DIGITAL digest
MESNIL SUR L'ESTRÉE, FRANCE—Book printer CPI has claim to two firsts with the HP T300 Inkjet Web digital press at its Firmin-Didot plant. It's the first installation completed in Europe and the first configured only with black, not CMYK, printing units. This seven-figure installation also is notable because it came at a time when CPI was completing a major financial restructuring that was required for the business' continued operation.
During a briefing for analysts and the media arranged by HP, Pierre-Francois Catté, chairman, noted that the book printer is now producing about double the number of individual jobs that it previously did to reach its 500 million annual production total. The downward trend in quantities, combined with CPI's new digital capabilities, gave rise to its slogan—"1 to 1 Million Books."
The company has branded its digital book production capabilities as the "Quantum" system. According to Bernard Kieffer, CPI's technology and supply chain director, a key component of the system is the custom-built Magnum FlexBook unit that receives the printed web, slits it into single-page ribbons and processes those ribbons into bound book blocks.
Kieffer said producing book blocks in-line with the press affords flexibility in the subsequent process of building finished books. That work is done on a Muller Martini Acoro binder in this initial Quantum setup, which is all in one room at the Firmin-Didot plant. The system is said to be able to produce about 2,000 books per hour and requires just three operators.
CPI came up with a business model first, then sought out a platform to enable it, Kieffer noted. Management's goal was achieving a linear cost curve across all run lengths. In practice, the book printer has ended up in a situation akin to other print markets—having to educate its customers to think in terms of the total cost and ROI.
