Countless binding and finishing technology providers were candid in their positive assessments of how the scene went down in McCormick Place South. It wasn’t all cartwheels and champagne popping, but this year’s Graph Expo did exceed the expectations of many.
OF ALL the avenues a general commercial printer can take for increasing its profit margin, raising prices to customers is the one option that isn’t likely to produce the desired results. Indeed, it takes a hearty printer to compete in the general commercial realm—one more apt to accept smaller margins, offer a full array of services, become the low-cost provider and be able to find ways to drive costs out of the system. Oh, and don’t forget quality. The implication is that quality is sometimes winked at in low-cost scenarios. . .your competition wants you to believe that. All of the aforementioned outlets are
Allegra Names Heidelberg USA ‘Supplier of the Year’ Winner NORTHVILLE, MI—Allegra Network honored Heidelberg USA with the Supplier of the Year award at its 2008 Allegra Network convention. Allegra Network franchise members vote to choose the winner. In April 2007, Heidelberg served as host for Allegra Network’s annual summit trip to Heidelberg, Germany. More than 160 of Allegra Network’s top franchise members participated in the event. The Allegra Network consists of Allegra Print & Imaging, American Speedy Printing Centers, Insty-Prints and Signs Now. Multi-City Road Show Deemed a Success MINNEAPOLIS, MN—Buhrs Americas and Lake Image Systems teamed up and headed for the road
DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY—The foundation of MBO’s drupa theme – Speed up your business – was realized with the introduction of 2 (two) new buckle folding machines into MBO’s economical Efficiency series. Both a basic model and an automated version of the T 535 (21”) folder are now available with numerous options and customization. T 535 Efficiency for high volumes The new T 535 Efficiency buckle folding machine offers an attractive price-performance ratio and the high quality traditionally associated with MBO. The advantages of the Efficiency series translate to increased workflow in the half-size segment for printers, binderies and even book binders that
THE PRODUCTION workflow chain can be lonely toward the back end, particularly when your company specializes in mailing services. Not to mention frustrating, infuriating and a few more colorful terms. When mailing’s the name of your game, there are usually one or more vendors ahead of you in the production of a job, pushing the acceptable boundaries of deadlines. The job finally arrives in your shop; it should have been mailed yesterday; and now you are left to pick up the pieces. You either shrug and concede it to be the nature of the beast, or decide that maybe the tail end of the
A “WHATEVER it takes attitude” in the business world may sound cliché, but Philadelphia-based Innovation Printing & Communications has walked the walk—responding to customer needs by adding new equipment, consolidating into a single facility to optimize workflows and increasing its headcount with 20 new employees. From its outset in 1973, Innovation was a boutique shop, specializing in annual reports and other high-end projects. Owners Jeff Jones, president, and Dave Carpenter, vice president of sales and operations, wanted to transform the business away from the seasonal nature of annual report printing into a commercial sheetfed offset and digital printing operation. Jones and Carpenter bought
THE ROLLER coaster twisted from one side of the Muller Martini booth to the other, an improbably long snake piercing the air in an exhibition hall mostly filled with floor-dwelling equipment. This machine was certainly no bottom feeder—more specifically, it was a top feeder, the Topveyor 365 overhead conveyor. At times an overhead conveyor was needed to circumvent the crowds choking the aisles during Graph Expo 2007 in Chicago. But the patron flow was volatile, and there were periods where one could walk down some of the back aisles of the McCormick Place South Hall without bumping into a poster-toting gawker. . .of which
MINNEAPOLIS—Sept. 24—Delphax Technologies Inc., a global provider of high-speed digital printing systems, announced today that it will demonstrate an in-line perfect bound book production system featuring the Delphax CR2200 at MBO Open House Innovation Days Nov. 7-9 in Westampton, N.J. The Delphax CR2200 is the fastest monochrome toner-based digital print system in the world, operating at 500 feet per minute. Advantages of the CR2200 press include improved cycle times, higher productivity and reduced labor. These and other advantages provide lower overall production costs and increased throughput capabilities. The range of production capability also allows CR2200 Book Solution customers to increase the amount of short
WHAT WOULD you give up for a life in the music business? Brent Barnhart unwittingly sacrificed his childhood. Barnhart, chairman of The Barnhart Group in Canton, OH, wasn’t always in the sheetfed printing business, though the firm has been in his family for more than 80 years. At the age of 8, the now 37-year-old Barnhart—even as a child, an accomplished trumpet player—began touring the world with a sundry of evangelists. For the next 20 years, it was an annual diet of 30 weeks on the road and 100-plus cities. He quickly spread his wings by cutting an album every other year beginning at
Stitchers Star at Muller Martini Open House HAUPPAUGE, NY—Nearly three dozen print production businesses, including printing and binding companies of different sizes, recently attended a saddlestitching open house hosted by Muller Martini. The event, entitled “First to the Finish: Leading-Edge Saddlestitching Solutions for Maximum Automation,” was held here at Muller’s Long Island headquarters. Open house attendees viewed live demonstrations of three finishing machines geared toward the middle-performance segment. Demonstrated were a BravoPlus saddlestitcher with AMRYS (Automatic Make-Ready System), a BravoPlus T stitcher with partial AMRYS and a Presto stitcher. During the event, Muller Martini sold a BravoPlus T machine. Visitors not only saw three of Muller Martini’s
