MBO America

A “WHATEVER it takes attitude” in the business world may sound cliché, but Philadelphia-based Innovation Printing & Communications has walked the walk—responding to customer needs by adding new equipment, consolidating into a single facility to optimize workflows and increasing its headcount with 20 new employees. From its outset in 1973, Innovation was a boutique shop, specializing in annual reports and other high-end projects. Owners Jeff Jones, president, and Dave Carpenter, vice president of sales and operations, wanted to transform the business away from the seasonal nature of annual report printing into a commercial sheetfed offset and digital printing operation. Jones and Carpenter bought

THE ROLLER coaster twisted from one side of the Muller Martini booth to the other, an improbably long snake piercing the air in an exhibition hall mostly filled with floor-dwelling equipment. This machine was certainly no bottom feeder—more specifically, it was a top feeder, the Topveyor 365 overhead conveyor. At times an overhead conveyor was needed to circumvent the crowds choking the aisles during Graph Expo 2007 in Chicago. But the patron flow was volatile, and there were periods where one could walk down some of the back aisles of the McCormick Place South Hall without bumping into a poster-toting gawker. . .of which

MINNEAPOLIS—Sept. 24—Delphax Technologies Inc., a global provider of high-speed digital printing systems, announced today that it will demonstrate an in-line perfect bound book production system featuring the Delphax CR2200 at MBO Open House Innovation Days Nov. 7-9 in Westampton, N.J. The Delphax CR2200 is the fastest monochrome toner-based digital print system in the world, operating at 500 feet per minute. Advantages of the CR2200 press include improved cycle times, higher productivity and reduced labor. These and other advantages provide lower overall production costs and increased throughput capabilities. The range of production capability also allows CR2200 Book Solution customers to increase the amount of short

WHAT WOULD you give up for a life in the music business? Brent Barnhart unwittingly sacrificed his childhood. Barnhart, chairman of The Barnhart Group in Canton, OH, wasn’t always in the sheetfed printing business, though the firm has been in his family for more than 80 years. At the age of 8, the now 37-year-old Barnhart—even as a child, an accomplished trumpet player—began touring the world with a sundry of evangelists. For the next 20 years, it was an annual diet of 30 weeks on the road and 100-plus cities. He quickly spread his wings by cutting an album every other year beginning at

Stitchers Star at Muller Martini Open House HAUPPAUGE, NY—Nearly three dozen print production businesses, including printing and binding companies of different sizes, recently attended a saddlestitching open house hosted by Muller Martini. The event, entitled “First to the Finish: Leading-Edge Saddlestitching Solutions for Maximum Automation,” was held here at Muller’s Long Island headquarters. Open house attendees viewed live demonstrations of three finishing machines geared toward the middle-performance segment. Demonstrated were a BravoPlus saddlestitcher with AMRYS (Automatic Make-Ready System), a BravoPlus T stitcher with partial AMRYS and a Presto stitcher. During the event, Muller Martini sold a BravoPlus T machine. Visitors not only saw three of Muller Martini’s

Here’s an exclusive, PRE-SHOW PREVIEW showcasing new products submitted by many of the exhibitors that will be displaying their wares next month in Chicago. Colter & Peterson will showcase the BASA 3, which features an automatic jogging system that can automatically form layers of printed sheets, align them accurately and transport them to the subsequent cutting process. The BASA 3 is appropriate for paper from 16-lb. bond to 125-lb. tag, and is effective when combined with a modern, rear-table-feeding system. Existing gripper transport systems can be retrofitted. Visit www.piworld.com/infocenter: enter #377 MBO America will introduce the Super KTZ, featuring a knife-folding unit that

WESTAMPTON, NJ— July 6, 2007 —The Pope’s printer designates MBO K 800 Perfection combination folder, with Navigator controlled fail-safe operation. Special challenge: high print runs and different types of paper. The Vatican printing house has ordered a folding machine from MBO for the first time. The K 800 Perfection combination folder comes with Navigator control including the innovative Vacuknife. This high-tech folder from the leading folding technology specialist will be installed in an environment that is both sophisticated and historically significant. The roots of the so-called “Tipografia Vaticana“ go back as far as the year 1587. Its collection and selection of fonts

WESTAMPTON, NJ­—July 2, 2007­—The MBO K800.2/4 Super-KTZ Perfection combi folder offers the market exclusive MBO enhancements, with the ability to fulfill critical operation requirements for flexibility and fast turnaround at a speed of 8300” per minute. With innovation available only from MBO, the three-knife station of the Super KTZ, including the buckle plate and slitter shafts, pivots 180 0 from left to right and back, without time-consuming change-over. The locking device, developed with precision German-engineering and rock-solid stability, guarantees excellent folding quality in either position. Incorporated with the ability for a multitude of configuration set-ups, Super KTZ easily changes from the left-exit’s traditional

New Diecutter a Plus for Northern Ohio CLEVELAND—After spending upward of $10,000 a month to outsource its diecutting work, Northern Ohio Printing decided to pull those jobs back in-house with the acquisition of a KAMA TS 74-60HF diecutter with foil stamping and embossing features. Gary Chmielewski, president and owner of Northern Ohio Printing, notes the new gear has begun to create a profitable niche market for itself. Thus far, the company has logged more than 40 diecutting, foil stamping and embossing jobs on the KAMA. Northern Ohio specializes in short- to medium-run commercial printing, with runs between 100 and 5,000 pieces for foil stamping and

THE HISTORY behind full-service finishing provider Bindery 1 Inc., of Des Moines, IA, is a tale based on the American Dream. Seeking a land of opportunity, Eric and Lorraine Rokitnicki immigrated from Poland to the United States in 1963. Eric found work at a commercial printer within its folding department, while his wife gained employment as a registered nurse. Eric had a natural knack for folding, and enjoyed the challenges of pushing a machine to its limits with projects that were thought to be impossible to complete. He made the most of his talents and, in 1976, started Bindery 1 with two