run, unattended, for extended periods.

Richard continued, ‘I employ fantastic people – my operators are the best out there – and the fact that they can set the machine running and walk away to work on other things was another big influence in my decision to buy the Watkiss.’