Spiel Associates

THOUGH SEVERAL of the press conferences and ”big news” at Drupa centered around digital printing, innovations in bindery and finishing were no less prevalent. In fact, many of them sprang from the very digital printing trends that overshadowed them. As digital printing speeds have increased, bindery equipment has also gotten faster, with vastly improved automation and simplified touchscreen controls to make them even easier to set up. JDF compatibility is becoming more common in bindery equipment, allowing devices to be preset using production data. Demands for higher-quality printed products have led bindery vendors to improve their paper-handling techniques. Folds look better on the latest

Spiel Associates Inc. is proud to announce the arrival of Frank Bagrosky to our company. He comes to us with a wealth of bindery equipment knowledge. Frank worked for James Burn for 17 years, first as a machinist, then as an engineer. He then worked for Performance Design Inc. for over 10 years. Frank worked there as an engineer and also in sales. After mastering each department he rose to the position of general manager. His ascent to management from an entry level machine shop job is a true American dream story. We are happy he chose to join us here at Spiel Associates.

WHAT IS this strange-looking thing? Bob Geier wondered aloud, when a customer stopped by (circa 1987) and handed him a small, round piece of plastic. “I’d never seen anything like it before,” recalls Geier, owner of Farmingdale, NY-based Mid Island Bindery. “The customer said it was a compact disc, and that it was going to be huge someday. “That was a milestone year for us,” Geier notes. “We worked hard with our customer to produce the books that accompanied every compact disc at greater speeds then they were currently being produced and hold all the specifications required by the final assembler.” Mid Island produced

LONG ISLAND CITY, NY—“ ‘Try out this machine and if it does not meet your satisfaction, you may return it at our cost.’ That’s the pitch I received from the manufacturer of this amazing machine,” says David Spiel. “So I make the same offer to my customers and not one has sent it back!” The Sterling® Digibinder is the newest offering in the world of short run perfect binding machines. “This little machine does the same job as many floor model machines costing much more,” says Saul Spiel. “I have never seen a better table top machine of any kind.” ROUGHING AND NOTCHING Most

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

By Erik Cagle Senior Editor Getting customers to stop by their booth was the No. 1 challenge facing manufacturers, suppliers and distributors during PRINT 05 & CONVERTING 05 in Chicago. Be it food, beverages, magicians or professional pool players, those exhibiting knew that getting one's attention was as critical as spreading their company's gospel. This is particularly true for those purveyors of binding and finishing equipment, which offer such a vast array of products and services that it's easy for attentions to get divided. The key was in seeing those attentions get conquered. For example, Standard Finishing Systems and Horizon International made a

By David Spiel Punching for spiral binding of any kind is a tricky matter—and even trickier for plastic coil. Punching for double-loop wire has always been a snap: Merely open your die, place your sheet against the pins and pull the pins nearest the edges of the sheet. This way there is no chance of punching a partial hole. You have the luxury of centering your sheet and producing a generous, attractive margin (the distance between the first or last hole and the head or foot of the book). Punching for spiral is not always so easy. If you have a plastic coil machine that can

By Erik Cagle Senior Editor In one of many hilarious episodes from the long-running animated hit television series, "The Simpsons," bartender Moe Szyslak is hammering a crayon up Homer Simpson's nose to restore his less-than-Hawkingesque intelligence level to subpar standards. Don't ask why. During the hammering, viewers can witness Homer's digressing intelligence as the crayon is pushed deeper into his brain. At one point during the hammering, Homer mindlessly blathers, "de-fense, de-fense," but the deeper, more acceptable (and thus dumber) level Moe reaches with the crayon (it's called a "Crayola Oblongata") causes Homer to utter, "Extended warranty? How can I lose?" We'll not debate the merits of parts

by David Spiel A customer calls and says that he wants to buy a three-hole punch, but I tell him that he really does not. To avoid the risk of falling into an Abbott-and-Costello routine, I explain to him that a drill uses rotating drill bits to drill through paper and a punch uses reciprocating male and female dies to push through paper. A solid punch pin pushes paper through a female hole and the waste exits below. A drill cuts the paper while spinning and the waste is ejected up through its hollow shaft and exits through the top. What's the difference? Speed, accuracy, versatility

By Erik Cagle Senior Editor There are enough headaches encountered between the time a customer's files are uploaded to your FTP site and when the truck rolls away from the back dock with finished product. But, while certain aspects of the workflow are tedious and time consuming, your perfect binder shouldn't be an attention, or time, burglar. Most manufacturers of floor-model adhesive binders agree that time is of the essence. And the position of bindery operator often sees high turnover, making it imperative that a quality machine is easy to makeready, simple to operate, and equally user-friendly and fast on changeovers. Shrinking Setup As run lengths