A dedicated digital print finishing line to handle output from its new HP Indigo 5500 is a major investment for the Melbourne trade-printing house.
“It is expensive but it’s worth it,” said Trent Nankervis. “There are different expectations from digital, such as 24 hour turnaround. The jobs are smaller too. My concern with mixing digital and our offset production was that the smaller digital pallets might get lost floating around among the bigger pallets. It’s better to keep them separate.”
Nankervis is firmly convinced that most of the printing from his iconic trade printing company will remain offset. There are economies in offset that cannot be matched in digital, which will become even more evident when he takes delivery of his new Komori 8-colour in May (see pp20).
But instead of trying mix and blend the two printing streams, Nankervis, scion of the distinguished Melbourne printing family, set up a completely separate digital printing factory across the road from his West Heidelberg headquarters. In addition to the HP Indigo 5500 he assembled a state of the art Horizon finishing line designed to handle the specific requirements of digital printing.
“Horizon is terrific value for more ROI. It’s not as costly as some of the other high-end offset equipment, but it operates just as good. And we get great service from Currie,” he said.
Among the new pieces of Horizon equipment is a CRF362, creaser folder, the essential item for any digital printing finishing line. This was released last year at drupa and is already becoming a serious contender for the most popular creaser folder in the industry.
In addition CMYKhub installed a BQ470 4-clamp perfect binder to automate its digital book production. The binder has exchangeable tanks, able to use either EVA for all types of binding and PUR for coated stock and flat-lying books.
Trent Nankervis reckons the perfect binder provides the perfect combination with the new HP Indigo.
Rounding off the high-powered line is a Horizon 5500 Stitchliner complete with three-knife trimmer. At 5,500 booklets/hr and combining the advantages of flat sheet collating, saddle stitching and three-knife trimming, the booklet making system is ideal for short to mid-range production runs.
“I’ve had the Stitchliner for five years and we’ve put through an amazing amount of work. It’s a great piece of equipment, with make ready times in a matter of minutes,” he said.
Focused on Customers
There is no doubt that a printer of Trent Nankervis’ experience could have made a success of blending digital and offset print production but he is totally focused on customer service, with meeting his printing customers expectations.
“Look, there are cultural issues between offset and digital. I’m amazed at the amount of time I’m spending with the team going through jobs that should have been done differently,” he said.
CMYKhub operates a rules-based workflow, which is highly automated, but it cannot completely eliminate the judgement calls that are required. “There will always be twenty to thirty percent of jobs outside the normal rules, so you have to keep on writing new rules. It’s a touch point where skill and knowledge still comes into it,” said Trent.
Bernie Robinson, managing director, Currie Group, has customers who have successfully blended their new digital stream into an established offset production, but he understands where Trent Nankervis is coming from. “Look, it can be done. Many of our customers have Horizon finishing lines with collators, stackers and binders. They are still able to use the same equipment when they turn to digital, especially with the addition of the new Horizon CRF-362 creaser/folder,” he said.
“But I know why Trent has kept them separate. He runs a very intense business with tight deadlines and a reputation for reliability. CMYKhub is a textbook example of how to assemble a digital printing site from scratch,” he said.