Irish Successes Continue For Autobond

One of the latest Irish companies to install an Autobond film laminator is Dublin trade house The Finishing Dept, which has purchased the MINI 76 TPH shown on Autobond's IPEX stand. The investment has enabled The Finishing Dept's first move into laminating, as founder Neil Grace explains. 'There was a growing trend for customers to want a single source for their finishing and we had instances where we handled wire stitching for a job but it had to go elsewhere for laminating,' says Mr Grace. 'There was a danger that we would lose this stitching work. At the same time, we could see a huge potential to offer sheet-fed film laminating to Dublin printers, which represent virtually our entire customer-base. 'When we set out to examine the market we had no experience of the technology at all and it's not something that you can simply buy a book on! We really had to do our homework and while speaking to other printers we heard good things about all the laminators on the market. However, we also heard bad things about all the laminators on the market - except for Autobond. It was the one manufacturer that we didn't hear a negative word against. 'We still carried out all of the relative comparisons on speed, price, build quality, productivity etc. In the end, the Autobond technology sold itself and, having spoken at length to Autobond's managing director John Gilmore, we decided on the MINI 76 TPH with a shingle table. Since it was delivered it has performed extremely well and Autobond has provided us with good training and support.' The Dublin company has used the MINI 76 TPH to laminate SRA2 sheets both sides in one pass at more than 7,000 an hour, and with its ability to be made ready so quickly the laminator is also highly effective on shorter print runs. The Finishing Dept laminates as many as nine jobs a day on the MINI 76 TPH and handles stock ranging from 100 - 300 gsm. 'We haven't come across a paper or board that the MINI 76 TPH will not laminate successfully,' says Neil Grace. 'There was already a demand from customers for laminating, so the new service has got off to a good start and we're gradually expanding the number of clients sending work to us. Jobs have to be turned around very quickly to meet the needs of Dublin printers and the new MINI 76 TPH enables us to help customers meet their deadlines.'