Magazines Favor The Perfect Solution

For thick products or thin, perfect binding remains the sought-after binding technique for publications, annual reports, catalogs, and other high-profile printed pieces requiring a gathering of press forms and inserts. The technique involves the application of glue to the spine of a book or publication to hold signatures together.

As the economy slows, adhesive binding is proving to be versatile as publishers find fewer advertising pages in some books and an increase in others. The swings in size can be wide, from InStyle, which currently has a perfect-bound spine of more than an inch, to many other magazines and catalogs that now measure less than half an inch thick.

In addition, publishers are asking for custom-bound books, which require selective binding equipment and signature recognition systems to produce unique books efficiently.

"These days, we're finding that printers and trade binderies are trying to perfect-bind thinner and thinner books," reports Kerry Burroughs, manager of perfect binding for Muller Martini. "We're also seeing that our customers want fast-makeready features on their perfect binders, and they want automation features because labor is tight and the labor force is less skilled than it used to be."

"At Heidelberg, our high-volume bindery customers are seeking a combination of high-speed productivity and increased product personalization," says Greg Norris, manager of marketing communications for Heidelberg Web Systems. "They don't want to have to sacrifice productivity or speed in order to personalize their adhesive-bound magazines and catalogs."

Norris says his company's Universal Binder line of adhesive systems addresses these needs. The systems are rated to run at up to 20,000 books per hour and feature independent hoppers and advanced control systems for extensive selective binding capabilities.

Ink-jet messaging and selective binding also continue to increase because these types of product personalization add significant value to the printed product.

"Product personalization—like print quality, timeliness, and cost-effectiveness—now constitute a key ingredient that printers can use to make print more attractive to advertisers and readers, and more competitive with other media," says Norris.

There's been a big boost in the number of "gimmicks" that publishers and catalogers now want to bind into their products, especially perfect-bound products. Thus, the ability to accommodate a wide range of such gimmicks—inserts, business reply cards, blow-in notices, gatefold forms—is a big factor in the choice of bindery equipment.

Adding gimmicks, and especially binding them selectively, also increases the number of pockets required for a binder. This means that customers need machines with more stations, even if editorial and advertising pages remain constant.

Finding qualified operators is a critical issue in the pressroom and the bindery.

"In response, we continue to emphasize automation and ease-of-use in our bindery technology," says Norris of Heidelberg Web. "While we've made the capabilities of our Universal Binders more advanced, we've also made these systems easier to operate. Heidelberg has continuously improved the control system architecture for the Universal Binder family to make troubleshooting, expansion, and integration of auxiliary equipment easier. We've also implemented an enhanced makeready system that allows on-the-fly adjustments."

The Banta Publications Group in Kansas City, Mo. is one of three Banta plants that produce magazines and publications. The other sites are Long Prairie, Minn., a long-run plant (runs of about a million or so), and Greenfield, Ohio, a shorter-run facility (runs of about 100,000 and up).

The Kansas City operation specializes in short to medium-length runs of specialty, niche publications; trade magazines; and special-interest publications. Average run length in the plant is 35,000.

The 450-employee plant operates seven heatset web presses, including five Heidelbergs and a Solna and a Didde web.

In 1998, the facility undertook a $20 million expansion, adding 60,000 square feet to its plant to bring the total to 300,000 square feet. Banta also added a Heidelberg UB 124 Universal Binder, featuring 20 pockets and 24 clamps, rated at 12,000 cycles per hour.

"We had a different perfect binder in place," says Brian McManus, bindery manager, "but we felt that the Heidelberg equipment was a better piece of machinery and more versatile for our needs. The UB 124 feeds all of the material in the same direction whereas the other equipment changes direction. To us, it seemed the other binder would require higher maintenance."

While the Banta Publications Group in Kansas City does not use PUR glue or ink-jet imaging on its perfect binding lines, it has seen a decrease in customization capabilities.

"The years 1994 to 1995 were the big customization years, but we've definitely seen a drop-off in customization to target customers," recalls McManus. "You'd think that, in a tight economy, publishers would want to target their mailings. But while we're seeing smaller page counts, none of our clients are switching to saddle stitching. They still like the look of perfect binding even if it comes at a premium."

To aid employees, Banta has installed pocket loaders from Baldwin Technology on its perfect binding lines. "The pocket loaders make it easier for our employees to feed the pockets," says McManus, "so this allows us to assign them more pockets. The pocket loaders are an ergonomic benefit as well as a labor saving."

At the Drupa 2000 exposition last spring, Muller Martini introduced the Acoro perfect binder. The system, which features touch-screen technology, motorized makeready, and built-in logic controller, can be changed over for a new product size in less than five minutes, according to Muller Martini. The Acoro offers operators a choice of hotmelt, cold glue, or PUR adhesive.

The first Acoro binder was installed at Arnold Printing, a catalog and book printer headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis.

Also at the Drupa expo, Heidelberg Web introduced its Universal 2 perfect binding system, which offers a rating of 20,000 books per hour, rotary gatherer hoppers, self-adjusting hinge clamps, and a two-deck selective cover feeder. Advanced makeready functions allow many adjustments to be made from outside the machine without any tools; advanced Heidelberg control systems provide the ability to manage selective binding and ink-jet printing with single-copy control.

Soon, Heidelberg Web says, it will be introducing its Flex Selective/Ink Jet Control for use on the Universal 2 binder.

At the show in Germany, the Universal 2 was equipped with a gripper conveyor that delivered adhesive-bound books to Heidelberg's HT 20 three-knife flying trimmer.

At the Graph Expo and Converting Expo 2000 show last fall, MAN Roland displayed its Wohlenberg City 4000 perfect binding system, which consists of a Sprinter 7009 gathering machine, the City 4000 perfect binder, a conveyor, and a three-knife Wohlenberg 44FS56 trimmer.

The City 4000, designed for use with the Sprinter 7009/7010 gathering machines or as a standalone unit, can bind up to 4,000 books per hour, handling a wide range of book formats, page counts, and product thicknesses.

It features 15 coated clamps with central adjustment; an infeed channel; a jogging station; a combined milling, roughening, and brushing station with cover-feeding station and side gauges; a scoring device for two- and four-score cover aligning and pressing station; and a control panel with integrated plain text display.

Also included is a hotmelt/spine gluing station with integrated pre-melter.

Joining the list of high-end, high-production perfect binding systems will be Standard Finishing, which will be introducing a high-end perfect binder at the Print 01 show in September in Chicago.