Capital Advantage

Printer realizes major improvements in productivity and quality with new saddle stitcher.

Staff -- graphic arts online, 12/1/2000

Our industry is in an ever-changing state of flux, and we have to be in tune and in step with it or we will be phased out," says Nolan Russo, who founded Capital Printing, Middlesex, N.J., in 1983. Using this philosophy, he doubled his business and expanded his company from 40 to 100 employees in the last three years.

A full-service printer, Capital serves magazine publishers, professional associations, and businesses with high-quality, often time-sensitive printed products. Russo observes, "In today's social and economic atmosphere, customers are interested in special processes to upgrade their product, and at the same time they require quick turnarounds. We gear everything toward that end.

"Our prepress is now fully digital, with direct-to-plate or disk-to-Matchprint technology," he continues. "We replaced our four- and five-color presses with three new six-color presses, and now offer in-line UV coating to improve the look of the products. To keep postpress in balance, we purchased a new Vijuk 321-T saddle stitcher, as 70% of our work is saddle stitched."

Russo credits the 321-T for making a great difference in the quality of his production.

Production quality improvement

"Not to diminish the value of the time, labor, and material savings that we enjoy from our fully digital prepress and our expanded press capacity, but the saddle stitcher has improved the production and quality of our finished product by 100%," Russo states. "And it is the finished product that our customers see."

Capital bindery supervisor Troy DeAngelis explains, "Several years ago, we purchased a saddle stitcher, which had just made its debut in the U.S., to supplement, if not to replace, a 30-year-old unit. However, that saddle stitcher did not live up to its advertised claims.

"With growing business, we had to run both machines to keep up with production. But the new machine was poorly engineered and constructed, and we had difficulty with its timing, so our production and product quality suffered.

"We weren't happy with the machine, the dealer discontinued the line, and it was difficult to get spare parts or service for it."

Magazine advertisement

Russo says that last year, he saw the 321-T in an advertisement and was intrigued both by the price of the machine and the written specifications of capabilities. "I was hesitant at first, because although it is now solely distributed in the U.S. by Vijuk and bears its name, the saddle stitcher was made by the same manufacturer of our current machine," he says.

After months of discussion and negotiation, Russo decided to purchase the 321-T because, he says, he learned that "the machine had truly undergone a complete redesign based on modifications and recommendations made by Vijuk engineers. The decision was not an easy one because of our experience with the 321-T's predecessor. But Vijuk's reputation convinced me to give the manufacturer a second chance."

Russo says that Capital has since found the 321-T to be far superior to its predecessor. "This new saddle stitcher does all that the higher-priced competitive machines do, for a much smaller investment," he says. "Unlike our previous machine, this one is of high quality and construction."

Immediate performance

DeAngelis reports that the company still has its original saddle stitcher, but no longer has to run it.

"Almost right out of the box, the 321-T was producing finished booklets at 8,000 to 9,000 units per hour, which is not bad for a machine rated at 10,000 cycles per hour," he states. "I was first to be trained on the machine, and within the first day, our two operators and I were able to set up and run the saddle stitcher. It's easy to set up, and is very user-friendly in operation. There are indicator lights on all of the pockets that illuminate when there is a problem so that you can track it down immediately.

"In addition, all of the pockets have electronic eyes or sensors that catch and eject misfeeds," adds DeAngelis. "In fact, the quality control sensor system with caliper is so good, we never have bad books. On occasion, when running sensitive material like matte or dull paper that streaks when it runs through the caliper, we have disengaged the caliper and used only the photocells on the pockets and the oblique monitor, and it doesn't produce any bad books."

DeAngelis says that the 321-T's simplified method of adjusting the timing and position on the infeed to the trimmer also helps streamline production and increase output quality levels. "These adjustments can be done in seconds with three minor adjustments," he states.

Valuing the machine's CE certification, DeAngelis says he is impressed with its safe operation, as well as the service and spare parts availability from Vijuk.

Positive effect on profit margin

As today's printing businesses must deal with shrinking profit margins, Russo says, cost-effectiveness is of the essence at every turn.

Russo rates the purchase of the 321-T as "a tremendous value, and not only for the price. Since the installation of this new machine, Capital has been able to streamline its saddle stitching time and curtail a good portion of the overtime once needed just to meet delivery.

"Our magazine and annual report runs vary from hundreds to 100,000 in quantity, so the stitcher's quick makeready and dependable production speed and quality have played a big role in turning jobs around quickly," he continues. "We run the machine 10 hours a day, six days a week. Runs that used to take a whole day now take a half day. Every single finished book coming off the 321-T is an office copy, meaning it is perfect, and as a result we've cut our material waste."

Winning and keeping clients

"Our savings in time, labor, and materials gained from our new digital prepress operation and the Vijuk 321-T allow our estimators to bid the material closer, the labor cost lower, and the turnaround time shorter," Russo reports.

He concludes, "In this way, we pass on to our customers the savings we gained, and that makes them extremely happy. Jobs that took us seven to 10 days to turn around can now be completed in five to seven days. Our business continues to grow because we win more jobs. In fact, we're currently in contention for a large contract, and if we win the job I'll purchase another 321-T without hesitation."