Sydney based Kaligraphic Print no longer has to rely on a hand operated guillotine to cut the self-published novels and books it specialises in, with a new Horizon HT-30 Three Side Trimmer now installed.
Owner Katya Shmaiger says she spotted the Horizon HT-30, supplied through Currie Group, at the PacPrint trade show in Melbourne last year and immediately fell in love and thought one day her small business based in Leichhardt should have one.
“We flew to Melbourne to see what was new in the printing industry and saw this machine and I fell in love with it and I thought one day we should have it. And here we are. It was installed 10 days ago,” Shmaiger told ProPrint.
The Horizon HT-30 is the third Horizon product at Kaligraphic, which prints all manner of items from business cards, to novels and training manuals plus handles the finishing needs of other printers, joining a Horizon Perfect Binder and a Horizon Scoring and Folding machine.
Shmaiger says the Horizon cutter can cut a stack of books unsupervised, freeing up one of the company’s four staff to get on with other jobs.
“We are quite small but we are large in the things we do,” Shmaiger says.
“For books that are thinner we can cut 10 at a time on the guillotine but still someone has to do it.
“So, it does save us time as well but the main reason to invest in this machine was to have this process automated so anyone can put books in and go and do their own thing. You need to come and put in another set of books but you can do other things while you wait.”
Shmaiger says this focus on automation is what sets her business apart from other printers and enables the business to stay competitive in the market.
“We use less labour than some other printers. This is our strong point and is how we can compete. That was the reason we bought this trimmer so we can do this part of the process automatically as well.
“The other benefit of the cutter is it does not damage book spines, the way the traditional guillotine sometimes did if you tried to cut too many at once or the books were printed on thicker stock.
“Some books that are printed on bulkier stocks so when you put pressure on them to cut them with the guillotine it damages the spine, even when you have very little pressure, so sometimes you can only cut one at a time,” she says.
Another big plus for self published authors to use Kaligraphic is the ability to order print on demand quantities, of as little as 100 copies.
“The authors are used to having to print in big quantities and then they become stuck with boxes and have to pay lump sums. Now they can have the opportunity to print 100 books and once they are sold , they can order more. So, this is one type of the books we do. Another type is colour photo books, school books, training manuals.”
Nathanael Smith, account manager at Currie Group says, “Will Currie and I enjoyed working with Katya to bring the HT-30 to Kaligraphic. We believe it is the perfect addition to the business and the automation will give Katya and her staff much more time to work on other parts of the operation.”
Kaligraphic Print has been in operation for two and a half years with all four staff coming together from different printing companies.
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