Best perfect binder on a budget up to 500 books per hour?

H

heidelberg38

Member
We recently sold our Muller Martini Amigo as it was too big and cumbersome for our perfect bound work (now mostly short run), what would you all recommend as a replacement?

Preferably a small ish footprint, up to around 500 BPH or less, was looking at the Horizon 270 but hard to come by in the UK.

Any info appreciated.

Thanks
 
The Amigo is a multi-clamp (4?) machine, correct? Horizon's BQ470 is similar and has been a true workhorse for us. There's plenty of them out there.
 
Yes, Amigo was a 4 clamp, but far too big for us nowadays (we had a large contract of perfect bound books years ago but the company sadly went under). The BQ-270 looks ok but was wondering what else popped would recommend?

We only need a single clamp, up to around £10k?
 
Rated machine speeds don't usually translate to actual production levels. The Horizon BQ470 is rated at 1,000 BPH, but we've averaged 500 BPH over many years with great operators. Granted, we're binding books with hundreds of loose sheets. Even still, 500 per hour from a single clamp machine seems like a tall order.
 
No appreciate that, we didn't do anywhere near the rated output on the Amigo, but the Duplo and Morgana and very "manual" where as we would prefer auto cover feed etc.
 
We currently do all of our perfect binding in-line on our KM 6136's but they are problematic units. When we upgrade, we're leaning towards taking it offline. We recently had a demo on the Horizon BQ-300 and we were very impressed. It was fast and easy to use. The 300 is the newer version of the 270. My local vendor provided this summary of the difference:

BQ-270V
  • Book of 1, has a caliper that measure the thickness of the book, automatically adjusts the machine. Perfect for small or large runs.
  • Automatic cover feeder with inline scoring
  • 500 cycles per hour
BQ-300 ( All the features of the BQ-270 but improved)
  • Updated Screen
  • Pullout Stacker
  • Smoother and faster changeovers
  • Easier access to parts and guts of the machine

We are also considering the C.P. Bourg and Duplo DPB-500, but we haven't made it to demo's on those yet.
 
heidelberg38 said:
Ouch! We are only looking to spend around £10k.
Click to expand...
How many PB books per month are you producing?
Without being rude, in my mind there's a disconnect between *needing* a machine rated at 500 books per hour and budgeting for a Duplo DB-290 or similar.
Whatever you get, I would recommend a machine with automated cover loading. We looked at a 290 a few years ago and clocked the manual cover placement would become a ball-aching bore quite quickly!
I know of companies with Horizon PBs and have only ever heard good things about them.
Looking at the newer BQ300 @jwheeler is considering, this looks a lovely machine, compact and feature rich - a lot of machine for £44k. Assuming you can cut a deal with the UK dealer, if you depreciate assets at 25% reducing balance as many UK companies do, it's only going to cost your P&L £10k in the first year. You don't need to be producing huge volumes of books to make that wash its face IMHO
 
Thanks for the replies, and yes we are looking at a used machine!

As Ynot mentioned, we would require an auto feeder, too much faff with a manual (be there done that back in the 90's).
 
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