Specialty Systems Enhance the Bindery

As more commercial printers try to differentiate themselves, bindery equipment becomes a key area as shops turn to systems that can efficiently and economically fold miniature printed materials, add tip-on products into direct-mail pieces in line, diecut in line on their sheetfed press, or produce other specialty items.

Here are a few new products that qualify as specialty bindery and finishing systems.

One of the InterTech Technology Awards bestowed this year went to Heidelberg and its rotary in-line diecutting unit for the Speedmaster SM 52 sheetfed press. The rotary unit, designed to meet the needs of small-format commercial markets, lets printers finish 20"-wide work on the SM 52 press in a single pass at full press speed, up to 15,000 sheets per hour (sph).

The diecutting unit can handle finishing operations such as scoring, slitting, punching, or perforating. Stocks of any thickness can be scored, up to the maximum that the press can handle.

Dies are mounted with magnets instead of clamps, and waste is removed automatically. Cutouts are removed with a unique technology: in the die are small holes that allow a vacuum from within the magnetic die cylinder to strip the cutout from the sheet. Once the cutout, now attached to the die on the magnetic plate cylinder, reaches the suction hood, the cutout material is picked up by the suction device and transported into a waste container.

"Perfect for the printer who is finding more and more customers asking for elaborately finished small-format work," noted an InterTech judge.

MBO America markets the Herzog+Heymann Pick & Place unit to tip on three-dimensional pieces to create eye-catching direct-mail pieces in a single pass. Using an H+H Pick & Place unit, printers can complete a variety of tipping on 3-D products, such as cards, CDs with sleeves, booklets, cosmetic sachets, seed packets, coins, keys, medical sample packets, and product sample packets.

The unit operates at 15,000 products per hour with 3/8" stroked for 3-D products or 20,000 products per hour with 1/4" stroke for thin products. The smallest product that can be used is about the size of a penny, with a special dispenser with a range of product thickness from 1/256" to 1/4".

Early this year, Delaware Valley Bindery, West Trenton, N.J., became the first shop in the U.S. to install a Pick & Place unit. The 50-year-old firm caters to printer clients from Vermont to Virginia that are not equipped with unique bindery equipment themselves.

"We can take a CD holder, diecut the pocket, and insert the CD, all in line, using the Pick & Place system," says Joe Rigby, president of Delaware Valley Bindery. "The unit is perfect for run lengths of 25,000 to 100,000. In the past, we would've had to use a friction feeder to do this type of work. The Pick & Place unit doesn't damage the product being tipped onto the printed piece."

At Graph Expo and Converting Expo next month, Müller Martini will unveil its Frontero face-cut trimmer, which it introduced at Drupa 2004. The system is designed for efficient production of brochures with gatefold covers in a single in-line operation.

According to Müller Martini, travel guides, paperback books, and even annual reports increasingly are produced with six- or eight-page covers on which important information can be clearly displayed for readers. Until now, the manufacture of brochures with gatefold cover flaps required two labor-intensive production steps: first, production of the book block with face trim, then, in a second pass, applying the cover and trimming the head and foot.

With the new Frontero trimmer, both operations are combined to slash processing time. On perfect binding lines equipped with a gatefolding station, brochures with gatefold covers can be produced in a single operation, in line, in a cost-effective and high-quality manner.

In addition, thanks to a performance rate of up to 6,000 cycles per hour, the Frontero ensures a high net output. Furthermore, its ability to handle a range of product sizes enables the processing of two-up books with spine lengths of up to 181/8" (460mm) as well as oblong formats up to A4.

The Frontero utilizes the swing-cut principle against cutting sticks, resulting in improved trim quality, says the manufacturer. The face trim of the book blocks can be aligned flush and close to the edge of the cover, even while the machine is producing.

A key advantage of interest to users is that existing perfect binding lines can also be retrofitted with the Frontero face trimmer.

Rollem Corporation markets two types of slitting devices. The BCS II Business Card Slitter is a specialty bi-directional slitter designed for high-volume, high-speed slitting of cards in both directions. A patented design processes at up to 100,000 cards per hour. Originating from Rollem's unique two-directional slit/score/perf capability, the BCS II unit is ideal for large thermographers. Sheets are slit into strips, conveyed into individual register guides, slit in the second direction, and delivered into 12 separate stacks.

Rollem designed its one-step CD inlay slitter and perforating unit in response to the increased demand for various CD/DVD units. The unique system, says Rollem, provides an alternative to CD inlay finishing methods that are time- and labor-intensive, boosting production of CD/DVDs to speeds of up to 7,500 sph. Features include a two-sheet detector, batch counter, and pile-height feeder. The system is available in six-, eight-, nine-, 12-, 16-, and 24-up formats.