Wilstead Digital Finishing exhibited the machine at Ipex 2010 where Michael Schulz, director of SOS’s first spotted it. Schulz says, “I was immediately impressed with the quality of engineering, but even more impressed with the speed of job changes between differing book sizes – as little as five seconds.
“This is increasingly important in our era of ultra-short book printing runs, where an order for just a few ‘C’-size books can be followed by an even shorter run of, say, A4 books. The Wilstead Fastset 60/700 enables virtually uninterrupted production from the perfect binder to finished books ready for shipping. It fits very well with our digital book production platform.”
SOS’s Wilstead Fastset 60/700 will feature a Data Matrix Barcode reading system that scans each book as it approaches the trimming station and sends the size and other instructions such as clamp pressure, to the trimmer in preparation for the five-second job change. Books can be automatically transferred from any perfect binder, cooled on the spine to set the PUR or other hot melt glue, dropped singly or in multiples into the 20 feed pockets, which then convey the books into the final trimming station.
When trimming single books, maximum book height is 60mm and Wilstead’s Fastset 60/700 will finish 700 books per hour. If trimming thinner books, they can be stacked into the pockets to increase production up to 2,800 books per hour. Information is constantly exchanged between the binder and the dryer/feeder conveyor to ensure all functions are fully synchronized and productivity is maintained.
Also commenting, Bill Tunstead, managing director of Wilstead says, “Our solution uses hydraulics for cutting and clamping, which we find is much stronger, more accurate and reliable than other methods such as pneumatics.
“SOS has also wisely chosen the Ethernet/serial link option that enables the reporting of production details to their IT system and also provides remote internet access for monitoring and software upgrades.”
The order for SOS’s Wilstead line was facilitated locally by industry specialist Andy McCourt of mccourt consulting & communications. He says, “When I saw Wilstead’s Fastset 60/700 at Ipex, I recognized what a game-changer it could be in book publishing. We arrived at a sales representation arrangement and the next step was to cater for local servicing.”
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