The Bindery—No Longer the Bottleneck of the Printers’ Workflow

It seems that nobody wants to talk about the bindery. . .except perhaps the many NPES member companies that manufacture and market these solutions to the printing industry. After all, the bindery just isn’t sexy like the pressroom or prepress departments. Talk is one thing, but action is more important. Are printers investing in new bindery and finishing technology? If not, why not? After all, many people claim that the bottleneck in the print workflow is the bindery. Nothing goes out the door and gets billed until it’s cut, folded, perffed, diecut, foil stamped, embossed, stitched or bound, stuffed or mailed or shipped to the customer. It seems the bindery is very important to printers’ overall workflow, yet it seems many printers do not invest heavily in the bindery even though dollars can be gained or lost there.