Company news Latest investment is perfect Christmas present for Pensord

Latest investment is perfect Christmas present for Pensord

Pensord investment

Leading controlled circulation magazine printer Pensord has written to Santa, and on Christmas Eve their wish comes true with the arrival of their latest piece of kit, a perfect binding line that represents £0.5m of investment for a company that has spent substantially since its MBO over four years ago.

The Wohlenberg City 6000 is a state of the art perfect binding line with improved automation and job save facility for faster make ready – possibly halving the make ready times experienced on Pensord’s existing line.  In addition, the binder’s running speed is considerably greater than the machine it will replace, with speeds of up to 6,000 finished books per hour.

This is good news for customers, as both these features give Pensord the opportunity to turn jobs around more quickly and give greater flexibility.

The Wohlenberg is the latest investment to be made by the company which has brought in four new presses, a new mailing line and significant front-end innovation, including being a leading worldwide exponent of AGFA Delano Publish, with now over 85% of Pensord’s 300 plus titles fully signed up.

This continues Pensord’s investment in its bindery following recent upgrading of its mailing facilities, and publishers will be delighted with what the Wohlenberg has to offer. Features include:

  • The machine will offer improved spine preparation and therefore improved page-pull strength
  • Twin pressing stations on the machine mean that neater and squarer spines can be produced. Neat, square spines will now be achieved on books with a spine width as thin as 2mm.
  • Image recognition is incorporated into the gathering system, eliminating the possibility of duplicate or missing sections within copies
  • Modern technology means greater reliability on electronics, so it is comforting to know that the binder will be modem linked to the factory in Germany, which means that fault diagnosis can take place remotely, reducing unnecessary downtime.

Commercial Director Darren Coxon says: “Improving make ready times and run speeds was a key buying decision. To be able to produce books more quickly in itself is important for Pensord and our customers, but to be able to improve the quality in doing so should please everyone. The improved spine preparation and two shot gluing, one for the spine and another for the hinge, will mean stronger, squarer, neater spines on all our bound products and to be able to do this on books as thin as 2mm will enable us to fulfil an ever increasing request from publishers.

“As usual we evaluated the market very carefully to find the right machine for the job, and in Wohlenberg we feel we have found the right binding partner to move forward with.”

Roger Cartwright, Director of Finishing Sales with MAN Roland GB who are distributors for Wohlenberg in the UK said: “Communication with Pensord has been excellent and we were kept informed at all times of our position as a supplier and in relation to their internal processes. I certainly feel that a strong partnership was formed during this period rather than just a supplier / buyer relationship. Pensord has a long and strong history in our industry and at MAN Roland we are delighted that Pensord made an informed choice in our favour for their perfect binding needs, and in doing so become another partner for MAN Roland and Wohlenberg.”

The new perfect binding line will be operational by the second week in January.