The new machine, capable of 2,100 units per hour, can pick up to six pieces to make up book jackets, sample folders, ring binders and magnet-closure boxes.
Installed last week under the supervision of an engineer from the unnamed Chinese manufacturer, the KSP team was trained and in production within 48 hours.
“We’re delighted with it,” Andrew Maguire, KSP’s sales director, told Printweek.
“So far everything’s gone much smoother than we could have expected, and we’ve got a pallet load of board going on for its first job. We wouldn’t have dreamed of that this time last week.”
The new machine replaced a Hörauf casemaker, which was around 18 years old.
“We decided on [this machine] after going to look at another installed in the UK in operation,” Maguire added.
“We wanted to be able to reduce our makeready times and increase the speed at which we’re able to turn clients’ jobs around.
“Having seen it, we knew that was the one that would work best for us. For our work, wrapping and lining, it runs up to 10 times the speed that we were running at before.”
The new investment should free up some room for growth, particularly in the market for magnetic-closure boxes, which have been gaining in popularity, Maguire said.
KSP started off life as a screen printing company – and still uses the technology for most of its print, one Jetrix inkjet printer aside – but has come to specialise over recent years in rigid boxmaking both commercially and for trade work.
“We’re doing a lot more rigid box making, paper-over-board, and luxury boxes, and the new line will complement our ability to do this, because we can now do jackets and covers with magnetic closures at high speeds,” Maguire said.
“We get asked for a lot of [magnetic-closure boxes], but haven’t been competitive because our machine was old and slow at producing them – but we’ll now be much faster. We’re also thinking about investing in a magnet insertion machine as well, as currently that’s an offline operation.”
KSP employs 13 at its Banbury, Oxfordshire site.
