Binding Graph Expo

This year's Graph Expo and Converting Expo, running October 15-18 in the South Hall of Chicago's McCormick Place, promises to be the biggest Graph Expo since 2000. About 40,000 attendees are expected to view the hundreds of products that will be on display.

Although the total area reserved for the show is up, space occupied by the largest individual vendors has decreased, says Ralph Nappi, president of the Graphic Arts Show Co. (GASC), “which means this growth is broad and embraces our entire show floor, not just a few large booths.” This will the first equipment exhibition under Nappi's direction since succeeding Regis Delmontagne, who retired at the end of last year. So far, nearly 500,000 sq.ft. has been booked by over 500 firms. GASC says it expects the show to be a sellout in coming weeks, as space reservations grow.

“Many shows struggle to maintain their size, and most are shrinking,” Nappi says. “Equipment and service providers in the graphic arts industry find that Graph Expo and Converting Expo provides a great return on their marketing investment.”

As it has in the past, Graphic Arts Monthly will be publishing a series of monthly previews highlighting Graph Expo and Converting Expo offerings beginning with this postpress report and followed by pressroom (August), pre-media (September) and a general overview (October).

In addition, GAM will be producing the Official Attendees Planner and four editions of the Official Show Daily, a tabloid covering the day-to-day happenings of the industry's biggest trade show of the year, published live at the show and distributed each morning to hotel rooms, at bus stops and McCormick Place entrances.

Among the factors sustaining Graph Expo and Converting Expo have been special-interest features added in recent years, such as the Mailing & Fulfillment Center, introduced to the show in 2003, and the Wide Format Pavilion, now making its fifth appearance.

Mailing services and fulfillment, tightly related to the postpress process, brings fresh market opportunities, given the fact that more than half of all print enters the mail stream. The Mailing & Fulfillment Center for this Graph Expo has achieved its largest size to date—30,000 sq.ft.—and is expected to attract more than 50 participating exhibitors. In addition to featuring an array of the newest equipment and software for mailing services, the specialized area will entertain a series of seminars to provide attendees with information on the business and technology of mailing and fulfillment. These will be produced in partnership with the Mailing & Fulfillment Services Assn. (MFSA), www.mfsanet.org.

“Our members have a natural interest in Graph Expo and Converting Expo because this event brings together so many leaders, vendors, technologies and opportunities,” says David Weaver, CEO of MFSA.

“Printers today need to know how to execute mailing programs with maximum effectiveness for their clients, and their suppliers must be prepared to deliver new solutions and ideas to support this effort,” adds Nappi. “This is the driving mission of all of the mailing and fulfillment initiatives at GASC shows, and our new alliance with MFSA is a major step toward meeting this goal.”

The seminars presented by the MFSA will be held in an enclosed theater, making for an intimate atmosphere, in 45-minute sessions.

Speakers for the MFSA seminars will include: Leo Raymond and Tom Quinn from MFSA (Quinn is also a GAM columnist); John Rafner, Nice Lines Direct Mail; John Leininger, Clemson University; Mike Kind, MyKind Advisors; George Heinrich, The Postal Professor; and Robert Reeder, W.A. Wilde Co.

The MFSA will also stage its annual Leaders Conference, bringing to Chicago more than 100 of the most influential leaders of the mailing and fulfillment business.

“Bringing two important resources together in the same location—our Leaders Conference and this major show—presents a major value for our members,” Weaver says.

Another specialty center to appear at the Graph Expo and Converting Expo related to postpress is the Bindery Industries of America Pavilion.

So far, a dozen suppliers have registered for the pavilion to give attendees an opportunity to learn and observe in action the newest bindery and finishing technology the industry has to offer.

At this point, included in the BIA Pavilion are Bensons Int'l. Systems, Crawford Industries/Poly Prime, Emmecia USA, fix-yourownbindery, Formflex, Gane Brothers & Lane, Newark Graphicboard Products, BCI, Paulymark, Rickard Bindery and US Ring.

Some exhibitors well-known for finishing and mailing offerings will not exhibit in these specialty pavilions, perhaps because they also carry unrelated products or desire more strategic positioning on the show floor.

Also, readers need to keep in mind that the show is still three months away. While we've requested information at this early point, many companies had not yet formalized their plans as we went to press.

Böwe Bell & Howell will bring its WayMark weight verification and management system to this year's Graph Expo and Converting Expo. The machine is designed to verify the weight of every mail piece in order to report correct postage and produce reports in one process at speeds up to 36,000 pieces per hour.

Brandtjen & Kluge will release its EHG series half-sheet press, as well as display the EHD series press at this year's show.

For the first time, Gammerler will show its BL 408 Bindery Stacker, designed for use behind saddlestitchers, perfect binders, folders and inserters. The finishing system has a wide format range, handling hard- and soft-cover books, book blocks and a variety of commercial and direct mail applications. The two-stage stacker infeed is equipped with four top belts and eight bottom belts to allow alternation between stacking two-up and stacking one product at a time. (A version with six additional top belts will also be available for the stacking of three products).

Heidelberg will show the latest offerings from its Polar and Stahl lines and a range of folders, cutters, stitchers and diecutters, including the Varimatrix 105, a diecutter to be introduced to the U.S. market at Graph Expo. A key theme of the company's postpress booth area will be automation as well as a focus on packaging solutions. Heidelberg will have postpress expert spot sessions throughout the show to give visitors an in-depth look at its postpress offerings.

Kern will display its 515 EasyMailer (see New Products, p.45)—a hybrid mail-processing system designed to package personalized letters and envelopes in one pass.

Lasermax Rollsystems will show the LX Stack solution, featuring the LX550 unwind, LX561 cutter and LX566 stacker which, with the optional LX530 buffer or LX535 merger, produces compact book blocks delivered one at a time or in offset stacks.

The center-shaft driven LX550 Unwind feeds a roll of paper up to 20.5” wide and 52” in diameter into a web-fed digital printer. The LX561 Cutter utilizes a rotary knife to cut printed output in up to 18” lengths. It also may slit the web for 2-up or 3-up forms.

MBM Corp. will bring its new BC 10 business card cutter that trims 10 standard size cards from a page. Optional features include a perforator and scorer.

MBO will display several folders, including models B33-S/64, B30-S, B26-S and MBO B21/44X. The B33-S/64 is a fully automated Perfection combi-folding machine with a slitter shaft cassette. MBO Rapidset technology automates the folder from the feeder to delivery. The B26-S is also a Perfection folder. The machine features Bograma diecutting and punching to diecut multi-page items.

MCS will show its Perfect Match System, designed to match up to six mailing documents, and print the associated address and other data on the outside of an envelope.

Muller Martini will introduce its Pantera perfect binding system, which binds up to 4,000 copies per hour and handles hot-melt, PUR and a range of sizes. (The system will be spotlighted in GAM's August issue.).

Standard Finishing Systems will use Graph Expo to launch two new products—the SPF/FC-200A fully automated bookletmaker, and Standard Horizon SB-07 perfect binder. Also making an appearance is the recently released BQ-470 fully-automated four-clamp perfect binder (see New Products, p.44).

The SPF/FC-200A fully-automated bookletmaker includes set-up automation through a touch-screen control console. The machine features an integrated hand-marry station and a built-in reject tray. Other features include Hohner 48/5 stitching heads, twin large-diameter steel fold rollers, a secondary set of rubber rollers and a shear-action face trimmer with air-blast trim removal. It produces up to 4,500 booklets per hour.

The SB-07 perfect binder is designed for short- to medium-run print on demand and the commercial print book markets. The seven-clamp binder can be run standalone or inline connected to the HT-101 three-knife trimmer. It is designed for single-operator production of up to 3,200 books per hour, with complete changeover and setup in less than three minutes.

The BQ-470 fully-automated, four-clamp perfect binder features end-to-end automation, color touch-screen control and interchangeable glue tanks for both hot-melt EVA and PUR adhesives. The machine can cycle at up to 1,350 books per hour and bind books up to 2½´´ thick.

Streamfeeder will bring its V-1000 feeder, the latest addition to the Value Series line of feeders, along with numerous other offerings.

Systems Technology, a manufacturer of web-delivery stackers, among other things such as tabbers and trimming systems, is still formulating its final exhibition plans.

Watkiss Automation will demonstrate a range of offerings, including the PowerSquare200, Document Finishing System (DFS), DigiVAC collating system and Vario collating and finishing system.

The PowerSquare200 is a binding machine for digital printers that combines the processes of stitching, folding, spine forming and trimming to produce books up to 10mm thick. It features fully automatic setting for different book sizes, including variable stitch leg length for varying book thickness.

The DFS is a near-line multi-function finisher that operates as a sheet feeder, cover inserter and booklet maker for electronically collated sets, or as a standard collator and booklet maker for batch-printed sets. It features a barcode reader and an option for variable data.

The DigiVAC, another collating and booklet-making machine by Watkiss, features a patented suction feed system that feeds paper from the bottom of the paper stack to obtain continual running.

Graph Expo is still months away, but exhibitors are already formulating plans and even finalizing equipment development. A good way to plan a show visit is to attend the Executive Outlook conference on October 14, which will include a presentation of the Must See'ems technologies from the show. Find out more at the websites below.

www.gasc.org, gain.net, mfsanet.org and graphexpo.com