Fat Bottlenecks in the Digital Bindery

I haven’t gulped a Mickey’s malt liquor since my over-21 college days, but my thirst recalls those wider bottlenecks through which the beer-like beverage flowed oh, so freely. While the “Big Mouth” bottle metaphor may seem strange in a print-finishing context, it is apropos nonetheless.

“A ‘bottleneck’ is a phenomenon where the performance or capacity of an entire system is limited by a single or limited number of components or resources,” so says Wikipedia. In a bindery, that translates to something like this: It doesn’t matter how fast presses can print if postpress cannot keep up on the backend. Slow binding lines mean printed work sets idle in rolls or on pallets, waiting to be completed.

With production inkjet webs, as with all printing, putting ink on paper is only the beginning. The increasing personalization of bound products presents publishers with new opportunities. (See separate article, “Custom ‘Printfomercials’ Are in the Mail,” on page __.) As digital color printing on coated paper becomes increasingly attractive, keeping up is what leading postpress solutions manufacturers such as Magnum Digital Solutions, Muller Martini Corp., and Standard Finishing Systems are trying to do. Their automated finishing solutions already can match the high, feet-per-minute speeds of black-and-white inkjet output such as books, billing statements, and newspapers. And these systems are accelerating toward record paces for color output, too, including direct mail and magalogs.

“Our finishing partners, such as Magnum and Muller Martini, are on a trajectory to hit the [necessary] speeds,” said Doug Sexton, manager of global publishing market development at HP’s Inkjet High-speed Production Solutions (IHPS) division. “They’re already there with 800 fpm in mono[chrome on uncoated stock], and color is coming.” Today, “a single press [can] feed multiple near-line finishing solutions,” Sexton noted, “as roll-to-roll output is taken to a secondary finishing device at 400 fpm to 500 fpm.”

Andy Fetherman, division manager of digital solutions at Muller Martini, concurred: “The trend is there,” Fetherman acknowledged, citing an increase in coated inkjet paper supply as evidence. (See separate article, “Coated Paper Chase,” on page __.) “Color will migrate quickly, like [monochrome] book work has over the past three to four years,” he predicted. “We hit speed milestones every year in the book space.”

Fetherman added that with the capability of high-speed, inline processing via its Sigmaline perfect binders, Muller Martini can get up to 800 fpm. “Color won’t run that fast at first,” he cautioned, because the slicker, coated stocks require an optimization process. “These aren’t workbooks,” Fetherman noted. “There may be more static issues, and the [paper] transfer process needs to be evaluated.”

Open House, Open Minds

Canadian finishing manufacturer Magnum was present at an open house that digital print innovator Strategic Content Imaging (SCI) hosted in New Jersey last month, just before the winter storm hit there. Steve Fyfe, director of digital development and owner of Magnum Digital Solutions, reported that a large part of the event’s foci was inkjet for commercial and retail applications. SCI, a subsidiary of Command Web Offset of Secaucus, NJ, employs several digital presses, including models from Kodak (Digimasters), Xeikon, and HP – Indigo as well as T300 and now T350 inkjet webs.

In addition to one-off products for its more traditional health-care and financial customers, Fyfe explained, “SCI is producing customized, four-color [inkjet] print on coated stocks for retail inserts and onserts for Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Lord & Taylor, and Christian Dior.” The firm has output 680,000 copies at full speed on its 30-inch, HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Press, he added (see page __).

SCI is investigating adapting its Magnum Flex Book system, installed inline two years ago on the back of the T300 inkjet web, to finish other types of inkjet-printed products. Flex Book provides an efficient method for the production of high-quality, fused book blocks. Using cut-sheet technology, it produces blocks free of the common shingling and bottling problems found in folding technologies utilizing signature solutions. Blocks are made durable with its digitally controlled, sinusoidal fusing technology and can be fed inline to a binding system or offline.

Flex Book was developed with the future of digital printing in mind. The finishing system is capable of a web width up to 43 inches and speeds up to 800 fpm. This was the design goal in mind from its origins more than three years ago; the anticipation was that high-speed inkjet technology would evolve to these specifications over time, said Fyfe.

Digital Staples

So far as standard saddle-stitching for digitally printed output is concerned, “the need was not there [initially],” Fetherman said, “but we did not wait.” One US customer presently is running Muller Martini’s rollfed (roll-to-roll) Primera technology inline at 500 feet per minute (fpm), which translates to 9,000 copies per hour. “We envision going even faster in the future, maybe up to 16,000 per hour,” Fetherman projected.

The Primera can be fed inline with signatures from a web press, either offset or inkjet. Added Steve Welkey, business manager for HP Inkjet Web Presses in the Americas, “If signatures are what they [the customers] do, then inline works great.” With sheet-stack features, 12x18-inch bleeds come off the saddle-stitcher, Welkey said, adding that there is flexibility for letters and posters, too.

At the annual, five-day Hunkeler Innovationdays exhibition in Switzerland this past February, Muller Martini presented the Primera’s “baby brother,” according to Fetherman: its Presto II Digital saddle-stitching machine. A new control system was shown 10 months ago at the quadrennial drupa trade fair. This past month, the Presto II device was displayed with a high-performance processing folder, two signature feeders, a cover folder feeder, the stitching machine, and a three-knife trimmer—in combination with an unwinding system, a fold/merge module, and a cross cutter from Hunkeler. Three different pieces were produced live in a continuous run, including four-across preprinted web products folded twice across the web “in a double-parallel fold,” Fetherman described, “leading to variable cover possibilities.”

Of inkjet print, Dragan Volic, marketing director for print finishing systems at Muller Martini, commented: “Quality expectations regarding digitally printed, saddle-stitched products are just as high as for conventional print products. With the Presto II Digital, we can offer the customary, first-class stitching quality and all the finishing options enabled by our flexible modular design.” High trim quality, center cutting, film wrapping, and palletizing are examples of the possibilities.

The Presto II Digital provides a high degree of investment protection as well, making it an ideal solution for small and medium-sized enterprises, Muller Martini said. A saddle stitcher equipped with signature feeders for conventional (offset) use can be expanded for use in digital/inkjet print. “Switches between the two production types and combined products, i.e. a combination of digitally printed signatures, conventionally printed signatures, and selective cover feeding, are possible at any time,” explained Volic.

As a first configuration, the Presto II Digital can be loaded from a preprinted roll, fitted with folding modules for multipage signatures, or equipped for single-sheet processing. Of course, the saddle-stitcher also can also be used as a fully integrated inline solution (digital printing with print finishing). The Connex data and process management system from Muller Martini enables the seamless interplay and optimal control of all aggregates, the firm added.

Near-, In-, or Off-Line Versatility

“The Hunkeler pre/post for continuous feed and the Horizon finishing equipment [saddle stitching and perfect binding] transfers over to any type of finished publication that is stitched or perfect bound,” explained Don Dubuque, marketing director at Standard Finishing Systems, whether printed with inkjet or offset inks. “For example, the Hunkeler UW6 Unwinder and CS6 Cutter can be put inline with the Horizon StitchLiner 6000 SaddleStitcher, either inline with a continuous feed print engine or off-line.”

Houston-based mega print firm Consolidated Graphics (CGX) is heavily vested in digital printing, including inkjet web technology. Veritas Document Solutions, a CGX company situated in Buffalo Grove, IL, near Chicago went inline and installed Standard Hunkeler roll-to-cut stack solutions on the back ends of digital presses from HP and Xerox. Also on its production floor are a Standard Horizon Stitchliner 5500, a BQ-470 Perfect Binder, and an HT-70 Three-knife Trimmer.