Founded 45 years ago by John Galligan, Bradford & Bigelow has grown from a small, 3-person shop to one of the top letter-size book manufacturers in North America with nearly 200 employees. From its beginnings in a South Boston loft to its current facility in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the company has remained at the forefront of the industry by prioritizing strategic investments that maximize efficiencies across their operations.
This philosophy influenced Bradford & Bigelow’s decision to upgrade their current book manufacturing process. According to Imanol Cortazar, President of Bradford & Bigelow, challenges were mounting with their older book production line, including a footprint that took up too much precious space on the production floor and limitations on book thicknesses and glue capabilities. “We could not produce very thin or very thick books. The old system did not allow us to go below one-fourth inch or above one and a half inches thick. And PUR glue wasn’t an option.”
Previous positive experiences with Hunkeler and Horizon led the company to partner with Standard Finishing to begin the evaluation process for a new book production solution. As part of this process, the Bradford & Bigelow team visited Standard’s Andover Demonstration Center twice, even bringing an operator along the second time for a more thorough demonstration.
“We could see exactly the equipment we were planning to buy operating in real life conditions,” says Cortazar. “We were even given a chance to provide our own samples and see a demonstration of how our products were going to run. Having that experience was really helpful in the decision-making process.”
Shortly thereafter, Bradford & Bigelow upgraded to a new Hunkeler/Horizon Roll-to-Perfect Bind solution to replace their older book line. Their system consists of a Hunkeler UW8 Unwinder inline with the Screen Truepress Jet520HD Inkjet Press which feeds into the Hunkeler CS8 Rotary Cutter. Stacked book blocks are then delivered to the Horizon LBF-500 Book Block Feeder, automatically fed into the BQ-500 Perfect Binder, and finished on the HT-1000V Three-knife Trimmer. The system is completely automated from blank roll to printed books, eliminating any manual touchpoints from the process.
Explains Cortazar, “Now with the new system we can produce a broader range of products, including very thick or very thin books, and we can also use PUR glue which gives us greater flexibility.” By adding the Hunkeler/Horizon solution, Bradford & Bigelow was also able to get rid of two offline binders, reducing the overall footprint of their bookmaking operation to open up much-needed space on the production floor – an important consideration during the purchase decision.
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