Fast Forward Finish Line
Bindery moves at a faster pace with improved tacking of magazine stacks.
Staff Report -- Graphic Arts Online, September 1, 2008
In magazine production, speed is everything. Just ask Publishers Press, one of the largest printers of standard, digest and tabloid titles. The firm was the first to advance co-palletization for mid run-length publications. And last year it was the first to add a Goss Pacesetter 2200 saddlestitcher, this one an eight-pocket line capable of inkjet addressing, handling 366 forms per minute at its Lebanon Junction, KY plant.
Thanks to the Pacesetter investment, Publishers can output a half million publications per day and has run at speeds above 360 books per minute. The company also added a Goss FS-22 flying stitcher, HT-22 trimmer, mail table, BS60 stacker and Universal Binder adhesive system equipped with 30 RG324 hoppers to run up to 13,500 books per hour.
“We have one of the fastest turnarounds in the industry,” says Joe Sweeney, bindery supervisor. “We can get a disk from a customer on Monday and be pumping magazines out to the post office by the end of the week. Speed is important—including giving the post office good bundles that they can handle and process quickly.”
But the quest for speed intensified a chronic problem downstream, in stacking magazine bundles. “If the stacks fall over or lose their square shape, they have to be manually pulled aside and bundled by hand. The post office doesn't like bundles going every which way,” says Eric Tindle, Publishers' bindery installer and troubleshooter.
Publishers Press designed its PubXpress distribution system to combine co-palletization, co-mailing, drop shipping and selective stitching. This system is designed to reduce cycle time, increase tracking and offer maximum postal savings for Periodicals-Class magazines by finely sorting magazines according to postal areas and then delivering bundles closer to their entry points.
The printing company previously addressed the stacking problem by retrofitting incline feeders on its compensating stackers with electrostatic charging systems. The devices use dual charging bars with opposite polarities. The bars were placed above and below the magazine's path into the stacker. The opposing electrostatic charges create an attraction between magazines that keeps the stacks aligned while in motion.
The performance of a stacking charging system dictates production speed, says Tindle, regardless of faster bindery equipment.
“Stacker equipment manufacturers have pretty much ignored the issue of 'sliding stacks,' so we had to figure out the best solutions,” says Tindle. “That includes where and how to mount the static charging components for best results.” However, most stackers have extensive guarding in place, sometimes making it challenging to mount the charging bar so it yields maximum results.
Publishers Press discovered a new charging system that it says is optimizing productivity. So much so, that after it installed the first MKS Ion Industrial charging systems on its Goss incline stacker, eight more devices were ordered. The new charging system improved the line speed to match the productivity of the Pacesetter, says Frank Carman, bindery projects manager.
The new charging system consists of the model 7305 programmable 30 kV 5 mA charging generator and the 7430 Matrix Charger with tungsten electrodes.
Carman says other static charging systems produced 3.5 mA (mega ampere) of current, but the MKS Ion Industrial Matrix Charger generated 5 mA of charging current. “That extra charge makes those books really stick,” he says.
Different cover stocks also influence how much static charge is needed. “We run many different substrates; some take static with no issue, others won't,” says Carman. “But [with the new system] we haven't encountered a problem, yet.”
Carman likes the compact size of the 430 Matrix Chargers. “I've been able to mount the new bars in places where we could never place a bar before. We installed them in the stacker with no modifications to the machine whatsoever. Magazines start losing their charge right after it gets applied,” he says, so his goal is to get static bars as close to the stacking process as possible. “The new charging system gives out so much static charge, we sometimes have to turn it down to get the stack to jog up just right.”
The printer also purchased two MKS charging systems for use in a blow-in card station to tack subscription cards into perfect-bound publications. That system features a compact charging bar that fits into tight quarters.
“The card tacking system is performing well,” says Carman, “though we haven't tested it against all variables. I can't imagine anything this system can't handle.”
ONLINE: pubpress.com and mksinst.com
