BINDERY matters
Speed and Flexibility Result From Six-Pocket Saddlestitcher
JEFFERSON CITY, MO—Modern Litho-Print has added a six-pocket Heidelberg Stitchmaster ST 450 with two cover feeders. Its makeready and running speed, flexibility and configurability allow the company to better handle multiple daily setups and changeovers that typify its short-run business model. The Stitchmaster joins other Heidelberg gear at the plant, including a Stahl buckle-plate folder and a Polar 137 XT cutter with jogger and Transomat stacker.
Printer Keeps Up with Production Demands
FORT WORTH, TX—The ability to handle a wide range of sizes is one reason Motivating Graphics decided to install a second Muller Martini BravoPlus T saddlestitcher. Its third saddlestitcher overall, the BravoPlus T offers simplicity and speed, according to Kevin Hinbaugh, bindery manager. He adds that the unit's touchscreen operation makes it easy and convenient. "And it's fast," he says. "It can produce products at up to 11,000 cph." The BravoPlusT is also JDF-capable, and can be integrated into the digital workflow.
BIA Announces Award Recipients
PITTSBURGH—The Binding Industries Association (BIA), a special interest group of Printing Industries of America, has announced its 2009 Product of Excellence (POE) Awards winners. The POE awards competition is designed for graphic finishers and custom loose-leaf manufacturers to demonstrate the value they provide to the graphic arts community.
This year's winners include American Thermoplastic, Bindagraphics Inc., Bridge Publications, C&C Offset Printing, Holum and Sons Co., Napco Inc., Pacific Bindery Services, Roswell Bookbinding, Unibind, Univenture Inc. and Vulcan Information Packaging.
Pacesetter Club Sets Pace in Print Finishing
DURHAM, NH—With more than 1,200 individual crews qualifying during the past 12 years, the Pacesetter Club continues to highlight the competitive advantage of Goss print finishing technology in the hands of skilled operators.
Crews from more than 45 printing facilities throughout the U.S., Canada and Latin America have now qualified for the Pacesetter Club by achieving near-maximum net output with Goss Pacesetter saddlestitchers and Universalbinder adhesive binding systems during an eight- to 12-hour shift. An individual crew can only be recognized once per year.
"We developed the Club to recognize and provide an incentive for high net productivity," explains Toby Clarke, vice president of print finishing for Goss International. "As the capacity of our Pacesetter and Universalbinder systems has climbed steadily to as high as 25,000 books per hour, the qualifying standards have also increased, and crews have kept pace by netting close to 100 percent of that maximum capacity."
quick cuts
A bindery crew at Brown Printing in East Greenville, PA, recently qualified for the Pacesetter Club by finishing 164,496 magazines in eight hours on a Pacesetter 2200 saddlestitcher. "Qualifying for the Pacesetter Club was our goal from day one, and we now have the people and the technology in place to hit this level of productivity and quality on a regular basis," according to Buddy Miller, saddlestitcher manager at the Brown facility.
American Press in Gordonsville, VA, has had several crews qualify for the Pacesetter Club in past years with its Pacesetter 1000 stitcher. This year, crews on all three shifts did the same with a new Pacesetter 2200 system, averaging as high as 20,875 books per hour.
Quad/Graphics has had more than a dozen crews from various facilities qualify in 2009, including a crew at its Saratoga, NY, facility that finished 289,400 books in a 12-hour shift with a Pacesetter 2500 stitcher.
"Higher productivity in the finishing sector is a key to increasing the value of print," explains Clarke. "The Pacesetter Club highlights our focus on advanced finishing systems, and on the expertise and teamwork necessary to turn that high-speed technology into high-net technology."
Sheetfed printer Repco Printers & Lithographers, St. Louis, has purchased an Osako saddlestitcher from Best Graphics. The Estar Alpha model is configured with six rotary feeders, a cover feeder, Rima stacker and a Fenimore rollup three-hole punch.
The Riverside Group, Rochester, NY, has installed a Horauf BDM compact casemaker with optional board slitter from Muller Martini.
Inland Graphics, of Menomonee Falls, WI, recently acquired a Kluge EHG Series half-sheet press.
Cleveland-based Finish Line Binderies has added a third Kolbus perfect binding line at its Atlanta facility. It has 22 pockets, two hand-feed stations on the collator and can run 6,000 books/hr.
Rickard Bindery, Chicago, has installed a Brackett automatic padding machine for producing point-of-purchase coupons, branded memo pads, tear-off calendars and school supplies.
Fort Worth, TX-based Motivating Graphics acquired its second Muller Martini BravoPlus T stitcher.
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