THOUSANDS OF MEN AND WOMEN ACROSS the country have this month been looking at the new lines of sweaters, skirts, coats and boots in the new House of Bruar catalogue which has been arriving in the post. They may have been impressed by some of the prices or the styles on offer, but none will have noticed that while the print is crisp, the binding is crisper.

Within the Bruar business there will have been some who picked up the catalogue and noted how tidily it had been bound, that there were no notches where it had been cut and that the spines were completely intact. They would probably not have realised that their job had been one of the first to be produced on the Kolbus line at Diamond Hi-Speed.

Howard Wilkins, managing director of the new operation, knows that the company has produced a first-rate job. He is living his dream, right down the fact that the Diamond Hi-Speed factory is in Hoddesdon, his home town, noted only for having the pub where Cliff Richard played his first ever gig. Wilkins is in his element, pointing out the features of the 15,000 copies an hour binder and the way to operate it. It is stream-fed from logs lifted into position by air hoists to avoid the bending and lifting that would be intolerable for an army of staff who would otherwise be needed to keep the hoppers fed. Instead one operator can keep several of the feeds loaded. On one recent two-section plus cover job, the entire line was manned by three people with a floater to move pallets.

In order to reach this kind of efficiency, the idea says Wilkins is to have the stream running continuously, inching forward to keep the level of sections in each hopper at a constant height. This helps prevent sections sticking to each other and gives a clean takeaway. The gathering section of the line has been raised 300mm so that there is smooth ride for the gathered sections and no rise into the binding section which can cause problems at the speeds Diamond is aiming at.

The trick, he explains, is to take a little longer on the set-up then to build speed gradually during the first hour of operation to reach the cherished 15,000 books an hour production.

It works. Diamond Hi-Speed is achieving more than 90% production on the line and delivering what Wilkins is expecting. “If I am just 2% out on production calculations over a one million run, that can have a large effect,” he says. “For me the aim is consistent running hour after hour. And these big machines like that.” The impact is felt in accurate scheduling.

Wilkins came up from Diamond Printing Services, the Enfield operation 8 miles away down the A10 and across the M25 that has spawned the new business. As well as the huge Kolbus, the 26,000sq ft factory houses a Polar Flowline guillotine and Stahl folder, to be used to trim covers and fold any cover or small sections needed. The plant opened its doors on August 1, a year after the decision to make the investment had been taken. Sales director Roger Brent recalls: “We had put in case binding at Enfield with two Kolbus Rationbinders and full casing line about three years ago. We then started thinking about the next venture. A lot of customers were involved in long run binding but were not used to the type of quality service that we could offer at Diamond.” In short the company felt the opportunity was there.

“Diamond is the leading trade finisher in the UK,” Brent continues. “We have always tried to put our head above the crowd in terms of what we offer and do. To be competitive we needed to be able to offer the turnaround times, and prices, that customers were expecting.”

A venture into long run perfect binding would have to be a distinct set-up, but as the market for square back magazines and catalogues was increasing and capacity was being withdrawn as other trade binders or web printers closed, Diamond saw an opportunity. It would be serving the same types of customers with a product that they hadn’t been able to buy from Diamond before. The aim has also been to retain the reputation for service and quality that Enfield has built up. It should be a winning formula.

The company had been using Kolbus since starting in perfect binding without problems. “Kolbus told us the Ratiobinders can run at 8,000 and they are right,” says Wilkins. So a return to the German manufacturer was obvious.

This line would be very different to the first machines. Diamond Print Services specialises in fast turnaround work, operating a trade binding service for sheetfed work from across North London and into Essex and Hertfordshire. It started 18 years ago as a standard trade finisher, gradually adding extra services to keep abreast of market demands. Today it occupies two units covering 40,000sq ft, but with a constant flow of work in and out. Brent says it can be handling 20 different jobs in a day. Diamond Hi-Speed would be handling one or two jobs in a week, a very different culture. Some of the staff have come from Enfield bringing experience of running Kolbus equipment, some have been recruited and will receive the same training that Diamond gives all its people. Justine Glen has been recruited as the account executive with experience of high-volume work.

The target is long run magazine and catalogue work, hoping to pick up some contract work as the plant’s reputation builds. It has certainly attracted a flow of visitors curious to see the start-up operation. They have found a fully refurbished building with carpeted offices that are not yet furnished, and the highly impressive binding line.

It has been specified to the fullest possible extent. On the gathering section there are static nailing points, either to hold an insert in place or to hold gravure printed sections in place during the gathering process. CCD cameras monitor every hopper watching for a black section, a double or wrongly placed section. Single erroneous copies can be ejected. Should there be three in a row, the line will come to a halt. The camera views and records every section so finding where a problem occurred is a matter of rerunning the job on the monitor to pick out precisely where a problem occurred and how many products were affected. It is one of Wilkins’ favourite features. “This is a new system and my experience of it so far is a significant improvement on what we have had before,” he grins.

The binding section is almost standard, with the 30 clamps taking the product across the options for milling and spine preparation: two shots of hot melt or PUR via an open pot before rounding to the cover feed. These are scored and positioned over a roller, giving a much better fit than the method used on other perfect binders. Wilkins explains that the cover gluing can cause problems without this arrangement. A further quality inspection unit and reject gate spots books where the cover has missed or where it has picked up an extra cover and these are rejected before the spiral cooling tower.

From here it is literally downhill to the trimmer, another of Wilkins’ favourite elements, then on to packing or around to a six-station inserter. As yet the company has not used all seven stations, but the potential is there. The line then rejoins the main conveyor where the books are stacked before being given another jolt of static to keep them together ahead of strapping and shrink wrapping if needed. Again the company has its options open to give the exact combination of strap position, wrap and so on that a customer might require.

The aim was to specify every element at the outset, hence intense consultation with likely customers, as retrofitting elements can be disruptive says Wilkins.

Finally comes the palletiser, only the third of its type in the world: it takes the bundles and turns them into the required position during a Ferris wheel ride for presentation to the pallet. The software will calculate the best placement of books to build a solid stack. The pallet is finished by adding protective corners and further shrink wrap and clear labels.

Later this month the accreditation people are to inspect the Diamond businesses for compliance to ISO 9002 and ISO 14001. Brent is confident that these are needed. Brent adds: “ISO is something we feel is important to us and to our clients as they are looking to work with suppliers who share that ethos.”

It’s still early days for the venture with work building in a gradual, controlled way. It has not been taking on work which puts the new team under unnecessary pressure as the Kolbus line settles in. However the immediate aim is to take the line to 24/7 working. Then Wilkins can contemplate a second machine and Diamond can ponder whether further expansion might take it into other areas in which it does not yet operate.