muller martini panorama, 2012, fall

The magazine for Muller Martini customers Fall 2012

Many Customers at Muller Martini’s drupa Stand Found Solutions Not Only for Today, But Also for Tomorrow and the Day after Tomorrow

Editorial

Muller Martini Panorama Fall 20122

E Demonstrating service solutions based on specific, practical examples during a trade fair is one of the demanding challeng-es for any machine manufacturer. “That is nearly impossible to do,” some experts re-cently said to me at a service seminar. We at Muller Martini responded: “Then we’ll make the impossible possible.” That is how we came up with the idea to put a Prima-Plus built in 2006 on display at this year’s drupa to demonstrate how a six-year old saddle stitcher can be brought up to date, that is, to the state of the art, by carrying out 23 upgrades.

Of course, at the beginning there was a bit of skepticism (“can we really display an old machine at a trade fair among all our other modern solutions?”). Indeed, the green PrimaPlus surrounded by laser-blue machines at our booth at the drupa took some getting used to. However, the old saddle stitcher quickly became a major at-traction. The visitors to the drupa showed that our efforts to present a current topic in an unconventional way were worth their while. During our PrimaPlus demonstra-tions, not only did numerous visitors to our booth witness how to get more out of an existing machine. We also exceeded ex-pectations by concluding several service

agreements – almost all of them were ne-gotiated directly at our booth.

The service aspect was particularly im-portant at this year’s drupa as many graph-ic arts companies are not thinking in terms of new investments right now given the dif-ficult economic circumstances. That is why it was so important to show graphic arts companies how to optimize their machin-ery or adapt it to meet new requirements. With the extensive MMServices Life Cycle Program, Muller Martini meets all the cus-tomers’ needs throughout the lifetime of a machine – whether it is increasing perfor-mance and quality of the end product, re-ducing set-up times, optimizing production security or demonstrating new possibilities for production.

With our service program that encom-passes seven modules we ensure that our customers have a high level of investment protection. Even our current cutting-edge systems will start to shown signs of age at some point. However, later on they will be upgraded or expanded with technologies that have yet to be developed.

A good example of how customers can benefit from our high level of service exper-tise is Latimer Trend & Company Ltd. in Plymouth, England. The successful book-

bindery put into operation a second-hand Bolero machine, under the instruction of Muller Martini England, only 19 days after it had been decommissioned in Scotland, for more on this event, see page 50. Not on-ly did our English service specialists pro-vide for the smooth transport of the perfect binding line, they also inspected the entire machine, cleaned it, upgraded it to the state of the art, in addition to training the machine operators, all of which facilitated the installation of the machine. “Without this professional support, we would have never considered purchasing a second-hand perfect binder,” Ian Crocker, Manag-ing Director of Latimer, told “Panorama”.

The example of Latimer is an impressive demonstration of how the life cycle of a ma-chine – even after relocation – can be ex-tended with the right measures, thereby al-lowing it to remain productive for many years to come. You don’t always have to in-vest in a new machine in order to ensure that production facilities provide for an op-timal position of print media. Thanks to their modular structure, existing systems from Muller Martini can be expanded step by step and enhanced with new functions at the lowest possible cost, which allows you to be more successful in your daily pro-duction.

It is important for us to remain in con-tact with you so that we can assess your potential together and develop concrete solutions. Our aim is to support graphic arts companies, so that you can operate your systems optimally throughout their life cy-cles. We will therefore continue to increase our activities in this important area of ser-vices by providing the best possible sup-port to our many customers worldwide in order to optimize their production equip-ment.

Yours sincerely,

Felix Stirnimann, Member of the Board of Directors of Muller Martini

Muller Martini Ensures a High Level of Investment Protection

Felix Stirnimann, Member of the Board of Directors of Muller Martini

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Imprint

Volume 27Muller Martini “Panorama” EditorDr. Markus Angst [email protected] PublisherMuller Martini Marketing AGUntere Brühlstrasse 13 CH-4800 Zofingen, SwitzerlandTelephone +41 62 745 45 75 Fax +41 62 751 55 50www.mullermartini.com

Publication frequencyAppears three times a year in English, French, German, Italian and Span ish editions.

Reproduction with reference to source is permitted.

Printed in Switzerland.

Contents

3Muller Martini Panorama Fall 2012

Sales and ServiceMuller Martini Ltd.Ridgeway IndustrialEstateIver, BuckinghamshireSLO 9JQPhone Iver 0845 345 3588Telefax 65 56 58(Std Code 01753)[email protected]

neutralPrinted Matter

No. 01-12-375924 – www.myclimate.org© myclimate – The Climate Protection Partnership

The Saddle Stitcher Setup Wizard from Muller Martini is Extremely Convenient and Greatly Reduces Setup Times

With its New Alprinta 52, the Mailshot Specialist SDV Winter Can Set Up Jobs up to 50 Percent Faster

Four Customers Decided at Drupa in Favor of the New Alegro Perfect Binder Featuring Motion Control Technology

drupaInterview with Bruno Müller – “Feedback from Visitors to the Stand was Extremely Positive” 4

Photographs of the Highly-frequented Muller Martini Stand 6

Alegro – the New Perfect Binder for Offset and Digitally Printed Products 10

Diamant MC Hybrid/Ventura MC Compact – Pioneering Hardcover Innovations 12MMServices – Many Customers Spontaneously Decided to Purchase a Service Contract 13

HP/KBA – the SigmaLine at the HP and KBA Stands Pulls In Visitors 14

FlexLiner/FlexPack – New Solutions for Innovative Insert Marketing 16

VSOP – Modern Control Technology Simplifies Printing Press Operation 17

Presto II – Even More User-friendly Thanks to the Setup Wizard 18

News  19

ForumSetup Assistant – Short Paths Thanks to Local Operating Panels 22

ConnexData and Process Management System – One Click and the New Job is Running 26

Saddle Stitching SystemsMerkhofer, Morangis – 28 Saddle Stitchers from Muller Martini 30

Double Printing, Budapest – the Primera C110 Also Enables Two-up Production 32

Pratiyogita Darpan, Agra – High Quality Enhances Print Products 34

Consolidated, Seattle – Duo of Primera C130/Bravo for Short and Long Runs 36

Hardcover ProductionLovely, Sivakasi – Indian’s First Diamant MC 35 Specializes in Diaries 38

fgb, Freiburg – Diamant MC and Ventura MC Ensure High Quality 40

Digital Solutionsbuch bücher, Birkach – a Diamant MC 35 for Print Runs of 1 to 500 42

CDS, Medford – Acoro A5/Diamant MC 35 as a Perfect Digital-ready Team 44

Printing PressesSDV Winter, Weidenberg – the Alprinta 52 Ensures Higher Productivity 46

Newspaper Mailroom Systems“Diario Libre”, Santo Domingo – Three AlphaLiners Unveiled 48

MMServicesLatimer, Plymouth – How a Perfect Binder Found a New Home in Just 19 Days 50

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drupa

4

“We Are Counting on the Coexistence of Offset and Digital Printing in the Future”

Bruno Müller, CEO of Muller Martini, drew a positive balance of the company’s performance

at the drupa 2012 in Düsseldorf.

E “Panorama”: The drupa 2012 is now in the books. What are your impressions after the 14-day trade fair?Bruno Müller (CEO Müller Martini): I am extremely satisfied with our performance. We had a constantly high volume of visi-tors to our booth, which displayed many in-novations and in particular, featured prac-tical demonstrations led by our specialists. Over the two-week period we produced at-tractive newspapers, magazines, softcover and hardcover books as well as film wrap-

ping in over 600 demonstrations, using 45 tons of paper and 6 tons of film. Our main focus was on demonstrating how quickly jobs can be changed over as well as how to ensure the high quality of the products. We received excellent feedback from visitors to our booth.

Speaking of feedback: You spoke per-sonally with many customers. What were the main points that emerged from these conversations?

One key point was the cost-effective man-ufacture of products in small and ultra-small quantities. The people I spoke with were very interested in the innovations in digital printing. It was also obvious that in-tegrated complete solutions are increas-ingly in demand instead of individual ma-chines. We were able to take this into account in our exhibits. I also observed that many customers are not only looking for solutions for today, but they are also think-ing about tomorrow and beyond. Our cus-

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1 Bruno Müller (at the press conference on the Muller Martini booth): «Our customers want investment protection in an environment that is changing faster than ever before.»

2 Muller Martini’s booth at this year’s drupa was very popular, and all of the demonstrations were full even on the last day of the trade fair (image: Milan Živic from Muller Martini Serbia with the Diamant MC).

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tomers want investment protection in an environment that is changing faster than ever before. Due to the rapidly changing market requirements, longer investment cycles and the influence of new technolo-gy, flexibility and expandability of the sys-tems has become a central issue.

One part of the rapidly changing market requirements is the increasing import-ance of digital printing methods. How has the trend towards digital printing developed between the drupa 2008 and 2012?The range of printing technologies and the number of printing press manufacturers have increased significantly. Great advanc-es have also been made in terms of perfor-mance and quality. Of course, industrial high-performance printing systems are of particular interest to us. With our ‘digital solutions’ on the SigmaLine we offer excel-lent solutions in this area. In addition, we

also presented machines that are ‘digital ready’, as they can be installed right away as a standard system and can be expand-ed later on directly on site downstream of a digital printing press. We are counting on the coexistence of offset and digital print-ing in the future.

This year’s drupa had roughly 20 per-cent fewer visitors than in 2008. Did you feel this negative trend at Muller Martini’s booth?We were very pleased with the volume of visitors to our booth, which was only slight-ly lower than in 2008. Our booth had plen-ty of visitors and all of our demonstrations were full – even on the last day of the trade fair.

The measure of success at a trade fair is not only how many visitors you had to your booth, but also the volume of sales. How did you do in this area?

Whenever you make such a great effort to show your power of innovation and market performance, of course you want to see some sales take place. This year’s drupa was a great success in this regard as well. We were able to conclude sales agree-ments on all continents – in particular in emerging markets such as China or Brazil. We also saw new investments in Muller Martini systems in our traditional markets of North America and Europe. Another positive development was the great inter-est in our MMServices modules. Many cus-tomers decided on the spot to purchase a service package.

Muller Martini also presented attractive printed products in the “Product Innov-ation Lounge”. How did visitors react to this premiere at the drupa?The “Product Innovation Lounge” proved to be an ideal way to display the wide range of products and services from Muller Mar-tini by showing the finished products pro-duced on our systems. It was also an ideal starting point to emphasize the advantag-es and the innumerable possibilities of-fered by printed products. Many conversa-tions with customers focused more on the finished products than on our systems themselves. That is why we will continue to develop our idea of the product lounge.

At the conclusion of the two-week long drupa, how would you describe the cur-rent state of the graphic arts industry?The structural change in our industry is in-evitable. However, at the same time it also presents chances and risks. The drupa was inspiring for anyone who sees the new ap-plication possibilities as a chance and want to actively pursue this chance. The numer-ous sales agreements concluded at the trade fair show that confidence in our in-dustry is slowing returning.


Muller Martini’s drupa Stand Attracts Stream of Visitors

Under its “fitness” slogan, Muller Martini showed graphic arts companies at drupa in Düsseldorf

how they can stand out from the competition. The trade fair stand attracted visitors from all

over the world on all 14 days, finding solutions not only for today, but also for tomorrow and the

day after tomorrow.

drupa

Muller Martini Panorama Fall 2012 7


drupa

8

Impressions from the Muller Martini Stand at drupa

drupa

Motion Control Technology Puts the New Alegro in a Class of Its Own

Shorter setup times, faster production and higher quality – the new Alegro perfect binder

from Muller Martini with Motion Control Technology unveiled at the drupa is optimally equipped

for offset and digital printing.

Thanks to Motion Control Technology, all stations of the Alegro are driven directly and controlled individually.


E Walsh Colour Print, located in the Irish town of Castleisland, entered digital print-ing two years ago with two HP Indigo 5500 machines. It previously produced books, with print runs of just one copy in extreme cases, using an aging Starbinder from Muller Martini. In order to optimize the pro-duction of ultra-short runs, the company decided at the drupa to replace the Star-binder with an Alegro. “We wanted a solu-tion allowing us to finish products printed using both sheet-fed offset and digitally,” says company owner Tony Walsh. “Al-though we print many ultra-short runs dig-itally, in offset printing there can be runs of several tens of thousands of copies.”

Extremely Short Processing TimesThe new Alegro ensures quicker setup times, faster production and higher prod-uct quality thanks to Motion Control Tech-nology. It facilitates extremely short pro-cessing times, resulting in maximum profitability. The Alegro, which stands out due to special sizes (from ultra-small to A3; products in the DIN A4 format can even be run perpendicular in two-up production) and production methods, also provides the basis for a large range of uses.

At the heart of the intelligent machine concept is the fact that all stations of the Alegro, which has 70 percent fewer chains than traditional perfect binders, are driven directly and controlled individually thanks to Motion Control. That means the settings have a direct effect on the product, leading to maximum quality. Motion Control opti-mizes the individual process steps, reduc-es setup times and allows for maximum production performance in the shortest time. With Motion Control, the readjust-ment of settings is reduced to a minimum.

“Light Years Ahead”The high degree of automation was also the key factor that convinced Bell & Bain, located in the Scottish city of Glasgow, to purchase the Alegro as a replacement for the Acoro A5 at the drupa. “We also shopped around the competition during our evaluation period and found that the Alegro is light years ahead,” says Director Stephen Docherty.

Bell & Bain changes over the perfect binder roughly 20 times a day. The print runs of the numerous medical books and journals it produces vary anywhere be-tween 400 and 22,000 copies. According to Managing Director Ian Walker, he Alegro provides two other key advantages in addi-tion to the fast setup times. “First, com-pared to the Acoro we now have a higher production rate of 2000 cycles per hour, which we hope will enable us to avoid our usual overtime shifts in the future. Second, we can also use the Alegro for digitally printed products.”

When the new perfect binder begins op-eration at the end of this year, it will initial-ly be used to bind offset products only. “However, we are also planning to use the machine for binding digitally printed signa-tures at a later date,” says Walker. As the second company in the world to do so, Bell & Bain has had in operation a SigmaLine digital book production system from Muller Martini since 2005 and in the future will be able to transport products offline into the Alegro as well as inline into the SigmaBind-er machine.

Connex Optimizes ProcessesWhile Bell & Bain has years of experience in perfect binding, Samson Druck in the Austrian town of St. Margarethen is enter-ing softcover production this year for the first time – with an Alegro. “First of all, the number of jobs we receive has increased. Second, we want to keep our value added in-house. Third, this way, we are able to provide optimal quality.

And fourth, it gives us better control of logistics,” says Gerhard Aichhorn, Manag-ing Director of Samson Druck, which until now has outsourced the perfect binding of their products.

Samson Druck decided in favor of the Alegro at the drupa not least because of the Connex data and process management system. With Connex, it is possible to opti-mally automate all Muller Martini systems, from a stand-alone machine to complex production lines (see article on page 26). Thanks to this standardization, all ma-chines can communicate with one another and, using Connex, can also be connected to a management information system (MIS). “This is an important aspect for us, as we already have a MIS system in opera-tion,” emphasized Aichhorn.

Faster Support with MMRemoteAn additional advantage of the new Alegro is that it is remote-compatible, which en-ables Muller Martini to connect to the ma-chine at the customers’ site online from the factory at any time and quickly resolve faults through the MMRemote service module. “That solution is really convenient because we can save a lot of time, especial-ly in the initial phase following commis-sioning,” says Trond Erik Isaksen, founder and General Director of Livonia Print. The successful company in the Latvian capital of Riga (see “Panorama” 1/12) decided on the installation of an Alegro to expand its existing machine line-up.

Three-knife Trimmer Solit with SmartPress TechnologyThe Alegro perfect binding line is com-plemented by the new Solit three-knife trimmer, which is equipped with the pat-ented SmartPress technology. Thanks to this unique, servo-controlled technol-ogy, the air in the book block can be re-leased optimally. In addition, the press-ing automatically adjusts to fluctuations in the product thickness, ensuring excel-lent trim quality. The Solit three-knife trimmer can be changed over in less than three minutes without any tools.


drupa

12

Two Pioneering Innovations for Hardcover Producers

At the drupa Muller Martini surprised visitors with two pioneering innovations in the hardcover

segment – the Diamant MC Hybrid bookline as an ideal solution for photo books and on-demand

production, as well as the space-saving Ventura MC Compact book sewing machine.

E The Diamant MC Hybrid enables com-panies to meet the challenges of digital production and equips them optimally for both large and ultra-short print runs. Mo-tion Control Technology ensures top quali-ty from the very first book, which is vital for one-off production. For books with straight spines, the variable rounding irons ensure short changeovers. For rounded spines, the preheatable rounding irons save a lot of time.

Courier Invests in Diamant MC DigitalThe leading American book manufacturer Courier Corporation decided at the drupa to purchase a Diamant MC Digital for its factory in North Chelmsford, Massachu-setts and can now also produce hardcover books in short runs. “We are pleased to see our digital printing business continue to grow,” says Joseph L. Brennan, Vice Pres-ident Engineering at Courier Corporation in North Chelmsford. “The new Diamant MC Digital now enables us to offer our custom-ers digitally printed hardcover books as well.”

Courier works solely in the digital print-ing segment, printing books chiefly for schools and universities, as well as manu-als and operating manuals under the Cou-rier Digital Solutions (CDS) brand. In addi-tion to three HP T300 digital printing presses, CDS also uses a SigmaBinder/tower/trimmer, an Acoro A7 perfect binder and three SigmaFolders/collators with Sig-maControl (see “Panorama” 2/11).

A Compact VenturaThe Ventura MC Compact uses the very same successful book sewing concept as the tried and tested Ventura MC book sew-ing machine, ensuring the high quality of the stitching as well as cost-effective pro-duction. The excellent quality is reflected in the deep stitching, the short ends of the threads and the reliable connection of the

first and last signatures. Consistent use of the servo concept ensures short change-over times and optimized movements at all production speeds. Feeder hopper, delivery and touchscreen are located close to one another, making the machine compact and user-friendly. The machine requires just one operator.

Joseph L. Brennan (second from left), Vice President Engineering at Courier Corporation: “The new Diamant MC Digital now enables us to offer our customers digitally printed hardcover books as well.” Left: Jürgen Noll (Marketing Director Muller Martini Book Technology). Second from left: Frank Donnelly (Sales Manager Muller Martini USA). Right: Werner Naegeli (Managing Director Muller Martini USA).


A Six-year-old Saddle Stitcher Pulls in Visitors

Muller Martini used a six-year-old saddle stitcher at drupa to demonstrate in practice the

extension and optimization options open to graphic arts businesses looking to improve the

cost-effectiveness of their machine line-ups. Many customers were so impressed that they

signed a service contract right there and then.

E At first glance the green PrimaPlus at Muller Martini’s drupa stand in Düsseldorf looked out of place among the other laser blue systems. Yet the saddle stitcher from 2006 quickly became a major draw. That was because experts from Muller Martini were using the six-year-old PrimaPlus to demonstrate live by means of various ser-vice modules how a saddle stitcher can be analyzed and have its potential for optimi-zation pinpointed.

“Visitors were very interested and very enthusiastic,” says Patrick Treyer, MMSer-vices Program Manager in Muller Martini’s Global Services & Marketing division, with satisfaction. Wolfgang Kurz, Project Man-ager at Muller Martini Germany seconded that: “We really struck home with this pro-fessional service presentation. That is how

to sell service solutions: in a hands-on way using specific customer demos.”

Spontaneous Sales AboundBoth customers’ interest and the number of service contracts signed exceeded ex-pectations. What is more, most of the con-tracts were concluded spontaneously. “Customers were so impressed by what they can get out of their existing machines that they chose right there and then to pur-chase a service solution from us at our stand,” say Patrick Treyer and Wolfgang Kurz.

Wolfgang Kurz sold over 20 MMInspect contracts to German customers at drupa. The module covers the preventive Muller Martini inspection service, which is de-signed to analyze the state of equipment as

Experts from Muller Martini used the six-year-old PrimaPlus to demonstrate live at drupa by means of various service modules how a saddle stitcher can be analyzed and have its potential for optimization pinpointed.

well as its optimization potential in terms of production security, productivity and production options.

MMUptodate, whereby regular updates prolong the life span of the machines and ensure that their high performance charac-teristics are maintained for many years, al-so proved a hit with customers. The ridge caliper (simpler operation) and the infeed of the three-knife trimmer (increase on product quality) of saddle stitchers were particularly sought after.

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drupa

14

When Digital Printing and Print Finishing Merge Seamlessly

With a joint appearance at HP’s drupa stand, the leading manufacturer of digital printing presses

and Muller Martini showcased an inline solution for the production of digitally printed books to

the amazement of many trade fair visitors.

E “Visitors to our stand showed great in-terest in the joint HP/Muller Martini solu-tion right from the first day of drupa,” says Aurelio Maruggi, Vice President & General Manager Inkjet High-speed Production So-lutions at HP: As the market is continually moving away from conventional printing to digital printing, our customers are realizing that we offer them entirely new options, es-pecially in terms of print quality, production speed and flexibility. That opens up new business segments in inkjet printing.”

A Drupa PremiereFor that reason Aurelio Maruggi considers it important that drupa visitors were shown the great advantages of inline systems. “They saw that we offer our customers a joint solution allowing digital printing and print finishing to merge seamlessly.” Aure-lio Maruggi explains that Muller Martini was chosen as partner "because Muller Martini has an excellent understanding of the digital business”.

According to Bruno Müller, CEO of Muller Martini, that understanding extends in particular to the Connex data and pro-cess management system from Muller Martini, which optimizes and automates the finishing of offset and digital printed materials and is the world-leading solution of its kind in digital book printing. “The in-creasing importance of digital printing makes an intelligent workflow crucial,” says Bruno Müller. “It is only possible to produce products directly and cost-effec-tively in one operation if the entire process is totally automated and integrated. It is ex-actly here that Muller Martini serves as a reliable partner to ensure the security of in-vestments. Whether offset or digital, every business determines the corresponding degree of automation and networking that is required.”

Color and black/white books were pro-duced live at the HP stand using the T410 digital printing press from HP and the fully

integrated SigmaLine complete solution from Muller Martini for the production of digitally printed books with a SigmaFolder and SigmaCollator (for 42-inch web width).In addition, four pallets of books were

Aurelio Maruggi (Vice President & General Manager Inkjet High-speed Production Solutions at HP): “HP and Muller Martini offer their customers entirely new options in inkjet printing, especially in terms of print quality, production speed and flexibility, which enables them to enter new business segments.”

printed daily at the HP stand for an Italian publishing house. The books were then bound using the Alegro perfect binder at the Muller Martini stand shortly before the close of the trade fair each day.


KBA and Muller Martini Showcase Customer-focused Inline Solution

With a joint appearance at KBA’s drupa stand, KBA and Muller Martini showed an inline solution

for digitally printed products on the SigmaLine with the Primera Digital saddle stitching system.

The solution proved a hit with visitors.

E KBA had shown its commercial web presses together with Muller Martini at drupa in the past. “In other words, both companies had experience of joint trade fair appearances,” says Klaus Schmidt, Di-rector of Marketing/Communication at the KBA Group. However, drupa 2012 was a special occasion.

KBA presented a digital printing press for the first time, and is seeking to enter a new business segment with the brand-new Rotajet 76. “Naturally our live demos at drupa only made sense by also show-ing inline print finishing,” says Klaus Schmidt.

Four Different Color ProductsFor Muller Martini, the partnership was an “excellent opportunity allowing us to show that we are the leader in inline solutions for digital printing and how digital printing can be seamlessly integrated into print finish-ing thanks to our Connex data and process management system,” says Dragan Volic,

Director of Marketing for Print Finishing Systems at Muller Martini.

At the KBA stand, four different color 48-page print products with various types of paper were produced using the Rotajet 76 and Muller Martini’s SigmaLine consist-ing of the SigmaFolder and the Primera Digital. The four print products were “KBA Daily”, a university magazine, a technolo-gy magazine and a cook book, variously with and without an additional cover.

Klaus Schmidt (right), Marketing/Commu-nication Director of the KBA Group: “Pro-duction ends not with printing, but with the finished product.” Center: Alexander Blank (prepress technician). Left: Klaus Behnisch (Muller Martini service technician).

Industry Needs to Join Forces“Muller Martini is a global company like us,” says Klaus Schmidt, explaining the co-operation with the Swiss machine manu-facturer at the KBA stand. In the view of the experienced printing press expert, it is clear that the industry needs to join forces in or-der to be able to offer such customer-ori-ented inline solutions. “Production ends not with printing, but with the finished product,” says Klaus Schmidt.

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drupa

16

The First FlexLiner Goes to East Frisia

“The FlexLiner is the ideal machine for inserts in inserts,” says Christian Basse, publisher and

managing director of SKN Druck u. Verlag GmbH & Co. KG in Norden (East Frisia/Northern

Germany). The insert and magazine printer is the first company to purchase the inserting system

unveiled as a world first by Muller Martini at the drupa for that reason.

E “I’ve been searching for three years for the optimal solution for inserting inserts in-to inserts,” says Christian Basse (Dipl.-Kfm.), publisher and managing director of SKN. Matthias Kandt, sales representative of Muller Martini Germany, hinted to him that Muller Martini had an inserting ma-chine in the pipeline for the drupa 2012 that would suit his needs exactly. He was so convinced by the demonstration of the new FlexLiner at the Muller Martini stand in Düsseldorf that he decided to invest in the new system immediately.

Founded in 1861, SKN originally started out as a newspaper operation, but has fo-cused on the printing of inserts and maga-zines for three decades. The company pro-duces inserts, 80 percent of which are placed in newspapers, for numerous big-name customers.

Innovative Insert MarketingThe new FlexLiner increases efficiency in the mailroom, creates reliability in tradi-tional newspaper production and offers new product make-up possibilities. It can be expanded in any number of ways thanks to its open system architecture. Additional possibilities are created by individual ad-dressing in the delivery transporter and the integration of a labeling system or a card gluer.

With selective main product feeding, customers have entirely new opportunities to set themselves apart. With the use of up to three feeding positions, which can be fed manually, from the FlexiRoll or directly from the web printing press, inserts can be placed as FlexAds on the front or back pag-es of a main product, in addition to normal insert production.

From left: Christian Basse (Publisher and Managing Director of SKN Druck u. Verlag GmbH & Co. KG), Matthias Kandt (Sales Representative Muller Martini Deutschland), Volker Leonhard (Managing Director Muller Martini Germany), Bruno Müller (CEO Muller Martini) and René Podien (electronics engineer in Muller Martini’s testing workshop) in front of the new FlexLiner inserting system at Muller Martini’s drupa stand.

FlexPack: High FunctionalityAt the drupa Muller Martini also unveiled its FlexPack bundle building system for the first time. It impresses with its compact-ness, flexibility and process reliability, and provides for low investment costs togeth-er with high functionality. FlexPack com-bines all processes including stacking, feeding of the bottom sheet, bottom sheet labeling, top sheet printing, top sheet run and strapping into a single compact ma-chine.


Hammer Packaging Soon to Print Shrink Sleeves Using the New VSOP from Muller Martini

With its volume of shrink sleeves orders continuously growing, Hammer Packaging

in Rochester, located in the U.S. state of New York, decided to purchase the new VSOP web

printing press from Muller Martini.

E Since the 40s, Hammer Packaging, founded in 1912, has been printing labels including 360-degree labels, pressure sen-sitive labels and in-mold labels produced using an injection molding procedure for the food and beverages industry. Six years ago, the long-standing company entered the shrink sleeves business segment with two VSOP printing presses from Drent Goebel. The segment is growing dynami-cally and Hammer Packaging is constantly gaining new customers, prompting its President and CEO James E. Hammer to in-vest in a third web printing press.

At the drupa in Düsseldorf, the great-grandson of the company founder signed a purchase agreement for the new VSOP from Muller Martini with nine printing units, plus an additional flexo unit, hot air drying and EB drying. It will be put into op-eration towards the end of the year. “Com-pared to the predecessor models of Drent

Goebel, Muller Martini has made some im-portant technological upgrades,” says Jim Hammer, explaining his choice of the latest investment.

Modern Control TechnologyOne particular innovation is modern control technology. Thanks to the integration of Muller Martini control topology in the VSOP, the reliability of the machine has been increased and considerably fewer components are in use. That simplifies both operation and maintenance.

The sleeve positioning improvement in the printing units reduces wear and tear on the air shaft in the case of frequent size changes. In addition, remote diagnosis tools such as MMRemote Access and MMRemote Online are also available in the new VSOP. That increases the availability of the machine and reduces downtime. “The new printing press fulfills our requirements

From right: Werner Naegeli (Managing Director Muller Martini USA), James E. Hammer (President and CEO Hammer Packaging), Hart Swisher (Director of Technology Hammer Packaging), Martin Karpie (Vice President of Operations Ham-mer Packaging), Louis Iovoli (Vice President Strategic Partnership/Marketing Hammer Packaging), Mark Rauth (Sales Manager Muller Martini USA), Doug Weiss (Business Development Muller Martini USA) in front of the VSOP printing press at Muller Martini’s drupa stand.

exactly,” says a visibly satisfied Jim Ham-mer in summary at Muller Martini’s drupa stand.

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drupa

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Presto II and Primera: Even More User Friendly

The Presto II saddle stitcher first unveiled at Muller Martini’s drupa stand now features

the tried and tested setup wizard familiar from the Primera models, greatly reducing

changeover times.

E Since Muller Martini introduced the setup wizard at the launch of the Primera models at the drupa 2008, customers worldwide have appreciated the conve-nient operation of the new saddle stitcher generation (see also article on page 22). The setup wizard offers simple and practi-cal navigation. Now even relatively inexpe-rienced Presto machine operators can set up a job step by step using the intuitive us-er interface and gather, stitch, cut and stack the sections.

In addition, the Presto II, the entry-level saddle stitcher model from Muller Martini with up to 9000 cycles per hour, can now be connected to the Connex data and pro-cess management system (see page 26). The Presto II is also fully remote-compati-ble, which means Muller Martini can get in contact with the machine at the custom-ers’ site online from the factory at any time

and quickly resolve faults through the MMRemote service module.

Primera E160: Inline with Sitma Inserting MachineAt Muller Martini’s drupa stand, the most powerful saddle stitcher in the mid-size output range, the Primera E160 from Muller Martini, impressed visitors with its speed, flexibility and production reliability. With 16,000 cycles per hour for mid-sized print runs coupled with a wide range of sizes, it is a high-performance all-rounder. Products ranging in size from A7 to A3 can be produced using various customized op-tions, including two-up and three-up pro-duction.

The clearly laid out setup wizard signifi-cantly reduces changeover times in just seven simple steps. As a result, the average setup time for the automated Primera is re-

The Primera E160 saddle stitcher presented at the drupa 2012 is a high-performance all-rounder with up to 16,000 cycles per hour for a wide range of sizes.

At the drupa, the new Presto II saddle stitcher was used to produce a small product in a size of 60 x 93 mm in two-up production.

duced to about six minutes. Connex also lowers production costs. From the Primera E160 presented at drupa, saddle stitched products were transported to the Sitma in-serting machine, which film-wrapped the products also at a speed of 16,000 cycles.

Chinese Printing House Artron and Muller Martini Deepen Cooperation

The New Primera C130 Joins Two PrimaPlus Machines at Uniprint in South Africa

Beijing Shengtong Printing Purchases a Second Primera C130 at the Drupa

The leading Chinese art book printing house Artron and Muller Martini signed an agreement con-cerning a strategic partnership between the two companies and the supply of a Diamant 60

It is 14 years since UniPrint in the South African city of Durban first invested in saddle stitching sys-tems from Muller Martini by pur-chasing two PrimaPlus machines. Like the Acoro A7 perfect binder from Muller Martini, the two sad-dle stitchers are still operating to the satisfaction of Managing Director Colin Baxter-Bruce. “However, we are experiencing good growth in the field of cata-logs, brochures and commercial work, which is why we need a third machine,” he says.

In addition, Uniprint has jobs with runs of more than one mil-lion copies, but it also has many titles with smaller runs of tens of thousands of copies. “That means we need a solution with short setup times,” says Baxter-Bruce.

The Primera C130, for which Uniprint signed a purchase con-tract at the drupa, offers just such a solution thanks to its high de-gree of automation. For that rea-

bookline and a fifth Ventura MC book sewing machine with a ceremony at Muller Martini’s drupa stand.

Artron invested in several Mul-ler Martini solutions over the last 12 months for the production of its high-quality books – two Dia-mant 60 booklines, four Ventura MC book sewing machines, two Acoro A6 perfect binding lines and three gathering machines.

The agreement signed be-tween Artron CEO Jie Wan and Muller Martini CEO Bruno Müller at the drupa covers not only the supply of the two latest ma-chines, but also a strategic part-nership. That includes Muller Martini Hong Kong supporting Artron in the maintenance of its machines, as well as in the re-cruitment and training of ma-chine operators, in line with the MMService package.

Jie Wan (right), CEO Artron, and Bruno Müller, CEO Muller Martini, seal an agreement at drupa concerning a strategic partnership between the two companies, as well as the installation of a Diamant 60 bookline and a Ventura MC book sewing machine.

Jack Jia (center), President and General Manager of Beijing Shengtong Printing, together with (from left) Finn Nielsen (Managing Director of Muller Martini Hong Kong), David Chen (Sales Manager of Muller Martini Hong Kong), Rudolf Müller (Chairman of the Board of Muller Martini) and Bruno Müller (CEO of Muller Martini) at the drupa.

From right: Colin BaxterBruce (Managing Director Uniprint), Gary Terblanche (Production Manager Uniprint), Peter Van Der Walt (Managing Director Thunderbolt Solutions), Wayne Stevens (Sales Director Thunderbolt Solutions) and Jules Dietz (Sales Director Muller Martini) at Muller Martini’s booth at the drupa.

The list of Muller Martini systems installed at Beijing Shengtong Printing within the last decade is long – various press delivery systems, two perfect binders (an Acoro A7 and a Corona C12), two Diamant booklines, several Ventura book sewing machines, and two saddle stitchers (a Tian Ma and a Primera C130). Since the company, which is among the largest Muller Martini customers in China, grew again by 20 per-cent last year, its President and General Manager Jack Jia decided to purchase a second Primera C130 saddle stitcher at the drupa.

Jia gave three main reasons for choosing the Primera C130 again this time: “First, our good experiences with Muller Martini over the years, especially regard-ing service. Second, the quick setup times for our print runs between 20,000 and 100,000 copies. And third, the high size variability.”

News from Muller Martini

For several years before the war, many graphic arts businesses in Iraq relied on solutions from Mul-ler Martini. Now Al Shohada as a start-up company has invested in systems from the Swiss machine manufacturer, since the graphic arts industry in Iraq is once again growing after the changes to its political system.

This full-service prepress, printing house and finishing com-pany was founded under the Iraqi Prime Minister in Baghdad with the objective of providing rela-tives of victims of war with a place to work. The proceeds from the sales of the graphic arts prod-ucts are used to support victims of the war directly.

“Muller Martini has an excel-lent reputation in our country,” says Makki A.M. Al-Kilidar, Depu-ty Manager of Al-Thora Trad. & Printing Serv. Est., which special-

The Recently Founded Al Shohada in Baghdad Invests in Three Systems from Muller Martini

(From left) Elie Hamaty (Sales Manager Muller at Martini representation Middle East Graphics), Alois Hochstrasser (Director Muller Martini Marketing AG), Makki A.M. AlKilidar (Deputy Manager AlThora Trad. & Printing Serv. Est.), Liwaa Al Qadhy (Trading Consultant) and René Thüler (Sales Manager Muller Martini) shake hands at the drupa.


izes in the graphic arts industry in Iraq and provides the machines for Al Shohada, explaining the reason behind the choice for the new systems.

son and on the basis of its part-nership of many years with Muller Martini and the local agency Thunderbolt Solutions, Uniprint did not hesitate to purchase the new saddle stitcher. The new Primera C130 has six flat pile feeders, a cover feeder and a Perfetto compensating stacker.

News from Muller Martini

20 Muller Martini Panorama Fall 2012

When the HPM Group in the northern English town of Newton Aycliffe began softcover produc-tion two years ago, it started with a second-hand Panda perfect binder from Muller Martini. “However, since then we have ex-perienced strong growth in per-fect binding, requiring us to have a high-performance machine,” says Managing Director Richard Mortimer. “Our customers also expect a high level of quality.”

That is why the HPM Group decided at the drupa on a new Pantera with a 12-station gather-ing machine and a Merit S three-knife trimmer from Muller Martini to replace its Panda machine. “We are convinced that perfect binding has great potential,” em-phasizes Director Richard Lister.

The over 100-year-old family company, which has also had a Presto saddle stitcher from Muller Martini in operation for five years now, often produces magazines, (football) programs and bro-

This year three Finnish printing houses in Helsinki, Oulu and Rovaniemi merged to form a new company called Erweko employ-ing a staff of 130. It is now one of the largest sheet-fed offset printing houses in Finland. At the same time an entirely new pro-duction facility was built in Oulu. Erweko is installing two offset and digital printing presses there.

Following the commissioning of a Concept eight years ago at its plant in Freiberg, Vordruck Leit-verlag GmbH Berlin is now to use a printing press solution from

Grupo Nación GN S.A. in Costa Rica’s capital of San José has ex-panded its mailroom capacity by adding two ProLiner newspaper inserting systems and eight Flexi-Roll buffers from Muller Martini. The company, which has relied on Muller Martini systems since 2004, is thereby cementing its position as the leading newspa-per publisher in Central America.

Three of the publisher’s own dailies printed on a KBA Comet with two three-fold web press de-liveries have been finished using Muller Martini systems for eight years. Those are joined by a num-ber of weeklies and advertising materials with heatset covers. The company’s positive experi-ences with the NewsGrip A con-veyors, the four high-perfor-mance NewsStack compensating stackers, the Exacto N rotary trimmer and the MPC control

HPM Group: “We are Convinced that Perfect Binding has Great Potential”

Erweko Binds Offset and Digitally Printed Products Using the New Pantera

Vordruck Leitverlag in Berlin: the Concept is now Followed by a Concepta

At Grupo Nación (Costa Rica) Two ProLiners Play to Tabloid Strengths

Managing Director Richard Mortimer (left) and Director Richard Lister (second from left) of HPM Group together with Bruno Müller (second from right), CEO Muller Martini, and David McGinlay, Sales Manager Muller Martini England, in front of the Pantera perfect binder at Muller Martini’s booth at the drupa.

From left: Mikko Ilomäki (CEO Erweko), Seppo Ursin (Product Manager Muller Martini Finland) and Michael Thüler (member of Muller Martini’s corporate management).

The two new ProLiners at Grupo Nación began production just six months after being ordered.

“That means that we have a suffi-ciently large volume of jobs to be able to invest in a modern perfect binding line,” says CEO Mikko Ilomäki.

Based on the positive experi-ences of the three predecessor companies in the field of saddle stitching, Erweko decided on a solution from Muller Martini. At the drupa the company pur-chased a Pantera for PUR and hotmelt production with a 12-sta-tion gathering machine, an Esprit three-knife trimmer and a Uno compensating stacker. “We spe-cifically wanted a system allow-ing us to finish offset and digitally printed products,” says Ilomäki.

The new Pantera will be chief-ly used to bind magazines and sales catalogs. The upper limit of the print runs is around 40,000 copies, but Erweko also has numerous jobs from 500 copies. “That means that we have to change over the line frequently,” says Ilomäki.

chures with print runs of just 500 copies (up to a maximum of 50,000). “With all these short runs, we naturally need to be able to change jobs quickly, and the Pantera is ideal for that,” says Mortimer.

Muller Martini for the first time at its production facility in Berlin-Hoppegarten. It will chiefly print products for the banking sector (account statements) and the healthcare sector (forms).

Managing Director Wolfgang Stier has several reasons for choosing to use a Muller Martini solution there for the first time.

“First, we have had positive experiences with the Concept, in-stalled in 2004, at our other plant in Freiberg since it delivers stable printing quality and faults rarely occur. Second, the Concepta will bring us numerous benefits such as higher production speed, shorter setup times, greater flexi-bility thanks to the stack delivery unit, and more stable production. In addition, we are also confident that the new Concepta ink foun-tains will deliver improved print results.”

prompted it to turn to Muller Martini again for the expansion of its mailroom capacity.

With the two identical ProLin-ers (main section and preprinted section feeding and six inserting stations) and the eight FlexiRoll buffers, Grupo Nación wants to ensure that all newspapers are fully delivered.

From left: Wolfgang Stier (Managing Director Vordruck Leitverlag GmbH Berlin), Christian Stier (Technology/Product Development Director), Bruno Müller (CEO Muller Martini), Peter Eisemann (Sales Representative Muller Martini) and Volker Röhr (Printing Presses Product Manager at Muller Martini) at Muller Martini’s booth at the drupa.


DC Thomson is Optimally Equipped for the Future with a New MailroomDC Thomson, Scotland’s leading newspaper publisher, is confident about the future of its numerous dailies and weeklies, which is why the family-run publishing and printing house invested in the world’s first CPS Colorliner from Goss at its plant in Dundee. It has eight print towers and a maximum performance of 90,000 copies per hour.

In order to ensure optimal print finishing of the high net output of the new web printing press, DC Thomson decided on a mailroom solution from Muller Martini (as in the past when it used NewsGrip A conveyors and NewsStack stackers downstream of the first Goss web printing press).

Since the new printing press has two folder deliveries, the so-lution consists of two identically configured ProLiner newspaper

inserting systems (which thanks to their modular design can be expanded at a later stage) with automatic pre-printed feeding and three insert stations, a News-Trim fanflex trimmer and a Flexi-Roll buffer with eight rolls.

In order to make the best pos-sible use of the capacity of the printing presses and the mail-room, DC Thomson also invested in a high-performance Tempo E220 saddle stitcher from Muller Martini with an integrated folder feeder for automatic loading from FlexiRoll. The Tempo E220, which is fully integrated into the mail-room, also has a folder feeder for high-gloss covers and an insert flat pile feeder for stitching in ad-ditional advertising supplements.

The all-in-one solution for fold-ing, stitching in inserts, attaching high-gloss covers and cutting provides DC Thomson with maxi-

mum flexibility in the production of semi-commercials.

“Thanks to our investments, we now have a modern, flexible and sustainable production facili-ty,” says Raymond McRobbie, project manager and operations manager at DC Thomson. “Now

we can produce all our daily newspapers in full color. The new solutions play a major part in maintaining high quality and au-tomation, so that we can be con-fident about the future of our newspapers.”

In order to make the best possible use of its mailroom capacity, DC Thomson is investing in two ProLiner newspaper inserting systems and a highperformance Tempo E220 saddle stitcher.

Publiçor, a Portuguese client of Muller Martini, has produced an issue of its weekly newspaper “Terra Nostra” in the ultra-small size of 25 x 18 mm and is hoping to have it entered into the “Guinness World Records”.

Normally “Terra Nostra” is published in Ponta Delgada on

Following the commissioning of a new web printing press, Ober-bayerisches Volksblatt (OVB) in the German town of Rosenheim is relying for the first time on mailroom systems from Muller Martini. The ProLiner coupled with a CoLiner pregathering unit provides great flexibility in the newspaper insertion process.

In Rosenheim, where several advertising journals and a large quantity of commercial work is printed in addition to the daily newspaper “Oberbayerisches

Terra Nostra (Azores): the World’s Smallest Newspaper (25 x 18 mm)

Oberbayerisches Volksblatt: ProLiner Provides Great Flexibility with CoLiner

A small read for a good cause: the mini edition of “Terra Nostra” for the World Day of Social Justice.

The CoLiner pregathering system coupled with the ProLiner newspaper insertion system in the printing house in Rosenheim currently has two stations, but can be easily expanded.

the Azores island of São Miguel in the standard tabloid format. On the occasion of the World Day of Social Justice, the news-paper publisher, which relies on Muller Martini systems in its mail-room, came up with a particular idea. The special issue with nu-merous stories about immigrants

Volksblatt” (print run of 80,000 copies), OVB previously used sys-tems from another provider. Now a NewsGrip-A conveyor ensures the seamless transport of the sec-tions from the printing press to FlexiRoll buffers. This separation of the printing press and print fin-ishing provides OVB with maxi-mum flexibility in the production process.

The inserts are then inserted using a ProLiner for main sec-tions and preprinted sections, eight insert stations and a Co-

to the Azores was also printed in a mini format of 25 x 18 mm.

The proceeds from the world-wide sales of this small newspa-per, for which Publiçor has sub-mitted an application for entry into the “Guinness World Re-cords”, will be donated to charity. “We will donate the proceeds to

the Portuguese Disabled Associa-tion,” says Managing Director José Ernesto Chaves Rezendes. The association in turn will make it possible for a literary work by the vision-impaired author Fran-cisco Quarta to be published.

Liner. The pregathering station has two insert stations, but can be easily expanded to suit chang-ing market requirements.

Using two identical packaging lines, consisting of the News-Stack compensating stacker and the TABA F top sheet feeder, the finished products then travel to the ramp. The entire equipment is controlled by Muller Martini’s Mailroom Production Control (MPC) system.

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The Setup Wizard from Muller Martini is Setting New Standards in Machine Operation

The new Presto II saddle stitcher presented at the drupa 2012 features the renowned and

proven setup wizard that has been used in the Primera line for four years. The wizard easily and

practically guides machine operators through the setup process. Together with the connection

to the intelligent Connex data and process management system, it significantly reduces

setup times on the machines.

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E “Logical, fast, secure” – this is how Manfred Erhard, Head of Print Finishing at B&K Offsetdruck in Ottersweier, Germany (see box below) summarized the advantages of the practical setup wizard designed to guide the users of the saddle stitcher. “The machine doesn’t allow you to make a mistake; it constantly tells the operator what to do.”

“Just Touch the Screen”A great advantage that Frédéric Desenclos, machine operator at the Imprimerie Leclerc in Abbeville, France (also see the article on page 26), appreciates: “I used to have to set up each feeder, one after another,” he recalls. “Today, I am able to do this much easier and faster – all you need to do is just touch the screen, and the machine starts to run.”

According to Erhard, one of the most important advantages of the setup wizard is the fact “that the settings can be saved for repeat jobs. As we produce a number of periodicals, this function is a great help.” Moreover, B&K sometimes interrupts the printing of a large job in order to squeeze in a smaller, urgent one. “The high degree of automation of the saddle stitcher is very useful for us in this respect,” emphasized Erhard.

Short Paths Thanks to the Operating PanelIn addition to the central controls, the numerous human machine interfaces (HMI) with large displays and operation keys are important components that are efficiently

supported by the setup wizard. These provide the machine operator with additional support from the intelligent machine controls.

“These human machine interfaces offer many benefits, as the settings can be made on the fly,” emphasizes company representative Roland Mannschreck. The Technical Director at Bechtle Druck & Service in Esslingen, Germany (see box below) also mentions another advantage: “The many operating panels reduce the distances machine operators have to move, increasing the quality of the end product. The operators can make adjustments faster when they don’t have to be constantly running from one end of the machine to the other.”

New Presto II with Connex and MMRemote

The Presto II saddle stitcher, with a maximum of 9000 cycles per hour, is the entry level saddle stitcher model from Muller Martini, and it can now be incorporated into the Connex data and process management system from Muller Martini (see article on Connex on page 26). The setup wizard processes all the information relevant for production from the JDF file sent via Connex from the Management Information System (MIS). Orders can be sent to the saddle stitcher from the MIS via Connex as a JDF file and production data is transferred to the MIS in real time as JMF messages.

Another new feature of the Presto II is the sequential control of the feeder at the start and stop of production, which reduces production waste, as well as the copy control function. The feed control checks whether a signature has been fed correctly. Feeding to the downstream feeder is stopped in the case of a missing section.

In addition, the Presto II is also fully remotecompatible, which means Muller Martini can connect to the machine at the customers’ site online from the factory and quickly resolve errors via the MMRemote service module.

1 As with the Primera saddle stitcher, the new Presto II saddle stitcher from Muller Martini presented at the drupa 2012 features a setup wizard that significantly reduces setup times.

2 Logical, fast, secure – the practical setup wizard designed to guide users of the saddle stitcher has many advantages (pictured: Thomas Hacke, machine operator at B&K Offsetdruck).

3 The numerous human machine interfaces with large displays and operation keys are efficiently supported by the setup wizard (pictured: Gerd Nusser, machine operator at Bechtle Druck & Service).

4 The optimizer provides information and visualizations of potential ways to optimize the machine, which lead to an increase in production performance as well as a reduction in production waste.


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Helpful IconsWhat’s more, according to Mannschreck, the standardized, languageneutral operating language with the use of icons on the HMI is a great benefit to the machine operators: “For me, this is an important feature, as you can remember each individual step much more easily. Icons are a great help in operating the machines at a quick pace.”

Dieter Keller, Managing Director at Alpa GmbH bookbindery in Geldern, Germany (see article on page 26), agrees: “Icons are definitely better than text.” B&K machine operator Thomas Hacke can also confirm this from his daily experience – even if he also has one small reservation: “It took me for a while to learn what all the symbols mean.” His boss, Erhard, goes even a step further: “The symbols are not selfexplanatory; you have to understand them. They could have used easier symbols.” Only to say in the same breath: “To be honest, I don’t operate the saddle stitcher every day…”

He does, though, point out an important advantage of the setup wizard and the local operating panels: “These allow peripheral machines such as the threeknife trim

Bechtle Druck & Service, Esslingen, Germany

mer and compensating stacker to be set up much quicker. I am a fan of the Robusto machine anyway. Manual setups are a thing of the past, Just enter the data on the operating panel – and voilà: the compensating stacker runs automatically!”

Optimizer: “A Great Tool”Mannschreck calls the optimizer incorporated into the Primera standard controls “a great tool”. This provides information and visualizations of potential ways to optimize the machine, which lead to an increase in production performance as well as a reduction in production waste. “The saddle stitcher quickly reaches optimum production speeds,” says the technical director at Bechtle. “Also as it can be adjusted during operation, production runs faster than if we had to stop the machine each time to set up a job. Production output comes close to our net output on the pallet.” However, Bechtle uses the optimizer reports rather seldom, “as we have our own system for collecting operational data,” says Mannschreck.

The print finishing expert Keller can attest to the fact that a lot has been done to

Founded in 2005 as an independent subsidiary of a newspaper publisher to specialize in commercial work, Bechtle Druck & Service in Esslingen, Germany with its 95 employees prints over 150 periodicals, including many specialinterest titles, as well as numerous product catalogs. The print runs of the newspapers printed for magazine publishers and branded companies range between 10,000 and 30,000 copies – and that means frequent changeovers.

This type of print runs structure along with the positive experiences with the PrimaPlus Amrys was one of main reasons

why Bechtle decided in favor of a new Primera C130 saddle stitcher last year, according to Technical Director and Company Representative Roland Mannschreck. The decision has really paid off for the company, says Mannschreck: “Based on our internal controlling, I receive a list of jobs for which we took 15 percent longer than the calculated time to complete. The Primera shows up on this list less and less often…”

This way, Bechtle has reached its goal of increasing its net output with the new investment. Given the hard price competition and the changing job structure in the graphic arts

industry, this is, according to the technical manager, the order of the day: “We have to produce 33 % more jobs compared to several years ago in order to maintain the same amount of revenue.” The high net output of the Primera C130, featuring

facilitate and accelerate the production processes. He also offered a word of caution: “You have to be careful to not to overstretch it. Muller Martini saddle stitchers have a very high level of automation – I think it is almost at the upper limit.”

Collecting Job Data Easierwith a Signature Measurement DeviceAccording to Bechtle machine operator Gerd Nusser, the automatic signature measurement equipment on the Presto II, Primera and Tempo saddle stitchers from Muller Martini increases productivity. With the ergonomic measurement equipment, the spine length, signature width and product thickness of the product to be stitched are entered into the system by the machine operator who lays the signature onto the limit stop and collects the data by sliding the measuring head.

After each measurement, the millimeter values are automatically shown on the display. They are then accepted or modified and saved. “That is really a very good innovation from Muller Martini,” says Nusser. “This way, collecting job size data becomes much easier, can be completed quickly and

a cover feeder, six flat pile feeders (one of which is tiltable), a highperformance threeknife trimmer from the C140 series and a Robusto compensating stacker, is particularly made possible by the stream feeders that are not used on the Prima


B&K Offsetdruck, Ottersweier, Germany

With print runs of advertising leaflets of up to 25 million copies and several periodicals with circulations between 10,000 and 500,000 copies for customers across Germany and a few other European countries, B&K Offsetdruck in Ottersweier is one of the largest printing houses and bookbinderies in Germany. Over 80 billion A4 pages are printed and 600,000 loose leaf stitches are done every day.

The family company, which was founded in 1969 by Jochen Kalbhenn and has been run by his son Jörn Kalbhenn since 2002, has 208 employees working in three shifts, and specializes in stitchinstitch booklets.

These booklets as well as the rest of the loose leaf stitched products are produced on four saddle stitchers from Muller Martini. In addition to the two

older models, Bravo and PrimaPlus, there are two machines from the latest generation:E a Primera C140 put into op

eration in 2008 and featuring a cover feeder, four flat pile feeders and four stream feeders.

E a Primera E140 in operation since the 4th quarter of 2011 featuring a cover feeder, eight flat pile feeders (four of which are tiltable, as the sheets are often fed by hand), four stream feeders and a Robusto compensating stacker.

The four lines provide B&K with a high level of flexibility. “Which saddle stitcher is used for which job depends on the product, that is, on the number of signatures,” says Manfred Erhard, Head of Print Finishing.

The company decided in favor of both Primera machines after a convincing demonstration with six of their own products at the Muller Martini Training Center in Oftringen,

The new Primera C130 has enabled Bechtle to significantly improve its net output. In the middle: Technical Manager Roland Mannschreck, right machine oper-ator Gerd Nusser, left Peter Stein, Sales Representative at Muller Martini Germany.

not only saves time but facilitates a high level of precision.”

Good Training – the Nuts and BoltsDespite the selfexplanatory setup wizard, Mannschreck believes a good training is still the nuts and bolts of successful machine operation. “We completed the training with six machine operators at our plant directly on the saddle stitcher, under normal production conditions. We benefited from this a great deal, and it is an important factor for the successful installation of the machine.” Leclerc machine operator Desenclos agrees: “I used to know the machines much better, as I always set them up step by step. Today, everything is much more automated – yet of course, I still have to know what exactly is going on in the machine.”

“At Least 10 % Faster”The question remains how much time is saved with saddle stitchers featuring the

Manfred Erhard (left), Head of Print Finishing Department at B&K Offsetdruck, together with the three machine operators Thomas Hacke, Gennarino Chiarelli and Roland Feurer (from left) in front of the new Primera E140 saddle stitcher.

Switzerland. “We often put our two new saddle stitchers to the test by running them at close to maximum speed, and we still have high product quality,” says Erhard.

Plus. “They have significantly increased our productivity,” says Mannschreck. With products with two to four signature parts, we can work at a speed of up to 13,000 cycles per hour.”

setup wizard compared to conventional models. Mannschreck is convinced that “At least 10 percent – maybe even more.” For Alpa Managing Director Keller there is also no doubt: “Everything is much faster with the setup wizard. We can see that clearly whenever we compare our highly automated Primera E140 with the C130.”

www.bechtle-dus.dewww.bk-offset.dewww.mullermartini.com

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Connex Data and Process Management System

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“One Click and the New Job is Running”

The Connex data and process management system from Muller Martini, which was showcased

in full at this year’s drupa, optimizes and automates finishing of both offset and digital printed

products. “Connex saves us a lot of time” is the unanimous verdict of Alpa in Germany and

Leclerc in France, two Primera saddle stitcher customers.

E What were the profitable and unprofit-able jobs for you last year? In view of the tough market environment and the enor-mous price pressure in the graphic arts in-

dustry, it is all the more important for print-ing houses and print finishing companies to know exactly where their added value lies. “As a modular complete solution from

pre-press through printing to print finish-ing, our Connex system provides the re-quired automation and key figures needed by managers,” says Andreas Aplien, Con-

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nex & MPC product manager at Muller Martini.

High Degree of TransparencyFrédéric Leclerc, managing director of Im-primerie Leclerc (see box) in the town of Abbeville in northern France, was con-vinced after attending the drupa 2008, at which Muller Martini first presented its then new data and process management system. “It was clear to us from the start that we wanted to install the Primera E140 exclusively with Connex. For one thing, it further increases the degree of automation of our new saddle stitcher, allowing us to save an enormous amount of time. For an-other thing, Connex gives us a great deal of information about the production process-es.”

The quick display of key figures is also the chief reason why Alfons Ahland, com-

That is also crucial for Alpa, says its op-erations manager Dieter Keller: “Since price increases are simply out of the ques-tion in our industry, process optimization is all the more necessary. Connex can un-doubtedly help us achieve that.”

1 The Primera E140 machines of Alpa GmbH in Geldern (pictured) and Imprimerie Leclerc in Abbeville are connected to the Connex data and process management system.

2 Alfons Ahland (left), company founder, owner and Managing Director of the Alpa bookbindery: “Connex creates a high degree of transparency, both during and after production.” To the right of Alfons Ahland are Operations Manager Dieter Keller, Operations Manager Roland Noy and Muller Martini Germany Sales Represen- tative Michael Oestermann.

3 Frédéric Leclerc (left), Managing Director of Imprimerie Leclerc: “It was clear to us from the start that wanted to install the Primera E140 exclusively with Connex.” Machine operator Frédéric Desenclos (center) and Managing Director of Muller Martini France, Jörg Wieland (right).

More Advantages Thanks to Connex.Info

Muller Martini presented the enhanced Connex.Info for the first time at the dru-pa 2012. In addition to automated data collection from operational data, Con-nex.Info is also capable of providing long-term evaluations. That has several advantages: secure data sources, pre-vention of manipulation, automatic da-ta collection, and no additional person-nel costs.

Connex.Info can now also evaluate production data from the mailroom of newspaper production. That makes it the first comprehensive module capable of processing production data from both worlds of the graphic arts industry on one development platform.

The collected data forms the basis for a subsequent evaluation of the various production runs. The resulting key per-formance indicators (KPIs) form the ba-sis for management by numbers, which is becoming increasingly important.

pany founder, owner and managing direc-tor of the Alpa GmbH bookbindery (see box) in Geldern, Germany, decided to con-nect the Connex system to the Primera C140 and the Primera E140 saddle stitch-ers (commissioned in 2009 and 2010 re-spectively) in 2011 after attending a Muller Martini open house event in the Swiss town of Oftringen. “Connex creates a high degree of transparency, both during and af-ter production. That means you are not de-pendent on snapshot readings.”

Optimized ProcessesIn the current economic climate, optimized production is of particular importance, says Leclerc. “We need to be not only bet-ter, but also faster than the competition. In that respect, a reliable data and process management system gives us an econom-ic edge.”


Connex Data and Process Management System

28

Good Screen OverviewkThe simple design and clearly laid-out screen display of the Connex system con-tributes greatly to its success. “The pie chart in Connex.Info provides a good initial overview,” says Keller. “Detailed informa-tion about the production only comes later, so you are not immediately flooded with data.”

Pre-press specialist Magalie Helleg-ouarch, who is in charge of the interfaces between pre-press, printing and print fin-ishing at Leclerc, also appreciates the sim-ple installation and convenient operation of Connex: “You see all the relevant data im-mediately, which means our operators get very fast feedback from the machines.”

When it comes to feedback, Alpa oper-ations manager Keller highly values the production reviews enabled by Connex. “That is important for many details. For ex-ample, which signature had how many ma-chine stops at which feeder? That can be important in particular for repeat jobs.” Ac-cording to Keller, while Connex “does not

Alpa Bookbindery, Geldern (Germany)

The Alpha bookbindery, which was estab-lished by Alfons Ahland in 1991, employs 57 people and specializes in print finishing (in particular saddle stitching). It has a very diverse job structure, ranging from trade magazines and catalogs to commercial work and inserts. Using a Biliner inserting system from Muller Martini, the inserts are inserted into the company’s own saddle-stitched products or flyers, which in turn are inserted into the daily newspaper Nie-derrhein Nachrichten. The newspaper has a print run of 150,000 copies and on peak days has up to 24 inserts in 150 different zones.

The runs of saddle-stitched print prod-ucts for customers located mainly within 150 kilometers of the plant range very widely from a few hundred to over a million copies. In addition to an older Prima, Alpa uses two saddle stitchers from the new Muller Martini generation – a Primera C140

Alpa’s comprehensive Primera E140 line with a cover folder feeder, four flat pile feeders, a stream feeder for automatic signature infeed, two Robusto compensating stackers and a Solema palletizer.

commissioned in 2009 with two cover fold-er feeders, eight flat pile feeders and a mer-chandise tipper, and a Primera E140 com-missioned in 2010 with a cover folder

replace walking through the factory, it does enable us to react quickly during a job be-cause we always have an overview of the given production process”.

Not Easy to QuantifyIt is not easy to give a precise percentage for the production optimization achieved using Connex, say the two Muller Martini customers in France and Germany. “There is no doubt that we save time,” says Leclerc. “However, it is difficult to express the time saved over a whole day of produc-tion in terms of minutes or a percentage.”

Leclerc does, however, make an inter-esting comparison: “Before the Primera E140, we were using a Bravo S saddle stitcher from Muller Martini. While we needed at least 15 minutes to set up the Bravo S for a new job, with the Primera E140, all it takes is a click of the mouse and the new job is running immediately thanks to the data from Connex.”

Ahland also says it is not easy to accu-rately quantify the higher productivity

achieved with the Connex. “We have a lot of one-off jobs and an extremely variable and wide-ranging job structure even in the case of periodicals. It would probably be easier to give a percentage for repeat jobs, but we have just a few of those.”

Reducing Manual Process StepsYet, it is when there is a broad production range that Connex really comes into its own. According to Aplien, two points are crucial when it comes to keeping produc-tion costs low: “Reducing redundant data entry through the consistent use of exist-ing data for a job throughout the entire work process, as well as reducing manual process steps through automation. With Connex, it is possible to optimally auto-mate Muller Martini systems, from a stand-alone machine to complex production lines.”

According to the workflow expert, intel-ligent process and data management is vi-tal in view of the increasing importance of digital printing. “That is because it is only

feeder, four flat pile feeders, a stream feed-er for automatic signature infeed, two Ro-busto compensating stackers and a Solema palletizer.


Imprimerie Leclerc, Abbeville, France

The family business founded by Georges Leclerc in 1928 and run by his three grand-sons Frédéric, François-Xavier and Laurent Leclerc is a full-service pre-press, printing and print finishing company. The firm, which employs 24 people, prints books, catalogs, brochures and commercial work, but no periodicals, for customers largely from the greater Paris area, but also from the rest of France.

In saddle stitching, runs are between 200 and 100,000 copies, with an average job size of 3000 copies. That means fre-quent changeovers are required. For that reason, Imprimerie has been relying since 2008 on a highly automated Primera E140 from Muller Martini with a cover folder feeder, six flat pile feeders and a Perfetto compensating stacker as the successor model to a Bravo S. “Since then our com-petiveness has been boosted consider-ably,” says Frédéric Leclerc. “Thanks to its stream feeder, the Primera E140 is not on-

Since installing the Primera E140, the competitiveness of Imprimerie Leclerc has been boosted considerably.

ly very fast, but also ensures excellent qual-ity. Moreover, we only need one machine operator for the whole line.”

The managing director says the secret of this traditional company’s success is

possible to produce products directly and cost-effectively in one operation if the en-tire process is completely automated and integrated,” says Aplien. “Here Muller Martini serves as a reliable partner to en-sure the security of investments: whether offset or digital, every business determines the corresponding degree of automation and networking that is required. For that reason, all our solutions are connected to the Connex system so that machines and work processes in print finishing are opti-mally integrated and automated.”

Also Attractive as a Standalone SolutionBoth the Alpa bookbindery and Imprimerie Leclerc have installed the modular Connex, which can be expanded according to the requirements of the customer, as a fully

functional standalone solution without a management information system (MIS). “In 2004, in connection with other elec-tronic data processing applications, we de-veloped a comprehensive job management system for job activation, invoicing and fi-nal costing linked to the time recording sys-tem,” says Ahland. “That system has been continually refined since, but has no inter-face with Connex.” Imprimerie Leclerc, on the other hand, relies exclusively on the Connex system: “To be honest, no MIS has convinced me so far,” laughs Leclerc. “Muller Martini more than satisfies our needs with the Connex system.”

The Connex standalone solution without MIS as used at Alpa and Leclerc is of par-ticular importance to companies that are solely involved in print finishing or firms aiming for gradual entry into digital work-

flow, says Aplien. “The highly automated system keeps personnel costs at a mini-mum, thereby providing a maximum return on investment.”

www.alpa-gmbh.dewww.mullermartini.com

simple: “You need to have new ideas every day, and of course have good machines.”

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Saddle Stitching Systems

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“It is Amazing How Steadily the Stitching Heads Run at High Production Speeds”

E 28 – That’s how many saddle stitchers, more than anywhere else in Europe, are in operation at Merkhofer, a family business that focuses exclusively on print finishing. They were all manufactured by Muller Mar-tini and represent three different machine generations – from the saddle stitcher 300 through the Prima series to Merkhofer’s most recent investment in 2010 and 2011, namely three high-performance Tempo 22 lines.

52 Years Later . . .NThe machines from the first generation are no longer used by the company. Merk-hofer has relied on solutions from Muller Martini since 1960 when, at the age of 16, the current president Bernard Montillot started working at the company run by his father, René Montillot. Merkhofer pur-chased its first model, a JG saddle stitcher, which was the predecessor to the legend-ary JGV, directly from our company’s

founder, Hans Müller. The JG and JGV have long since been replaced by successor models; however the lively head of the company, Bernard Montillot, is still at work every day 52 years after joining the compa-ny. He runs the company, which had grown to 200 employees, with great dedication and enthusiasm together with his two sons, Stefan and Damien, as well as his daughter, Corinne.

1000 Tons – per Day!Every day, 1000 tons of magazines and catalogs – both stitched as well as perfect-ly bound (on three Corona lines from Muller Martini) – are produced at the company’s 20,000 m2 plant. The company fills 30 truckloads every day for delivery of the publications and transport of the finished printed products. The 28 saddle stitchers

Merkhofer in Morangis, France, near Paris, has relied on print

finishing solutions from Muller Martini for 52 years. What

began in 1960 with a JG saddle stitcher continues today with

recent installation of three Tempo 22 high-performance

systems.

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are used for stitching over 2 million prod-ucts per day.

Merkhofer stitches and binds many well-known French periodicals. “Our cus-tomers are important publishing houses and printers from across Europe,” says Montillot. “We benefit from our central lo-cation close to Paris, as all magazines must be dispatched from the capital according to the French distribution rules.”

High-performance and Reliable SystemsIn addition to the 30 million catalogs pro-duced annually, Merkhofer also prints 18 monthly, 12 weekly, 5 bimonthly and 4 quarterly magazines. The most extensive product, a TV magazine that is published nationally with a run of 2.7 million copies and featuring roughly 150 different subti-tles and up to four inserts, is produced non-stop over a three-day period, on 10 to 15 saddle stitchers.

Despite the slight decline in recent years, it still has very high print runs. “We take on orders starting at 50,000 copies”, emphasizes Montillot, making it clear that Merkhofer needs high-performance sys-tems that are reliable in production. That is why, as early as 2000, the independent company, still owned and run by the same family, invested in a Tempo 18 high-perfor-mance saddle stitcher.

value.” All three Tempo lines therefore have an inline inserting system, a compensating stacker, film-wrapping unit and a palletizer. “With our large print runs, it is particularly important that all processes from feeder to pallet are automated,” says Montillot.

1 The head of the company, Bernard Montillot (left), is still at work every day, 52 years after joining the company. Right, machine operator Didier Samalbide, second from left machine operator Daniel Camilo, second from right Sales Director Philippe Michelon of Muller Martini France. 2 Merkhofer produces 1000 tons of magazines and catalogs every day.

3 The three Tempo 22 lines at Merkhofer provide for a consistent product quality with few machine stops.

4 Bernard Montillot runs the independent family company together with his two sons, Stefan and Damien (not pictured) as well as his daughter, Corinne.

Amazed by the Stitching HeadsExactly a decade later came the first Tem-po 22. “I am really surprised by the consis-tently high quality of the products, even at high speeds, and by how few machine stops we experience,” says Montillot, who was particularly impressed by the stitching heads: “I would call myself a specialist in mechanics and could hardly believe how steadily the stitching heads run at such high production speeds.”

Due to the company’s positive experi-ences and because of the large range of pa-per sizes offered by the machine, Montillot decided last year to replace four saddle stitcher 300 machines with two additional Tempo 22 lines. Speaking about the in-creasing number of inserts, Montillot com-ments: “Publishers want to create added

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Double Printing Strengthens its Market Position Considerably with the Primera C110

In order to be able to produce small sizes more efficiently in two-up production, Double Printing

in the Hungarian capital of Budapest commissioned a new Primera C110 saddle stitcher from

Muller Martini at the beginning of this year. In addition to products printed in-house, it is also

used to stitch an increasing number of jobs for other firms.

E Double Printing, with a staff of rough-ly 30, relied on a Prima from Muller Marti-ni for almost a decade and a half. Accord-ing to General Director Gábor Kárpáti, who is in charge of print finishing, there were three main reasons for replacing the sec-ondhand saddle stitcher with a new mod-el. “First, the number of orders has in-creased. Second, quicker changeover times are becoming increasingly impor-tant. And third, we wanted a machine en-abling two-up production.”

Higher ProductivityIn addition to customer magazines, cata-logs and operating instructions with runs of between 500 and several hundred thou-sand copies in A4 and A5 formats, Double Printing also produces many print products in small sizes. The latter were a great chal-lenge using the old Prima. Now, however, they can be stitched in two-up production on the new Primera C110, which features a cover feeder, six flat pile feeders (two of which are tilt-back), center cut and a Prati-

co compensating stacker. “That has in-creased our productivity markedly,” says Kárpáti.

More Contract WorkThe majority of the products stitched using the new Primera C110 are printed by par-ent company Grafit Pencil (Double Printing concentrates on bookbinding) in the same house using three B1 machines – two with four printing units, and the other with two colors and front and back printing. Howev-

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Double Printing Strengthens its Market Position Considerably with the Primera C110

er, the saddle stitcher is also used to stitch magazines that are printed elsewhere. “Word has got around that we can perform jobs for other printing companies flexibly, in variable sizes and with the highest qual-ity,” says Kárpáti. “We had this business in mind when we made the investment and want to develop it further. By having the most advanced saddle stitcher in the Buda-pest metropolitan area, we have strength-ened our position on the market consider-ably.”

Learning during ProductionCustomers that have their printed products printed and stitched by the full-service pro-vider are also located predominantly in the greater Budapest area. In addition to local companies, these include several multina-tional firms that distribute brochures, print-ed in the Hungarian capital in several lan-guages, across Europe.

1 From left: Ernö Horeczki (former Managing Director of Muller Martini Hungary), Gábor Kárpáti (General Director of Double Printing), Gábor Szabó (business partner of Double Printing Kft), Péter Korok (business partner of Double Printing Kft) and Tibor Sándor (new Managing Director of Muller Martini Hungary) in front of the new Primera C110 saddle stitcher at Double Printing in Budapest.

2 Double Printing stitches many small sizes in twoup production using the new Primera C110.

In order to satisfy the high quality expec-tations of such prestigious customers, Double Printing placed great emphasis on the high-quality training of its machine op-erators following installation of the Primera C110. Technicians from Muller Martini Hungary spent a week instructing the team of young operators while production was running.

“This way, our employees became thor-oughly familiarized with the new saddle stitcher under production conditions,” says Kárápati, emphasizing the benefits of on-the-job training. The welcome result was that Double Printing achieved both high production speeds and excellent quality very fast.

www.doubleprinting.hu

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“High Print Finishing Quality Enhances the Content of Print Products”

In the past 44 years, Indian businessman Mr. Mahendra Jain has succeeded in turning

a one-man operation into two publishing establishments with a combined total of

450 employees. He relies on an Acoro A5 perfect binder and more recently also on

a Primera C130 saddle stitcher to ensure the high quality of his niche products

(books helping students prepare for civil services and other competition examinations).

E Often successful companies start out with a brilliant idea. Mahendra Jain, man-aging partner of the firms Upkar Prakashan and Pratiyogita Darpan in the Taj Mahal city of Agra in India’s most populous state Ut-tar Pradesh employing a combined total staff of 450 people, had just such a brain-wave 44 years ago When Jain entered the book shop of his father in 1968, it did not take long for him to realize that there was a lack of books in Hindi helping students to prepare for their examinations.

India’s Second-Largest MagazineJain soon put an end to that shortage. While his first books helping with exam preparation focused on general knowl-edge, an increasing number of specialist topics followed, such as civil services,

banking, defense and railways, after he founded the Upkar Prakashan publishing company in 1970. In order to market the swiftly growing number of titles better, Jain founded his own monthly magazine titled “Pratiyogita Darpan” in 1978. “Prati-yogita Darpan”, which is sold countrywide and is likewise written in India’s national language of Hindi (and also available in English language), is now the second larg-est-read magazine in India with nearly 6 million readers.

Today, Pratiyogita Darpan, which like Upkar Prakashan has grown into a publish-ing enterprise, publishes five different monthly magazines (three in Hindi and two in English). They have all continued to ca-ter to the niche market of examination preparation. What is completely new, how-

ever, is the equipment used to stitch the publications. In the last quarter of 2010, Pratiyogita Darpan, which previously relied on the solutions of other suppliers, ac-quired a brand-new Primera C130 saddle stitcher, the first of that model in India.

Three Objectives“It is important to us that the stitching and binding quality of our products is just as high as that of the content,” stresses Rahul Jain, son of the founder of the company and associate editor at Pratiyogita Darpan. High print finishing quality enhances the content – that is particularly important to well educated people.”

When Pratiyogita Darpan decided on a new saddle stitcher solution in connection with evaluating a 12th printing press, ac-

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cording to Rahul, the company had three main objectives. “First, a reduction in the production time window of our magazine, second, more cost-effective production through higher automation, and third, reli-able systems.”

Since the Muller Martini saddle stitcher meets all three requirements, it did not take long for Pratiyogita Darpan to decide on the Primera C130 with a cover feeder, eight stations, a card gluer/tipper and a Perfetto compensating stacker. For some months, Rahul has been saddle-stitching the five magazine titles in print runs of between 65,000 and 400,000 to his utmost satisfac-tion. “If I had to rate the machine on a scale of one to five, I would give it a 5,” says Ra-hul. “Our machine operators quickly got the hang of it after just a few training ses-sions.”

1 Forty-four years ago, Mahendra Jain (center) had a brainwave. Today he leads two graphic design companies with a combined staff of 450. Left: his nephew Sumit Jain (Chief Operating Officer of Upkar Prakashan); right: Primera machine operator Shashi.

2 Five monthly magazines with print runs of between 65,000 and 400,000 are saddle-stitched on Pratiyogita Darpan’s new Primera C130.

A Publishing Company with 2,100 Own TitlesThe same is also true of the recently com-missioned Acoro A5 with a 16-station gath-ering machine, which is now used to bind 2100 (!) book titles of the Upkar Prakashan publishing enterprise, says Rahul. “The new line meets our expectations perfectly. It provides higher production speed, lower costs, higher quality and quantity and less production waste. The quick Make Ready in particular is also much to our benefit be-cause of our many book titles and average print run of 10,000 copies.”

Mahendra Jain and his son Rahul were originally planning only to invest in a new gathering machine for an old perfect bind-er when they visited the Muller Martini plants in the Swiss towns of Felben (per-fect binding) and Zofingen (saddle stitch-

ing) in 2010. Yet they were so convinced by the machines demonstrated there, that they opted instead for an Acoro/Primera combination – another one of Mahendra Jain’s brilliant ideas leading to a success-ful project.

www.pdgroup.in

3 The publishing company Upkar Prakashan publishes 2,100 titles to help students prepare for examinations. They are all bound on the Acoro A5 from Muller Martini. From left: S. Alam (machine operator), G. Baghel (machine operator), Rahul Jain (Associate editor at Pratiyogita Darpan), Gaurav Bandlish (Sales Manager at Muller Martini India), Devendera Sharma (Printing House Manager at Pratiyogita Darpan).

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Primera C130 and Bravo S: an Ideal Duo for Both Short Runs and Long Runs

Given that new printed products remain just as important while requirements for print finishing

continue to evolve, Consolidated Press in Seattle, Washington has put into operation a Primera

C130 saddle stitcher to go along with its Bravo S, both from Muller Martini.

E Investing in print finishing systems of-ten requires purchasing a completely new printing press. For Consolidated Press in Seattle, this was a 6-color Komori put into operation last year. “Thanks to our new sig-nature machine, we are now able to print superior products including covers, all with the best quality,” says the company’s CEO Gary R. Stone who has owned and operat-

1 CEO Gary R. Stone (middle) and CFO Robert T. Brown (right) have owned Consoli-dated Press since 1999. Left, Greg Wood, Sales Manager at Muller Martini USA.

2 CEO Gary R. Stone: “Thanks to our new signature machine, we are now able to print superior products including jackets with the best quality.”

3 The easy-to-operate Apollo compens-ating stacker reliably processes saddle-stitched products in diagonally-positioned stacks.

ed the company that was founded in 1934 jointly with CFO Robert T. Brown since 1995.

A New Solution for Short Print RunsWorking with new printed products also means new requirements for print finish-ing. 80 percent of the stitched periodicals, brochures, calendars, magazines and

transportation timetables, most of which Consolidated Press produces for custom-ers who are located within 100 miles of its plant, have print run sizes between 1000 and 25,000 copies. The saddle stitcher must be able to handle the various sizes and numbers of pages that these products have. “For the shorter print runs, in partic-ular, we need a new solution that have sig-

4 The new Primera C130 at Consolidated Press is mostly used for short runs thanks to its fast changeover times.

5 Consolidated Press is the only graphic design business in the Greater Seattle area that offers printing and perfect binding (in the picture: Acoro A7) from a single source.

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nificantly lower changeover times,” says Bob Brown.

Simple Production PlanningThat is why Consolidated Press decided in favor of a new Primera C130, which re-placed two older Muller Martini saddle stitchers and complements a Bravo S that was put into operation in 2003. The new machine features six flat pile feeders, a cov-er feeder, a merchandise tipper, inline die cutting for calendars as well as an Apollo compensating stacker. The machine oper-ators have to change over the new saddle stitcher five to six times per day. According to Bob Brown, they can now do this twice as fast as on the Bravo S. That is why Con-solidated Press uses its new Primera 130, which has been in operation since January 2011, mostly for short runs, while products with larger print run sizes are still stitched on the Bravo S. Gary Stone comments that distributing the jobs among the two ma-

tini Rotorbinder that was from the 1960s,” remembers Bob Brown.

Both company executives commented that this investment has completely paid for itself. “The ability to prepare a new job while the previous one is still being pro-duced dramatically improved our produc-tivity. There is also nothing to complain about the quality of the products. Not one single book has been returned in the past four years.”

Better Market PositionThe Acoro A7, designed for both hotmelt and PUR, has significantly improved the company’s position on the market. Consol-idated Press also has a second plant out-side of Seattle without a print finishing system and employs a total of 70 staff members at both production facilities. The company is the only graphic design busi-ness in the Greater Seattle Area that offers printing and perfect binding from a single source. Printing and saddle stitching are in-deed provided by other companies as well.

“However, we are still the only compa-ny in the Northwest that has a Primera in operation,” says Gary Stone with a grin. “That is why we are well-equipped with our machinery and able to guarantee our cus-tomers fast delivery times thanks to a high level of automation and productivity.”

www.consolidatedpress.com

chines has made production planning sig-nificantly easier. “We now know with more certainty that jobs can be completed with-in a pre-determined time frame, enabling us to meet delivery deadlines. “What’s more, thanks to the Primera quality con-trols, we haven’t had one single customer complaint” adds Gary Stone, tapping his finger on the table.

Machine Operators as All-roundersThe fast changeover times and high quali-ty of the printed products is certainly a re-sult of how well trained the machine oper-ators are. The employees operate all the machines at Consolidated Press, including the Acoro A7 perfect binder from Muller Martini, which was put into operation four years ago and features an 18-station gath-ering machine, manual feed and Merit S three-knife trimmer. “At that time we had also bought a new printing press as we needed a replacement for our Muller Mar-

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E Indian weddings typically have be-tween 300 and 1000 guests, and in some cases considerably more. That is big busi-ness not only for event managers and ca-tering services, but also for printing hous-es. After all, guests to all weddings are invited using individually designed and printed cards.

A Great StepLovely Offset Printers, which was founded in 1961, grew by producing such wedding invitation cards. Today the family-run busi-ness employing a staff of 400 still numbers among the top producers of wedding invi-tations in India. However, that has not been its core business for several years. “Twelve years ago, we took a great step in the his-tory of our company,” explains K. Selvaku-mar (Financial Director), K. Vijayakumar


Hardcover Production

38

India’s First Diamant MC 35 Bookline Specializes in Diaries

Lovely Offset Printers in Sivakasi primarily produces diaries on the Diamant MC 35 Bookline

(the first of that model in India). It also makes books with print runs of millions on two Ventura

book sewing machines and the Acoro A5 perfect binder.

(Technical Director) and K. Senthilkumar (Marketing Director), the three sons of the founder C. Kadarkarai of the company.

In order to place the company on a broader footing and enter new areas of business, Lovely Offset began softcover and hardcover production in 2000. “There is an even larger market for books than for wedding invitations,” laughs K. Senthilku-mar.

Growing Together With Muller MartiniFrom the beginning, the company has re-lied on solutions from Muller Martini. After the first Bookline 500 was purchased sec-ondhand in 2004 (and overhauled by Muller Martini), several brand-new machines fol-lowed.E In 2005, a Ventura book sewing ma-

chine with a BDM Compact case maker,

E In 2006, a second VenturaE In 2007, an Acoro A5 perfect binder,

which was later extended with convey-ors and Merit-S in 2009

E In 2009, a Diamant MC 35 Bookline (the first of that model in India) as a replace-ment for the BL 500,

E In 2011, a VPN/PUR nozzle for the Acoro A5 (likewise an Indian premiere) and a Prima saddle stitcher overhauled by Muller Martini.

“Over the course of the years we have become real partners with Muller Martini,” says K. Selvakumar. “We have such great confidence in our suppliers that we didn’t even see a single machine before our in-vestment, neither in a demo center, not at the premises of a customer. We explain what we need and Muller Martini India

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works out the configuration of the equip-ment for us. That method has always worked out and we are very satisfied with all of our machines.”

“Today We Are Setting the Benchmark!” Two factors are always to the fore, accord-ing to the three brothers leading the com-pany: “First, we need industrial and highly automated solutions because we work around the clock during the high season. Second, with every new investment we aim for marked quality improvements. Ear-lier we could keep up in terms of quality. Today we are setting the benchmark!”

The retrofitting of the Acoro A5 with a VPN nozzle for PUR production for exam-ple enabled Lovely Offset to gain numerous new customers within a few months thanks to the quick quality increase, meaning ad-ditional volumes of roughly two million books.

Diaries for CompaniesWhile the wedding invitations are sold solely in India, 70 percent of the softcover and hardcover products go to other coun-tries, predominantly to Africa and the Eu-ropean Union. Lovely Offset also produces hardcover books on the Diamant MC 35, but its core business is diaries, which are often ordered by companies. The print runs

fluctuate between 5000 and 200,000 cop-ies, with an average of 10,000 per job.

Print Runs of Millions in Adhesive BindingOn the other hand, in softcover books pro-duced are solely for publishing companies, such as textbooks, children's books, color-ing books and puzzle books. “The print runs are sometimes in the millions,” says K. Vijayakumar. “However we also have books with a print run of 500 copies, so the quick job changeover time of the Acoro perfect binder is of great benefit to us.”

“With its modern machine line-up, Lovely Offset can look to the future with confidence. “I am sure that we will contin-ue to grow,” says K. Selvakumar. “Howev-er, in the future we will concentrate some-what more on the booming domestic Indian market and other untapped overseas markets.”

www.lovelyoffset.com

1 From right: K. Selvakumar, K. Senthilkumar and K. Vijayakumar, the three sons of the found-er C. Kadarkarai of the company, today lead Lovely Offset Printers. Second from left: P. R. Lakshminarayanan (Managing Director of Muller Martini India), left S. Parthasarathy (Sales Manager of Muller Martini India).

2 Lovely produces softcover books on two Acoro A5 perfect binders in print runs of millions.

3 The core hardcover business of Lovely is diaries, made on India’s first Diamant MC 35.

4 Most of Lovely’s hardcover books are thread-sewn on two Venturas.

5 In addition to magazines, Lovely stitches advertising material and children’s books using the Prima saddle stitcher.

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Hardcover Production

40

fgb in Freiburg: A Diamant MC and two Ventura MCs Ensure High Quality

The book producer fgb from Freiburg, Germany, now specializes in producing high-quality small

and medium-sized print runs at low prices. In order to stand out in producing all types of print

runs, the company recently invested in two new Ventura MC thread sewing machines and a new

Diamant MC Hybrid bookline.

E fgb and its predecessor, Herder-Druck, has been producing books since 1808, from pre-press to binding, all from one source. In 1974, fgb became an indepen-dent company within the Herder Group. With four sheet-fed offset printing presses, including a four-color machine and a five-color machine, fgb has specialized in pro-ducing books in small and medium-sized print runs for years now.

Ready for Use in No TimeIn order to keep up with the latest technol-ogy, the innovative company invested in a digital printing press, new thread sewing machines and a Diamant MC Hybrid. With this bookline, the company can produce print runs of any size at low costs and with the highest level of quality. “We looked at exactly which bookline we wanted to in-vest in,” reports Rolf Kanzler, the book-

binding manager. “The top quality of the Diamant MC convinced us. We hardly waste paper anymore.”

Since the machine was installed, Kanz-ler continues to be convinced in its daily operation. He enthusiastically explains how quickly the machine was ready after installation: “We were producing books with excellent quality only five working days after the Diamant MC was delivered.”

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And this continues to be the case. Since then, nothing but outstanding books has been produced with the Diamant MC.”

Quick Changeoversfgb offers print runs of 30 to 5000 copies to its customers. That means they often have to change formats as quickly as pos-sible. The Diamant MC with its outstand-ingly short changeover times is the ideal machine for carrying out such jobs. Due to its high level of automation, the machine operator no longer has to take care of the machine settings, which are set automati-cally after just a few touches on the screen. Further installations, such as the double lining station, also ensure fast changeover times.

Machine operator Dieter Futterer appre-ciates the clear and user-friendly machine controls of the Diamant MC. What's more, soon after commissioning he was quickly convinced by the tandem station and did not need to see anything else. “On one of

the lining stations, we have a wide lined mill roll, on the other a compact mill roll. That allows us not only to change jobs on the fly, but we no longer have to carry around heavy rolls. The tandem station re-ally simplifies our work,” he reports.

Books and Brochures – Thread-sewn and Perfectly BoundApart from the Diamant MC, two new Ven-tura MC thread sewing machines were al-so installed. What is impressive is how easy it is to operate the machine thanks to its touch screen. “The Ventura MC is so much more comfortable to operate than the old machine,” Angelika Rusevljan, machine operator, exclaims happily. Her colleague, Sandra Bursomanno, adds that the Ventu-ra MC is quite sturdy – even with heavy products.

Apart from the thread sewing for hard-cover and softcover books, fgb also offers perfect binding for books and brochures. The book blocks and brochures are pro-

1 Rolf Kanzler, Bookbinding Manager and Member of the Board, in front of a selection of books produced by fgb.

2 Leo Lenschin (left) and Dieter Futterer (right), machine operators of the two hardcover booklines, together with the Bookbinding Manager Rolf Kanzler in front of the Diamant MC Hybrid.

3 Machine operator Angelika Rusevljan in front the Ventura MC thread sewing machine.

duced on a Bolero perfect binder from Muller Martini. This range of high-quality processing for small print runs works very well for publishing houses. The fact that the prices are also right allows fgb to be able to produce jobs for companies from the Far East.

Roughly a third of its orders are placed to fgb from publishing houses of the Herd-er Group. Given its location in the tri-border area, the Freiburg company maintains good business relations with French and Swiss as well as Austrian companies. An-other third of the print runs come from these countries. The books for customers on both sides of the border have been im-pressive. The awards that fgb has received for the most attractive books both in Ger-many as well as in Switzerland and Austria are testimony to that.

www.fgb.de

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Digital Solutions

42

buch bücher Uses the Diamant MC 35 to Produce Print Runs from 1 to 500 Copies

CPI offers its customers print runs from one-off production up to one million copies.

The books are produced in several different printing plants, with short print runs from one-off

production up to 500 copies completed at buch bücher.de in Birkach, Germany as well

as buch bücher.ch in Pieterlen, Switzerland. Hardcover books are now produced in Birkach

on a Diamant MC 35 machine from Muller Martini.

E Book production using digital printing has long since been in place at buch büch-er. Starting in 1994, the company devel-oped system solutions for publishing hous-es that enabled profitable production and automated warehouse management for short print runs. Individualized books and ultra-short print runs have been produced

and distributed for printing houses since 1999.

A Pioneer in Digitally Printed BooksThe German paperback publisher dtv, for example, has relied on the warehouse management system from buch bücher for reprints with short print runs for many

years. In this system, buch bücher moni-tors the sales and inventory of the books, estimates the demand for the following four weeks, calculates the optimal invento-ry and can schedule a reprint before the in-ventory becomes too low. The publishing house is therefore able to keep certain books in their catalog that are only seldom

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in demand. Above all, academic titles are (re-)printed in ultra-short print runs in Birkach. In addition to publications, photo albums account for a quarter of produc-tion. Customers receive their book with an extremely fast turnaround time. On aver-age, it takes just five days between the or-der and delivery of a book. The company produces well over one million books per year, printed using Indigo and Océ digital printing presses. Production is divided evenly between hardcover and softcover books.

The Right Choicebuch bücher recognized early on that digi-tal printing can be effective for book pro-duction and quickly established itself in this field. In order to continue to complete the increasing number of jobs reliably and cost-effectively, this growing company, a member of the CPI Group, invested in a Diamant MC 35. Five months after com-missioning the new bookline, Production Manager Stefan Wegner is just as con-vinced as he was on the first day that he made the right choice. The overall concept of this bookline with its servo motors im-pressed him from the very beginning, as did the quality of the books from the very first copy.

Several months of production using the machine have confirmed his decision. “Since installing the machine and training the machine operators, the line practically

running the casemaker today. The two of them either take turns on the bookline or work together when larger print runs are being produced. As with all employees, they are able to operate several different machines and are flexible enough to work wherever they are needed.

Highly Motivated and Environmentally FriendlyAll books produced by buch bücher for publishing houses are printed on FSC pa-per. The company’s 1500 m2 photovoltaic installation on the roof of its plant and the fact that its draws its electricity from Green-peace Energy also show its commitment to reducing its impact on the environment. The company’s future-oriented vision can be felt on all levels. Highly motivated em-ployees who take advantage of the chanc-es offered to them exhibit a high sense of responsibility towards the company and can easily identify with it.

According to Stefan Wegner, who had previously worked for other well-known conventional book producers, this compa-ny is a completely different company – one that is fun to work for and that represents the future. He believes that print runs in book production will continue to fall, and is confident that buch bücher is well equipped for such a future.

http://cpibooks.com

1 The small stack of covers shows the range of the print runs produced by buch bücher.

runs by itself. We have produced well over 100,000 books, including print runs of all sizes from 3 to 380 copies.” The industrial printing engineer, who also tested other machines before reaching his decision, points out a series of positive features on the Diamant. These include the joint form-ing and pressing machine, which provides the most beautiful folds and handles books gently during production. He appreciates the adjustment possibilities offered by the casing-in machine, which enables even dif-ficult book blocks to be processed easily. Looking ahead, the option of later expand-ing and converting the Diamant MC 35 in-to a 60-cycle bookline, if the situation calls for it, gives him confidence.

20 to 25 Changeovers per ShiftWegner also highlights the service support provided by Muller Martini. “Regardless of how big or small the matter is, Muller Mar-tini listens to us and quickly offers us a so-lution.” He is also impressed by the quick size changeovers that enable cost-effective production even for ultra-short print runs. “We have 20 to 25 changeovers per shift; this machine allows us to complete these like clockwork,” raves machine operator Felix Lerch, who runs the machine by him-self, from feeding the book blocks to re-moving the finished books. He likes work-ing on the Diamant. “The books can be precisely cased in, and it is simply great to operate the machine.” Christoph Tachel is

2 Production Manager Stefan Wegner predicts a further decrease in print runs and is confident that the company is well equipped for such a future.

3 The two machine operators Felix Lerch and Christoph Tachel as well as Production Manager Stefan Wegner (from left) in front of the new Diamant MC 35 bookline.

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Digital Solutions

44

The Acoro A5 and the Diamant MC 35 Digital Make a Perfect Digital-ready Team

“Digital printing is the future,” says Steven A. Brown, President of CDS. Medford,

Oregon is the site of a state-of-the-art digital center with 18 digital printing presses and two

highly automated Digital Ready finishing systems from Muller Martini.

1 CDS President Steven A. Brown (right), together with Greg Wood, Sales Manager at Muller Martini USA, in front of the Acoro A5 perfect binder at the Medford Digital Center: “Personalization and customization make it possible to target specific customer segments with print products designed specifically for their needs.”

2 CDS’ Acoro A5 makes softcover products with one-off print runs (such as photo books), as well as personalized magazines, catalogs, manuals and textbooks.

3 The Diamant MC 35 Digital effectively binds single copies with varying page counts at speeds previously associated only with conventional binding methods.

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E For Steven A. Brown, President of CDS, a company of Consolidated Graphics, there is no doubt: “Digital printing is the fu-ture. Personalization and customization al-lows educators, publishers, and business-es to target specific customer with print products designed specifically for their needs.”

CDS, founded in 1906, was the first newspaper publisher in Medford. Their off-set facility is supported by a comprehen-sive bindery which includes two Starbind-er perfect binders and several Muller Martini saddle stitchers. In recent years, CDS has invested significantly in digital systems for their expanding digital facility, also located in Medford.

Various products are printed on 18 digi-tal printing presses: twelve HP Indigo 7000 and 7500, three Kodak Nexpress and three Xeikon 5000/6000. “We specialize in sim-ple-to-complex printing solutions for a range of customers in many different in-dustries including education, technology, finance, healthcare, and photo books. We combine digital and analog technologies and provide support to our customers throughout the entire production chain, from pre-press to delivery.”

The Acoro A5 Is Digital Ready . . .For their print finishing needs, CDS relies on systems that are digital ready. The most recent investment is an Acoro A5 perfect binding line from Muller Martini commis-sioned in autumn 2011. It features a man-ual feed station and a Merit S three-knife trimmer. “We’ve used Muller Martini sys-tems for decades,” said Brown. “They are reliable, functional and flexible, with a ser-vice team that responds quickly when needed”.

The Acoro A5 is used for making book blocks for softcover and hardcover prod-ucts with one-off print runs, such as photo books. It also supports personalized mag-azines, catalogs, manuals and textbooks. The Acoro binding solution accommodates

a thickness variance of 1.5 mm, ideal for one-off production. CDS employs a bar-code system throughout the entire process chain, ensuring that each product is matched to the correct case, dust jacket and book block.

. . . As Is the Diamant MC 35 DigitalThe same goes for the Diamant MC 35 Dig-ital bookline, put into operation in autumn of 2010. The Diamant line produces books ranging in sizes from 2 mm thin to large for-mat, including photo books, manuals and catalogs. Integral, full-flap or plastic covers are easily accommodated.

The Diamant MC 35 Digital also allows a thickness variance of 1.5 mm, once again reducing down time for change-overs. When changes are needed, the Diamant servo technology allows the line to contin-ue to run while making the necessary changes. The Diamant is also equipped with a book block/case verification system assuring the correct case is matched to the book block. “With ultra-short runs, only barcodes can effectively ensure that the right cover and content are matched,” em-phasized Steve Brown.

A Special ProjectAs with the Acoro A5, CDS also considered alternatives to the bookline. According to Brown, “What tipped the scales in favor of Muller Martini was that they met all of our quality and product requirements, some-thing the competition was unable to do.”

It is precisely in the production of digi-tally printed hardcover books that the Dia-mant MC Digital offers the highest book quality and efficiency. The Diamant MC Digital, a version of the tried and tested Dia-mant MC, can be changed over sequential-ly and is designed particularly for one-off book production, ideal for photo books.

“The Diamant is an excellent example of how Muller Martini found a way to com-bine modern technology with a proven pro-duction system,” says Brown. “In my opin-

ion, it is the best bookline available to support our customer requirements.”

Expansion to Europe and AsiaAt its Medford Digital Center, CDS can complete 18,000 job orders – every day! Most orders for ultra-short runs are placed online, however no orders are processed directly by CDS. “We work exclusively with other companies on a B2B basis, providing the platform, but never directly engaging the end customer,” emphasized Brown.

Every now and then, there is a conven-tional print job with larger print runs. “It is not true that offset only helps digital print-ing – often it is the other way around,” says Brown with a grin.

Under the company motto, “Global Printing Services, Local Support”, CDS, with 350 employees, is also active in Eu-rope, Asia and South America, with pro-duction facilities in Prague Czech Republic, London England, Gero Japan and Sao Palo Brazil.

www.cdspublications.com

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Printing Presses

46

Changeover Times Reduced by up to 50 Percent

With its new Alprinta 52, the mailings specialist SDV Winter in Weidenberg, Germany has once

again selected a solution from Muller Martini. The significantly shorter changeover times

on the new web offset printing press considerably increase productivity.

1 Specializing in mailings: SDV Winter has tripled its print volume in the past nine years.

2 From right: Benno Putz (Director of Quality Management), Konstantin Nickel (Machine Operator), Company Representative Alfred Wagner (Production Manager), Company Rep-resentative Volker Schuster (Managing Director) and Peter Eisemann (Sales Representative for printing presses at Muller Martini Germany) in front of the new Alprinta 52 at SDV Winter in Weidenberg, Germany.

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E A look in the order books from recent years reveals a few remarkable things: From 2003 to 2012, SDV Winter, which specializes exclusively in mailings, has tri-pled its print volume. “This lends credence to our company,” says company represen-tative and managing director Volker Schus-ter without false modesty.

Rising Customer DemandsIn addition to its 91 motivated employees, this success can be attributed to the com-pany’s high level of flexibility even with ex-tremely short deadlines as well as its attrac-tive range of products for numerous (regular) customers in Germany and in the neighboring German-speaking countries. For example, substrate grammage has continually increased in recent years. “To-day we regularly print on paper with a weight of 250 grams per square meter,” says company representative and produc-tion manager Alfred Wagner.

Of course, short delivery times and in-creasingly higher demands for quality from customers require the necessary machin-ery. That is why SDV Winter, which has be-

longed since 2006 to SDV – Die Medien AG, headquartered in Dresden, Germany, has invested in a new web offset printing press from Muller Martini, an Alprinta 52, to replace its eight-color Progress machine at its plant in Weidenberg. In addition, the company has two Goebel Optiforma Plus machines in operation – one with nine, and the other with eight printing units.

“When evaluating the new machine, we focused our attention on three main points,” says Volker Schuster: “boosting production, reducing changeover times and minimizing production waste.” As part of this evaluation, SDV Winter carried out several successful tests with various types of paper and different print images while at the Muller Martini Training Center in Maul-burg, Germany.

Two Flexo-cassettes for UV CoatingIn addition to the web offset printing units, the new Alprinta 52, which was officially transferred from Fogra Forschungsgesell-schaft Druck e.V. last March, features sev-eral turning stations with which the num-ber of printing units for back side and front side printing can be selected flexibly. As printing mailings today often requires more than eight printing units, SDV Winter de-cided in favor of a ten-color machine. “As we now only have to run production through the machine once, we gain time and have less production waste,” com-ments Benno Putz, Director of Quality Management. “The stable inking systems ensure a higher level of quality.”

The Alprinta 52 features two ‘flexo-cas-settes’, which can be used to convert the offset press units into flexo printing units. “Our customers increasingly demand high-quality mailings with special colors and/or coatings,” says Alfred Wagner. “Thanks to the Alprinta 52, we are now also able to of-fer double-sided UV-coating.”

An essential part of the machine setup that leads to a more diverse range of prod-ucts is the sheeter. In addition to mailings

finished on large rolls produced on the new Alprinta 52, SDV Winter now runs inline production of inserts trimmed to the final format with a QS 52 cross cutter featuring an integrated stacker.

Great Technological InnovationEven if the new printing press represents a significant technological upgrade for SDV Winter and its four machine operators and according to Alfred Wagner it was also necessary to learn the machine controls during the intensive training at Muller Mar-tini’s center in Maulburg as well as by get-ting into a certain routine on site with a lot of ‘learning by doing’ (“we are gradually getting on the right path”), the company has already reached its most important goal: According to Benno Putz, changeover times have been significantly reduced. “Compared to our other two printing press-es, with the Alprinta 52 we can prepare a job by 35 percent, sometimes even up to 50 percent faster.”

Confident for the FutureA significant part of the higher productivi-ty made possible by the Alprinta 52, which features an inline ink control system and prints products in pre-trimmed A4 format due to the narrower webs, is due to cycle speeds of up to 365 meters per minute. “If the jobs allow it, we try to push the ma-chine to its threshold,” says Benno Putz.

For Volker Schuster there is no doubt “that mailings continue to be a growing business.” As we are in an excellent posi-tion both in terms of organization and tech-nology, we expect that our company will continue to grow in the coming years de-spite the competitive environment.”

www.sdv.de

3 The significantly shorter changeover times on the new Alprinta 52 considerably increase productivity (pictured: machine operator Konstantin Nickel).

4 Ideal for the cost-effective production of single sheets: The QS52 cross cutter with integrated stacker enables one-up or two-up production.

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Newspaper Mailroom Systems

48

The World Premiere Has Become a Success Story

“Diario Libre” in the Dominican Republic is the first free newspaper in the world to be delivered

to households free of charge. Three AlphaLiner inserting systems from Muller Martini and

three film-wrapping lines ensure that the two newspaper bundles and up to twelve inserts are

delivered to readers as well as the strategically selected distribution points.

1 “Diario Libre”, the first free newspaper in the world to be delivered to households free of charge, has up to twelve inserts every day.

2 Elius Gómez (Ing.) (left), Production Manager at “Diario Libre”: “The insert business segment has expanded in recent years and has become an important mainstay for our company.” Right: Rafael Vigil from Muller Martini USA.

3 The three AlphaLiner inserting systems provide “Diario Libre” with a high level of flexibility in zoning.

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E At the end of the 1990s, the European media landscape was revolutionized by the success of the emerging free newspapers. Arturo Pellerano, who has long since been linked to the Dominican press industry be-cause his family owned the country’s old-est newspaper (“Listín Diario”), decided to take an adventurous risk.

From Door to DoorHe founded the newspaper “Diario Libre”, the first free newspaper in the world that is distributed directly to households door to door. In other countries, free newspapers triumphed because they were distributed at places with large commuter traffic, in particular at train or bus stations. The pe-culiarities of the Dominican cities made such a distribution system less feasible. The idea of household delivery was a dar-ing one at the beginning, but it turned out to be the key to an unprecedented success.

Who would have thought that this Ca-ribbean island, which with a population of roughly 10 million people an area of 48,000 km2 is only slightly larger than Switzerland, would become the birthplace of a printing and distribution model that serves as an lesson at the largest newspaper trade fairs?

It has been eleven years since “Diario Li-bre”, which is printed in tabloid format, was first distributed to households in the Dominican Republic. Today the circulation has reached 155,000 copies. This makes “Diario Libre” the daily newspaper with the most readers and the largest distribution in the Dominican Republic. In the past two years alone, this pioneer newspaper has in-creased its circulation by 40,000 copies.

50 Percent of Inserts Are Printed In-houseThe fact that “Diario Libre” has become a huge economic success is mostly due to the print finishing of this newspaper, which is published every day except Sundays. Thanks to its editorial quality and its distri-bution strategy, it has become a favorite with both readers and advertisers. The con-tents of “Diario Libre” are presented to readers in one bundle in addition to an ad-vertising bundle, and it contains up to twelve commercial inserts in various sizes, either as individual pages or in the form of brochures with up to 28 pages.

“The insert business segment has grown in recent years,” says Elius Gómez, “and it is in addition to classic newspaper

advertising an important mainstay for our company – also because we print over 50 percent of the inserts ourselves and are therefore able to operate our production systems at full capacity.”

In order to protect the inserts and also because an insert might appear on the front page, the newspaper bundles are wrapped on three film-wrapping machines. “This gives us the certainty that our read-ers receive the newspaper intact,” empha-sizes Gómez.

Three AlphaLiner Inserting Systems, 20 ZonesThe inserts are added to the newspapers by three AlphaLiner inserting systems from Muller Martini. “As we were evaluating different systems, we asked ourselves whether we should install a large inserting system,” says the production manager reflecting on the decision. “However, there were two main reasons why we decided in favor of three smaller machines. First, we can now have a backup system. Second, the three AlphaLiner systems, two of which we operate inline and one offline, provide us with a higher level of flexibility with re-gard to zoning.”

“Diario Libre” is distributed in 20 differ-ent zones every day. The inserts may be printed for the entire print run or they could be distributed in only a few zones selected by the advertisers. “The AlphaLiner sys-tems have proven their worth in this re-spect, as we can optimally prepare the various zones,” Gómez comments with satisfaction.

The mailroom is the key point for the dai-ly production of “Diario Libre”, which be-gins at 1 p.m. with the printing of the ad-vertisement bundles and ends the next morning at 5 a.m. when the film-wrapped newspaper bundles are dispatched for de-livery. “The efficient and accurate print fin-ishing of our newspapers are the nuts and bolts of our production,” emphasizes Gó-mez.

www.diariolibre.com

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MMServices

50

Glasgow to Plymouth in 19 Days

In just 19 days, Muller Martini shipped a complete Bolero perfect binding line from Glasgow

to Plymouth, while also managing to dismantle and completely reassemble the machine in such

a short time frame. Journal and book printer, Latimer Trend & Company Ltd. is now able to

offer highly competitive binding with an exceptional quality product with a wide range of binding

products.

E The short time frame of just over two weeks must surely be a record: Latimer Trend ordered a used Bolero from Muller Martini England, on January 9 of this year, and had it shipped from Glasgow to replace its Monostar perfect binder that had been in operation since 1999. On January 23, the experts at Muller Martini disassembled the Bolero and, within 19 days, transported it 780 kilometers across Great Britain from Scotland to the southern English coast, completely overhauled and cleaned it whilst simultaneously disassembling Lat-imer Trends Monostar binding line – and on February 10th, they pressed the start but-ton.

MM England offered the Bolero line, originally installed by them in 2006, as one of the most highly specified binding lines in the United Kingdom with very low oper-ating hours. In addition to this one of the deciding factors for investing in the Bolero line, according to Finance Director Ian Crocker, was the fact that Muller Martini England as a general contractor was able to complete the entire relocation project in-cluding the overhaul the machine (adding new pressing stations, examining the glue pots, the VPN/PUR nozzles, and the Zenith S three-knife trimmer and introducing new software) in such a short time frame. “Without this professional support, we would have never considered purchasing a second-hand perfect binder,” he said.

Optimal Customer SupportFor Bruno Müller, CEO of Muller Martini, Latimer Trend is a typical example of the in-creasing importance the service business is gaining in the graphic design industry: “With our MMStartup module, we have been contracted by customers to relocate sever-al hundred machines within plants and to refurbish them according to the specific customer needs. We also support custom-

ers who have opted for used Muller Marti-ni machines both in the purchasing pro-cess and during the subsequent installation, reconditioning and commissioning of the equipment. We will continue to increase our activities in this important field, with the declared aim of providing the best sup-port to our many customers worldwide in optimizing their production equipment.”

Training IncludedThe extensive service package for Latimer Trend also included training for two ma-chine operators for the comprehensive Bo-lero line – consisting of a 21-station gath-ering machine, a Universo stacker, book block feeder, a book data center (BDC) and a Zenith S three knife trimmer. One of the operators took part in a one-week training at Muller Martini’s book academy in Fel-ben, Switzerland, which was followed up with training for both operators over a

three-week period on-site working directly on the Bolero line. “As we made a great technological leap from the Monostar to the Bolero, it was particularly important for us to receive targeted training for our per-sonnel,” says Production Director Andy Ogden.

A Fast Make Ready and PURThere were two critical factors that Latim-er Trend was looking to address with this investment. The first of these was the de-clared goal of significantly reducing changeover times for short print runs which the Bolero offers, as well as a signif-icant increase in running speeds. The sec-ond, as just as important factor, was the need to be able to offer its customers a full range of binding products which includes PUR binding, a growing requirement with-in the industry. These were the main rea-sons why the company, founded in 1880

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1 Transported 780 kilometers, completely overhauled and cleaned – Muller Martini England oversaw the entire relocation project of a second-hand Bolero machine from Glasgow to Plymouth.

2 From right: Ian Crocker (Finance Direc-tor), Andy Ogden (Production Director) and Richard Dance (Sales Manager at Muller Martini England) in front of the Bolero at the refurbished plant of Latimer Trend in Plymouth.

3 The Universo packer box delivery as the link between the gathering machine and perfect binder allows Latimer Trend to have an optimal delivery of folded signatures gathered for both automatic and manual finishing.

4 For its saddle stitching projects, Latimer Trend has relied on a Minuteman from Muller Martini for nearly a quarter of a century.

and taken over by Paul Opie, Ian Crocker and Andy Ogden in early 2012, and which has 60 employees, decided in favor of the Bolero. “In addition, the Bolero offers a great advantage with the VPN nozzle, as it enables a simple and fast changeover be-tween the PUR and hotmelt methods,” says Production Director Andy Ogden.

Latimer Trend had made the switch to new machines in all of their book produc-tion processes, except for perfect binding.

“With the Bolero, we have closed that gap,” emphasizes Finance Director Ian Crocker. “Not only have we succeeded in increasing our efficiency with significantly improved make ready times and produc-tion speeds, but we can, more important-ly, now offer our customers a wider range of high quality bound product including perfect bound and PUR bound books.”

www.trends.co.uk

Stand Out from the Competition and Gain Access to New Markets.

The digital printing market is developing at a rapid pace and is opening up new

vistas. With the finishing systems for offset and digital printing from Muller

Martini you can stand out in your market and be provided with new business

models. Our hybrid systems prepare you for tomorrow’s markets and impress

your current clients with their efficiency and flexibility.

Muller Martini – your strong partner.

Fit for future markets.

www.mullermartini.com, Phone +41 (0)62 745 45 75

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