By Don Piontek | Posted on March 25, 2013
While continuous digital presses are a long way from the (close to) mile-a-minute of paper of the fastest offset web presses, they are closing in on the 1,000 feet-per-minute mark. This is creating an issue for the postpress equipment that accompanies the press. Much of the current crop of post-press unwinders, cutter, sheeters, and web perforation systems top out at around 600 feet-per-minute.
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By Don Piontek | Posted on March 11, 2013
Back in the heyday of high-volume print, the pecking order among bindery manufacturers was fairly well-established. The "heavy-iron" firms in the U.S. had their place, but the renowned German and Swiss firms (like Muller Martini) were rapidly gaining U.S. market share. But as digital print began to gain traction in the new millennium, a curious thing happened. The mainline manufacturers were slow to match their machines to the new realities of the digital space.
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By Don Piontek | Posted on March 04, 2013
It would be fair to say that the combined China-India-Asia print market is now the largest in the world. But the EU firms don't have an easy ride. There are hundreds of local Chinese manufacturers (like JMD Machinery Group) competing fiercely for the business. Still, the bindery is alive and well. It's just that much of it is now in China.
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By Don Piontek | Posted on February 18, 2013
Over the past five years, the "digital" approach has started to make headway against the traditional machines. Laser diecutting is getting both better, and faster, and is being combined with other systems to improve its productivity.
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By Don Piontek | Posted on February 11, 2013
You will see a digital person's eyebrows raise a bit when you explain that a saddle-stitcher or binder in the offset sector can still be running efficiently 10 years (or more) on. But this disparity is about to change.
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