BINDERY matters

Horizon Celebrates Factory Opening

BIWAKO, SIGA, JAPAN—Standard Finishing Systems joined Horizon International for the ceremonial grand opening of Horizon’s newly expanded post-press equipment factory here. This state-of-the-art facility is now 25 percent larger and has been further modernized with more than US$20 million in new machine tool, injection molding, parts logistics and assembly technology that will permit faster and more flexible production. Manufacturing capacity is expected to increase by nearly 30 percent when the Biwako factory reaches full-scale operation.

Stitching Addition Expands Range

DENVILLE, NJ—RedmondBCMS provides a diverse range of services—from business communications and marketing support, to printing, mailing and distribution. Now, RedmondBCMS is also poised to expand its profit potential and its customer base, after installing a Presto saddlestitcher from Muller Martini equipped with an in-line three-knife trimmer and Apollo compensating stacker.

Binder Solves Digital Finishing Needs

NEW YORK CITY—RR Donnelley (RRD) Financial Services, based here, and The Jerome Group in St. Louis can both lay claim to unique digital printing and finishing installations.

Both involved the IBIS Smart-binder. At RRD’s location in the lower Manhattan financial district, an IBIS Smart-binder SB-4 was coupled to a
Delphax CR 2000 electron beam digital web press running at speeds of up to 450 fpm.

Particularly challenging for this application is the use of 27-lb. offset stock as opposed to the normal 40-lb. offset. The Smart-binder individually folds each four- or eight-page sheet for maximum quality, then either stitches or cold-glues the sheets together and trims the booklet on three sides. In this way, the Smart-binder can produce up to 6,000 booklets per hour.

RRD’s SB-4 can also create cold-glue signatures that are transferred automatically to a perfect binder in order to produce booklets up to 2˝ thick.

Jerome Group installed a Smart-binder SB-2 last November. Jerome’s production involves personalizing booklet covers; offset-printed booklet covers are personalized on Jerome’s Xerox Nuvera high-speed imagers. Booklet text is produced on Océ 7000 series continuous web printers. Booklet text and covers are matched using laser barcode scanners on the Smart-binder.

New Contract Requires Fast Install Ideas

DES MOINES, IA—After landing a major piece of business that came with a demanding time table, full-service sheetfed shop The Printer Inc. needed to quickly expand its saddlestitcher capacity. The company had already placed an order for a new Best Osako Estar stitcher from distributor Best Graphics.

“The job had to be produced almost immediately,” says Randy Walter, COO. “We needed the added capability to produce the job efficiently
in-house, and we couldn’t afford to wait weeks for our new stitcher to arrive.”

Best Graphics provided a solution by offering Walter a step-up Tener model that had arrived in California that same day.

“We talked on Wednesday, and Best Graphics had the stitcher in our plant the following Monday,” Walter recalls. “Their people were working here all weekend and had the stitcher set up and running—and my operators trained—by Wednesday.”

quick cuts
West America Graphics, a 70-employee sheetfed printer in Foothill Ranch, CA, has installed a Muller Martini Bravo-T saddlestitcher.

Elk Grove Graphics, of Elk Grove, IL, is now running a Rollem 30˝ double head ETR scoring and perfing system equipped with a DM Econo feeder.

Database marketing agency Merkle Inc. has entered into an agreement with Direct Group in Trenton, NJ, to provide a range of mail production services including direct mail printing, personalization, and assembly to existing and future Merkle clients.

Richmond, VA-based Worth Higgins & Associates has installed equipment from Technifold USA, including Tri-Creasing units, a Spine Creaser, a micro perforating unit, two Multi-Tool units and an Easy-Fit Tri-Creaser.

Dekker Bookbinding in Grand Rapids, MI, reports it has purchased a second Kolbus DA-270 casemaker with large-format capabilities, plus a new Kolbus PK 170 board cutter for its casemaking department. An Aster 2000 sewing machine has also been added to the sewing department.

The Corpus Christi Caller Times, a daily newspaper in Corpus Christi, TX, has invested in a Muller Martini Presto saddlestitcher.

Protrade Inc., of Ontario, CA, has installed a Rollem 30˝ Rollaway double head right angle perforating, scoring and slitting system.

ExactBind West has donated a Fastbind Elite on-demand bookbinding system to Cal Poly’s Graphic Communication Department in San Luis Obispo, CA.

The Hickory Printing Group, Conover, NC, reports its purchase of a Videojet PrintMail WideArray ink-jet system to supplement a Kodak Versamark 5122 purchased six months ago.

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