Harrogate Mailing Invests in Obeli to Solve a Mailing Puzzle

Posted on - 14th June 2017

A traditional print and mailing company based in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, approached The Finishing Point for help in keeping their services in-house by supplying equipment within a short time frame to fill a production void. The company offers a mix of traditional lithographic prints as well as high volume black & white prints utilising Xerox digital print engines. Their main company focus is outgoing mail and packaging although the print sector relies heavily on in-house finishing for specialist mailings.

The Issue

Wallets for mailing had to be printed and created outside of the business and the company lacked the production capability to produce specialist print finishing work
The company also utilised slow and labour intensive finishing techniques
Old paper guillotines were also creating inaccuracies in the production process
The company had a requirement to cut SRA2 sheets
Digital work is particularly delicate & therefore needed less pressure from the clamp on their current paper guillotines
The company had to turn work away due to an inability to complete certain finishing tasks such as perforating

The Challenge

To keep all future work in-house
To offer a solution that could sit alongside high volume mailing machines
To provide equipment within a short time frame to fill a production void
To ensuring that the machinery was up to the task for such high volumes of bespoke work

The Solution

We had a small advantage with this site as we had been servicing the old paper guillotines for a few years prior to this requirement being put forward. As a result we had an understanding of the direction the company wanted to go and could assist them in reaching their goal.

The two main problems were the lack of automation and accuracy on the old Ideal 52 Paper Guillotines and the production of a new product that required a bespoke variable data wallet to be created in small batch quantities but reasonably high volumes. Trying to replace or integrate everything at once would prove difficult especially with the short time frame we needed to work with.

The team visited our showroom and viewed the latest Ideal and Obeli ranges and were quickly impressed with the ease of use, automation and most importantly the adjustable clamp found on the Ideal 5560 Paper Guillotine. It was instantly decided that two of those would fill the void being left by the outgoing old Ideal 52 machines.

An important factor was understanding the clients requirements for the bespoke wallets, these where A3 and A4 350 gsm gloss cards printed with variable data and specifically targeted marketing to the each customer. The cards were all printed with an BRE & an OMR mark for the mailing machines to read, however, before they could run through the mailing machine they needed to be formed into a small wallet to fit in either a C5 or C4 envelope. In order to do this the wallets needed to be formed as flat sheets before being packed with predetermined and generic material and then passed through the mailing machine for extra specific items to be added. Obviously there was a significant amount of manual work involved, but to form the wallets The Finishing Point proved that a pair of Obeli Card Creasing machines could not only accurately produce the wallets (4 creases to create a box section on each end) but the speed of the machines met with the pace of the operator loading the wallets.

We could have opted for the higher speed Obeli Swift 335 but the fact that the wallets were all sequential and needed to be kept in that order along with the perfect running speed and use of the internal team meant the Semi Auto HF model was the better fit. Two HF models actually meant split production and could be used in tandem during busy periods.

New Obeli Card Creasing Machines
New Obeli Card Creasing Machines
Cross Perforation Bar x 2 (24 Tpi) for Obeli HF (To cover future requirements on both machines)
Rotary Perforation Tool x 2 (24 Tpi) for Obeli HF (To cover future requirements on both machines)

The Outcome

The company benefited from a faster, easier and better production
Wallets & bespoke folds could now be created in-house
Perforating functions purchased as future related items have already been put to use
New paper guillotines now sit alongside the Litho Presses and are ran by the Litho Operators (self sufficient clean rooms)
The company now has the ability to reduce clamping pressure and can easily remove marks on delicate stocks
Thanks to the new equipment and their ability to incorporate creasing and perforating options in-house, the company can now access new revenue streams
We are left with one happy team!

Customer Comments

"Great company, great advice, great service, what more can you say!"

If you are looking to upgrade your equipment or you're interested in expanding your services like the Harrogate based printing and mailing company, please do not hesitate to contact us, a member of our team will be more than happy to help and can answer any questions that you may have. Working with you, we can help you to find the perfect solution for your requirements.