Varimatrix 105 CSF

Successful print shops adopt clear-cut business strategies, such as gearing production to the mass market, standing out with distinctive finishes, or occupying a niche market. Belgian print shop Tuerlinckx favors the niche market strategy and has been specializing in greeting cards over no fewer than four generations. The print shop recently acquired a Varimatrix 105 CSF die cutter with hot foil module to boost productivity and increase the range of finishing options available. Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) unveiled this new machine in the run-up to drupa 2008, and Tuerlinckx is one of the first companies in Europe to use it.

In these times of Print on Demand, the shelves stacked high with brown boxes as far as the eye can see at the Tuerlinckx print shop in the Belgian town of Aarschot seem to stem from a different world. Three-quarters of the 3,500-square meter premises the print shop moved into in 2000 is given over to storage. A closer look reveals a creative print shop with eleven employees and one ingenious idea - the boxes contain over 15 million envelopes with cards and paper.

Over 1,000 print shops in Belgium buy greeting cards in all shapes and sizes from Tuerlinckx's two sample books. These cards may be preprinted or embossed, creased, punched, die cut, or given a hot foil finish. They come in different colors and a variety of materials - from 80 grams per square meters to 320 grams per square meters, and from fine high-gloss paper produced by Gmund to exquisite hand-made paper. These print shops then personalize the cards in line with their customers' requirements. Cards are available for all the usual occasions - from birthday and wedding congratulations to death announcements. If print shops place their order in the morning, they will receive their cards the very next day. "I've always got something new in reserve and an ace up my sleeve," says Arthur Tuerlinckx, explaining how he provides his customers with top-quality work, creative solutions with special finishes, and quick delivery.

Born in Belgium, Tuerlinckx (77) can look back on an eventful career in the graphic arts industry. He opened a print shop at his home in Aarschot 42 years ago, operating a platen ("Tiegel") and a cylinder ("Zylinder") press from Heidelberg in his kitchen and storing the paper in his bedroom. Tuerlinckx kept on coming up with new ideas, but there was always one common denominator - all the greeting cards combined high quality with unusual designs. He was thus continuing the tradition started by his father and grandfather before him. Greeting cards are obviously in the family's blood. His 31-year-old son, Bob, has now taken over the day-to-day running of the business, having worked at the company for ten years while also successfully completing an MBA degree course.

Investment in further growth
Although Tuerlinckx also prints all kinds of commercial products, such as brochures and flyers, greeting cards still make up its core business. The print shop gets through up to 350 tons of paper each year. The envelopes are produced on three special machines from Winkler und Dünnebier, while the printing is done on a Speedmaster SM 74 four-color press. A Speedmaster SM 52 five-color perfecting press is also to be installed this year to enable smaller jobs to be processed more efficiently.

Since the middle of the year, the company has been using the Varimatrix 105 CSF die cutter with hot foil module (CSF stands for cutting, stripping, and foil). A demonstration of this die cutter at the Heidelberg site in Mönchengladbach was enough to convince Tuerlinckx to invest in it. The Varimatrix was supplied by Plantin, the Belgian sales partner of Heidelberg, which also provides a rapid on-site service. In one year alone, Plantin sold five Varimatrix die cutters on the Belgian market, and there are now a total of 160 installed worldwide.

"Until now, foil embossing has only been possible up to the A3 format, but the new die cutter in A2 format means we can now make full use of the SM 74 print format," reveals Bob Tuerlinckx, explaining why the company decided to buy the Varimatrix. "It has also improved productivity while maintaining the same high product quality, and even the stripping is done automatically," he continues. The maximum speed is 6,000 sheets per hour for hot foil embossing and 7,500 sheets per hour for die cutting and stripping. The machine's simple operation and short makeready times are ideal for the shorter runs typically encountered in greeting card printing. So far, the die cutter has been processing over one million sheets per month. The Varimatrix 105 CSF is flexible because it can be used for hot foil embossing or solely as a die cutter with stripping function. A further advantage is the wide range of different substrates that can be processed - from paper and card to corrugated board.

The hot foil module applies metallic effects and multistage/relief embossing efficiently in a single pass. "The Varimatrix has optimized our production because the die cutter now combines several processes that we previously used different machines for. With the Varimatrix 105 CSF, we can now die cut the raw paper to produce letterheads and envelopes and, if necessary, finish these with the foil module in the larger format," explains Bob Tuerlinckx. This enables features such as borders - including the black borders used on death announcements - to be created precisely in high relief and die cut in a single pass. The earlier method using the cutter always resulted in a lot of waste.

New fields of business
The new machine is already opening up a new field of business at Tuerlinckx, comprising die-cut passe-partouts and PVC boxes for items such as framed wedding photos. Word has also quickly got around in Belgium that Tuerlinckx now has a new die cutter with a foil embossing module. Several customers have already requested the new service, including two magazines that were looking to finish the lettering on their covers in gold.

"This is just the start," states Bob Tuerlinckx with conviction. "At the moment, the Varimatrix spends half of its time die cutting and the other half foil embossing, but in the future I see the trend moving more towards finishing, especially with Christmas just around the corner," he adds with a smile on his face. No doubt he has a few more aces up his sleeve to follow in his father's footsteps.

Image 1:
Father and son, Arthur and Bob Tuerlinckx, specialize in printing greeting cards with special surface finishes.

Image 2:
Tuerlinckx's sample folder for greeting cards is used by all Belgium's print shops.

Image 3:
The Varimatrix die cutter optimizes processes and opens up new fields of business. The machine is ideal for both die cutting and hot foil embossing.

Image 4:
Tuerlinckx stores over 15 million envelopes with letterheads and cards.

Image 5:
Happy faces: Michael Münchow from Heidelberg (left), Bob Tuerlinckx (center), and Pierre Feltgen from Platin.