W&G Baird Invests in Automation
We are delighted to announce that, supported by a grant from Invest NI, we will be the first commercial printer in the UK & Ireland to install the Stahlfolder P-Stacker robot.
The introduction of the robotic support is designed to help our operators on the T96 with some of the repetitive lifting portions of their role, supporting the wellbeing of our team.
Once installed the robots will create more efficiency across the factory as we free up the team to focus on other important tasks for our customers.
The first P-Stacker installation in the UK and Ireland
Our operations director Andrew Watson said:
“Over its history, W&G Baird has always been at the forefront of new technology in print. We are the first commercial printer in Ireland to run our presses from reels instead of sheets, having invested in reel sheeter technology last year, including a Heidelberg CutStar 105.
“We have been very closely following the developments of robotics in folding machines, so when Heidelberg brought the P-Stacker to market it was an obvious step for us to make, to improve the productivity of our bindery department as we have with printing over the past five to six years.”
He added:
“We expect to see at least a 10% improvement in output thanks to this investment, by allowing the operator to focus on setting up and optimising the machines and keeping them constantly supplied. This in turn will improve our supply to our customers.
“We also expect to see our run speeds increase as most of the physical element of the job will now be handled by the robot.”
Heidelberg UK product manager post-press commercial Ian Trengrouse added:
“The highest level of productivity is easily handled by the P-Stacker, leaving the operator to concentrate on other tasks. This could even be a second machine; we already have users running in excess of 30,000 folded sections per hour across two machines with only one operator manning both machines.”
For W&G Baird’s operators, the new robotics will make a significant improvement to the ergonomics of their role; they are currently lifting and stacking paper by hand, something that the robots will now do.
Our customers, meanwhile, will benefit from the reduced lead times and increased throughput enabled by robotics.
Read more from Printweek
