PUR DigiBook 300 from Morgana

THE BRIEF

Harrier LLC, the UK’s foremost digital printing photobook specialist, based in Newton Abbot, Devon, has announced the purchase and installation of a DigiBook 300 PUR perfect binding machine from Morgana Systems.

The company, well known for its significant installation of HP Indigo presses, houses a wide variety of finishing kit to produce photobooks and other digitally printed output for major high street and online brands. The company also prints for Truprint, itself a part of the Harrier LLC business.

An investment in quality PUR binding was needed for its larger product offerings, including its premium XXL landscape books that can often extend to as much as 160 pages. “There really isn’t that much of a choice with regards to machines that can deliver a quality bind in that format,” said James Belton, Planning and Solutions Manager at Harrier LLC. “95% of our work is PUR bound – it provides the quality of bind that is essential for the digitally printed work that we produce.”

THE SOLUTION

“Having reviewed the machines on the market, and had samples produced on the front-runners, Morgana’s DigiBook 300 came out way ahead of the rest. The quality of the milling station in particular put it out in front. With digital papers it is critical to significantly roughen the spine in order to produce the strength of bind that our customers expect, and that these high quality products deserve.

“The small footprint of the machine was an added bonus as well – it doesn’t take up that much floor space. We generally only assign one operator to the machine, though we can increase the output at particularly busy times by adding a second.

“Photobook products bound on the machine are typically runs of one, but can range in content from 20 pages up to 160 pages – that creates a sizeable publication. The side gluing capability of the DigiBook 300 is a big plus especially on larger page counts. It helps to provide that solidity of bind that we insist on and that delivers a product that is really going to last.”

THE RESULT

“One of the reasons that we had the sample books produced is in order to put the finished products on our “page pull tester” to test the binding. We work to industry standard but the DigiBook 300 samples were so well bound that the test results far exceeded our standard expectations and in some cases actually went off the scale!”

Commenting on the installation at Harrier LLC on behalf of Morgana Systems, Ray Hillhouse, Sales and Marketing Director for the supplier, said: “It is a delight to see the DigiBook 300 positioned in such a demanding binding environment. The team at Harrier LLC were very thorough in their testing before selecting the right machine for the job, and that has to be to the credit of the DigiBook 300 – it is both rugged and hard working, making it very suitable to the demands of this extremely busy and quality conscious print business.”