St Ives Direct Invests in 5 Spine-Creasers

St Ives Direct invests in five spine-creasers
Adam Hooker, printweek.com, 13 March 2009

St Ives Direct in Bradford has said that it can now target huge run lengths, after investing in five spine-creasers from Tech-ni-Fold.

Previously the company's binding division was having to outsource the scoring, meaning it was not cost-effective to handle more than 20,000 jobs.

However, it won a 5m-run job and bought the spine-creasers to fit to a Muller Martini stitching line, allowing it to fold and stitch in one pass.

According to bindery manager Shaberahmed Bobat the small investment has made a "massive" difference.

He said: "The investment paid for itself in one job. I would say that it has knocked about three quarters of the time off of fold and stitch jobs and we can keep a lot more work in-house. For this job we wouldn't have made the delivery if we had to send the work out. It has made a massive difference."

Bobat added that the company will now be seeking similar long run lengths.

Tech-ni-fold's spine-creaser is designed to stop ink from cracking on the spine of a book when it is folded.