The Vital Role of Bookletmakers
While they might not always be the most glamorous-looking machinery, bookletmakers play a vital role in the production process.
Having the need for bookletmaking technology is one thing; selecting the right machine for your business is another thing altogether. With such a wide range of options available, how do you know which is the right machine?
Are you being asked to combine pre-collated text with a self-cover, or feed a separate cover that might have been laminated, foiled, or printed on a different device? Customers are being asked to handle jobs with variable data and personalization, and the complexity of some work is now requiring the use of barcode readers in order to guarantee that the right pages are being bound in the right cover.
Morgana Systems (Booth 226) VP of Offline Business, Ray Hillhouse, says that an investment in quality machinery is the most important part of the equation.
“Investing in the right bookletmaking system can be a vital decision. The demand for short-run, high-quality booklets is increasing, so the need to finish reliably to the correct quality level is an essential part of the production flow.
“Being able to produce a wide range of booklets, both in terms of size and thickness of booklet, can be a key choice—that’s why our standard machines can produce up to 140 pages, with the option to go to 200 pages with the BM500.”
Hillhouse adds, “We are also seeing lots of high quality, heavy papers being used in the machines. Bookletmaking equipment needs to be able to handle an ever increasing range of stocks.”
Morgana added barcode reading to the entire range of bookletmakers and feeders—a feature that, before, was only available on the higher-end machinery.
Hillhouse says, “Now, we are taking requests for barcode reading on lower-end models, for a range of applications. The demand for variable page count and personalized booklets is definitely on the increase.”
At PRINT 17, Morgana is launching the VF602 for both production BM2000/BM2000s and BM500/350 automated booklet making systems. The VF602 is a high-capacity, dual bin feeder for loading pre-collated sets from digital print engines. It’s designed for digital applications, and appeals to the type of printer accustomed to digital print engines. These printers are used to loading paper trays on their print engines, and the AF602 follows a similar style for loading.
“The latest version of the VF602 adds a whole new level of automatic paper adjustment. We took lots of direction from the in-line side of the business, where every adjustment needs to be at the touch of a button, and have added it into the VF software. Air, vacuum, and sheet separation are all automated with the stock selection, making it very quick to set up and get into the run,” adds Hillhouse.
The VF602 can be loaded with up to 22" of stock, and when one bin runs out of material the system automatically switches to the next. This means that the system can be loaded on the run. The machine is capable of feeding sets with mixed stock in the set, so for example if a set is produced with a heavier cover, the feeder is smart enough to detect this, and will calibrate the set, including cover, for the run.
It comes with both ultrasonic and optical detectors, so if the set goes out of sequence it will stop production. The two feed bins can also be fitted with barcode readers, which is ideal for production of sets with variable page counts, or for matching sets from one bin to a cover in the other, where covers may have been produced with another printing device, or have been laminated.
