To Bob Morton, President,
Best Graphics, Inc. -
We're happy
to respond to your questions about our user experience with our new Best
Osako 368AS AutoSet.
We looked at a number of stitchers on the market before purchasing the
368AS - Heidelberg and Muller-Martini, among others. The 368AS was better
for us all around - price, features, speed, ease of setup, everything.
We purchased our first Osako from Consolidated in 1976 and have had very
good luck with it. These Osako machines seem to run forever. We now have
two 230s and one 368.
The new AutoSet automation makes everything so much easier and faster.
Setups that used to take 20 to 30 minutes now seem more or less instantaneous,
taking maybe a minute. One feature we really like is the air blast around
the three-knife trimmer. You don't have to wait for the scrap to fall
down as on other systems and you don't have to move the stitcher heads
every time. This is really important when you have an inch or so of trim.
You don't jam the machines, so you save a ton of time and hassles. If
that feature could be adapted to old machines, I tell you, everyone would
buy it.
Another feature we like is changing pocket size on the fly. On older machines,
we had to stop the machine, then adjust the pockets, then start up again.
This feature works great for opening or sizing the signatures. You just
dial it in while the machine is running, no stopping. Also, we run signatures
up to 12" deep using your adapter. Formerly, we could do only 11".
The tilt-back feeders are a real time-saver. For those times when the
signatures are too thick to run from the pocket, we pre-collate, then
just tilt back the feeders and drop the signatures on by hand. I know
they don't have this feature on the Heidelberg.
We run both high folio and low folio. Typically, envelopes and reply cards
we run could come with the lip in front or the lip in back. You're at
the mercy of whoever designed the envelope. You can run these a lot better
with the Hi/Lo system.
The machine was very easy to learn. Best Graphics service has been excellent.
You guys respond immediately, which is very important to us. The whole
experience has been first-rate. The 368AS has worked out so well for us,
we plan to replace or add more 368s down the road - another one... and
another one... and... well, you get the picture.
Sincerely, The Khouri Brothers, Fozi and Victor, Owners
