The fact that Polar guillotine parts are guaranteed to be available for 25 years was a convincing argument for W MacCarthy & Sons to turn to UK agent Heidelberg for a new guillotine. It will take delivery of a Polar 115 N Plus in April.
Managing director Michael MacCarthy says: "We are hoping that the new guillotine will make us more efficient, saving time with knife changes and allowing us to benefit from the programmatic features which we haven't had before."
W MacCarthy & Sons has been in family hands since 1880 and has throughout the generations remained focused on the production of speciality boxes. Today the ISO 9001 certified company employs 16 staff and produces boxes in short runs, typically 50 to 5,000, generating a turnover of about £500,000.
Having had Polar cutting in the past it was a convinced user and the company was pleased to secure a reasonable resale price from a secondhand agent for its well used 1979 model that the new guillotine replaces.
With a maximum box work format of 1,120mm in length, the 115cm width guillotine was the right choice and given the stocks it handles (boards of 500 to 2,000 microns and papers of around 135gsm) it has taken Heidelberg's advice and elected to run with high speed steel metal blades.
The company originally operated out of the kitchen of founder William/Liam MacCarthy when the floor lino would be taken up to cover the stock as it was delivered by handcart. The business is rather more sophisticated these days!
