Knight Abbey Installs HEIDELBERG Stahlfolder TH 66
To strengthen its position as a leading print provider for the casino industry, Knight Abbey has recently shifted the majority of its production from traditional cut-sheet to roll-to-roll. This transition has significantly accelerated the company’s speed to market – crucial for meeting the tight deadlines of casino work. Supporting this shift, Knight Abbey invested in a specialty Stahlfolder TH 66 from HEIDELBERG, combined with Tecnau unwind and sheeting technology. The system, equipped with the unique hybrid feeder for roll-to-finished production, marks the first installation of its kind in North America.
Knight Abbey operator with Stahlfolder TH 66 from HEIDELBERG integrated with Tecnau unwind and sheeting technology.
Knight Abbey serves over 100 casinos along with clients in the financial, education, and political sectors – specializing in producing high-quality variable data postcards, brochures, and booklets. The general commercial printer and direct mail facility, which employs nearly sixty, is conveniently located in Biloxi, MS – a Southeastern hub for gaming and casinos. With significant investments in front-end automation, Knight Abbey is focused on streamlining time-sensitive data processing. “When you’re dealing with the types of data we receive from casinos, it’s extremely complex,” said Tonya Spiers, President of Knight Abbey. “It’s critical that we turn that information around quickly and get it into production as fast as possible.”
Complementing its front-end investments, Knight Abbey has installed a full roll-to-roll press along with three roll-to-roll finishing lines over the past two years. This strategic move away from traditional cut-sheet production has dramatically improved efficiency and boosted overall throughput. As part of these enhancements, the company became an early adopter of HEIDELBERG’s Stahlfolder TH 66, specially configured for seamless integration with roll-to-roll printing. Featuring fugitive glue capabilities on both the parallel and second folding stations, the TH 66 is ideally suited for the high volume of bi-folds, tri-folds, and booklets the company produces and mails.
“Initially, I didn’t think HEIDELBERG was an option in the roll-to-roll space, but I engaged them because they have been such a good partner to us over the years,” said Spiers. “HEIDELBERG’s equipment is rock solid so I knew when I purchased the Stahlfolder, it would be reliable and a strong addition to our production.” She added that the team’s existing familiarity with Stahlfolder technology made for a quick and seamless start-up.
Since transitioning to roll-to-roll, Knight Abbey has eliminated the need to move sheets between six to seven different touch points before getting the job into the mail stream. One of the company’s standard jobs, which previously required 39 hours to complete using traditional methods, is now finished in under eight hours with the new configuration. According to Spiers, “We can now print, and it goes straight to the Stahlfolder finishing line. It’s really helped get finished products out the door faster.”
Knight Abbey’s increased capacity has allowed the company to onboard eight new casino clients in a single month. Despite the increase in workload, improved efficiency has enabled operations to run smoothly – even through several recent retirements – without the need to add new staff. “We had been struggling to find employees,” said Spiers, “but this newer equipment is far more user-friendly and better suited to the next generation entering the workforce.”
While Knight Abbey has embraced roll-to-roll production, the company continues to handle a significant volume of offset and digital cut-sheet work. To support this part of the business, Knight Abbey installed a Stahlfolder BH 66 from HEIDELBERG in 2023. With its simplified operation and automation features, the BH 66 has dramatically reduced makeready times compared to the older Stahlfolder it replaced.
“HEIDELBERG and Knight Abbey have been partners for a very long time,” said Spiers. “HEIDELBERG’s focus is always on what’s best for the customer, and we’ve consistently found success with them in the past and are confident that will continue well into the future.”
The preceding press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with Printing Impressions. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of Printing Impressions.
