Premier 435 perfect binder is ideal for Higham Press

Print Solutions

Production flexibility and quality were two of the categories that dog show guide printer Higham Press awarded the Premier 435 fully automatic perfect binder top prize in.

The Higham operation was established in 1945 and today around 80% of its work is for dog shows. It produces litho pint on three Heidelberg presses and two Konica Minolta bizhubs.

Director Susan Smith explains the investment was made to better handle shorter faster turnaround work’ ‘We needed something that could handle the mix of work and varied run lengths from our digital and litho presses. Our old binder was three clamps but a bit of a pain to set up,’ she said.

She chose the Premier 435 for a number of reasons: ‘We like things to be easy and the Premier is simple to set up and makes production much smoother. It is more economic. The quality is very high too. We also liked the fact it was PUR which will make the bind much stronger. It also makes cleaning up simpler and faster and that helps ensure our operators are happy.

‘It is touch screen and that means we can change jobs easily. That will save us hours. This will be especially beneficial in busy periods. We can also use the creaser as a standalone process which means we can crease covers separately. This will be a very useful service.’

As for return on investment she said: ‘We have a couple of crucial jobs at the end of the year and we will know better once it has completed those. But so far jobs that would have taken half a day are now taking just half an hour. It will help us expand our services and have the confidence to take on more work.’

The Premier 435 Auto single clamp automatic perfect binding machine is capable of binding books up to 58 mm in thickness. It has an automatic suction feeder with built in cover creasing which speeds up production allowing 300 to 450 books per hour to be processed. The books once perfect bound are then automatically delivered into the vertical delivery allowing for the books to dry in the correct position. The feeder can also be used as a standalone creaser.