Muller Martini

In-house production at the Heidelberg sites in Germany are no longer competitive under the new market conditions. The relevant operations are therefore being discontinued, except for production of folding machines at the Ludwigsburg site. The reduction of in-house capacities will result in the closure of the Leipzig site and a corresponding reduction in the workforce at the Ludwigsburg and Wiesloch-Walldorf sites. A total of around 650 employees worldwide will be affected.

In addition to making editorial changes, such as adding USA Today content to increase its news coverage, the Montgomery Advertiser has installed a Muller Martini Bravo T saddlestitcher in its packaging department. And later this month, it will receive an upgraded digital ink color control system for its Goss Metro press.

MADISON, WI—For more than a hundred years, Webcrafters has been a familiar name to book publishers, particularly in the educational and custom publishing markets—segments that were some of the first to embrace short-run production in order to reduce inventories and better manage supply chains.

Webcrafters Inc. chose a second Muller Martini SigmaLine book manufacturing system for its increasing digital print production needs. The SigmaFolder II delivers book blocks at a cycle time of less than one second, which allows it to deliver individual book blocks at up to an unprecedented 4,000 copies per hour.

Commercial printing industry supplier company and personnel news from Printing Impressions’ June 2014 edition, featuring Hohner Maschinenbau GmbH and Ernst Nagel GmbH Stuttgart, HS Boyd Co., GammTech Corp., Domtar Corp., Mac Papers, GPA

Muller Martini has re-engineered its PerformancePlus II Stitching Heads that now contain significantly fewer moving parts—the operator will spend a lot less time disassembling, repairing and maintaining heads. Traditional stitching heads contain anywhere from 25 to 40 parts.

Muller Martini's new 200,000-square-foot parts distribution center in Allentown, PA, is the largest parts warehouse in the United States dedicated solely to print bindery and newspaper equipment. The facility contains $40 million in authentic OEM replacement parts.

ALLENTOWN, PA—About 30 years ago, the Piano Man himself, Billy Joel—a Long Island resident—sang of the plight of living and working in Allentown, PA. Fast forward to 2014, and you'll find finishing and variable-size web offset press equipment manufacturer Muller Martini, saying goodbye to the Long Island town of Hauppauge, NY, in favor of Allentown...at least from a parts distribution standpoint.

The range of finishing available, combined with increasing customer demands for differentiation, has meant that for many shops, creating the balance between offerings and profitability remains delicate. Let's look at five digital printing establishments and how they've created the balance between meeting customer expectations and maintaining profitability.

Pictured at PRINT 13, from left, are Goss Sales Manager Mike McGeady with Jon Kissau, manager of ope