Bindery Matters

Wide Range of Finishing Solutions Unfold at 'The New MBO America' Open House Celebration

MARLTON, NJ—MBO America had a lot to celebrate at its recent four-day customer open house here. Marking the golden anniversary for its Oppenweiler, Germany-based parent, the 30th anniversary of MBO's U.S. operations, and the 10,000 equipment installation in the Americas, the open house also celebrated MBO America's new headquarters, distribution, demonstration and training center location here.

But, perhaps most important, the event showcased the 'New MBO' to reinforce the company's growing postpress product range beyond the folding machine manufacturing expertise first developed by company founder Heinz Binder 50 years ago.

"MBO is one of the most well-known, and well-established, finishing equipment companies in the world, and so some older printing firms don't realize we are a completely different company today, having greatly expanded our product offerings over the past decade," points out Lance Martin, MBO America director of sales, whose background in in-line finishing, web controls, secure document finishing, press auxiliaries and systems applications served him in past positions with RR Donnelley, Gunter and MCSI.

To showcase its broad array of offerings, demonstrations at the open house featured 10 unique finishing solutions for a range of vertical markets, from direct mail to pharma, and applications including miniature folding, packaging, web and high-speed inkjet digital printing, diecutting and commercial finishing.

Martin was joined by other MBO senior execs forming the leadership team during the customer and trade press open house. They included Frank Eckert, managing director/CEO of the MBO Group; Frank Bahmer, president/CEO, MBO America; Ken Keyte, vice president of finance/treasurer; Werner King, vice president of U.S. operations; and Ryan Manieri, marketing coordinator.

To round out its product range, the MBO Group had acquired Herzog + Heymann (H+H), a manufacturer of specialized mailing and pharmaceutical/miniature folding equipment, and Ehret Control, a digital finishing equipment manufacturer. MBO also partners with automated paper banding equipment supplier Palamides, cutting and rotary diecutting specialist Brograma, as well as saddlestitcher manufacturers IBIS and Muller Martini to engineer a wide range of customized and specialized postpress configurations.

In the digital arena, MBO is certified by HP, Kodak, Screen and Canon Solutions America to provide in-line and off-line finishing solutions suited for high-speed, continuous-feed and cutsheet inkjet and toner digital presses.

MBO Group employs a dozen product/project managers worldwide to support customer projects. Martin noted a growing industry trend toward off-line finishing for continuous-feed inkjet print production, especially if one takes transactional printing out of the equation.

A new MBO America offering—first rolled out in Europe one year ago—is its analysis/consulting service, which targets labor reduction and ways to increase folder output and productivity. Printers that installed folders a decade ago to handle high volumes are unsure of how to adapt their equipment to today's need for automation and shorter-run jobs. Through this analysis service, MBO technicians offer guidance to help printers make changes that will make them more efficient and competitive.

Among the open house highlights were new MBO digital solutions for 20˝ and 30˝ web finishing configurations with selective folding capabilities for variable-page-count booklets, and the M80 folder that provides the flexibility to install "add-on" components in order to meet new job requirements. Also, the new K8 RS combi-folder, equipped with the RS package, is capable of speeds up to 18,000 sheets/hr.—fast enough to keep up with modern sheetfed offset presses. With its modified servo motor and infeed system, the K8 RS is 20 percent faster than its predecessors.

Like its K8 RS—dubbed the world's fastest folder—MBO is moving forward at lightning speed to broaden its product portfolio to meet today's postpress demands for personalized digital printing output, quick makereadies, short press runs, and specialized finishing capabilities that give MBO users higher margins and unique product offerings.

—Mark Michelson

Cutting-Edge Paper Cutters Keep Aspen Marketing Services Ahead of the Curve

Earth City, MO—Located about 25 miles northwest of St. Louis, Aspen Marketing Services, a division of Epsilon, handles direct mail production for a variety of the top Fortune 500 companies. To keep ahead of its competition, the company recently installed two 45˝ Saber X15 paper cutters from Colter & Peterson.

"We were at the PRINT show in Chicago last year when we saw the Saber, Perfecta and Challenge cutters. The Saber was clearly the most effective, impressive and user-friendly machine in today's market," said Mike Powell, senior manager of production. "We are confident they will allow for a smoother, more productive and efficient output on behalf of our clients."

Manufactured to ISO-9001 standards with automatic knife adjustment, the cutters also have a 15˝ color touchscreen for easy-to-use programming and control options.

QUICK CUTS

• A new U.S. sales and distribution facility has been established by Lotters Wire in Tucker, GA (Atlanta). Part of the Lotters Group in Germany, the company supplies high-quality stitching wire and polymer coated double loop and spiral binding wire.
• Based in Asheville, NC, Plasticard Locktech International purchased an Eco-Eagle Cold Foil system from Eagle Systems.
• UK-based Tech-ni-fold Ltd. has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against F.P. Rosback Co., headquartered in St. Joseph, MI, over a "modified" version of the Rosback TrueScore-Pro scoring machine.