Finishing - Material Handling

At the Xeikon Café, MBO will produce 4-up, 16-page pharmaceutical leaflets on its Digital Pharmaceutical Leaflet Solution.

Coupled with the powerful Sagitta laminator and feeder, Komfi’s Hot Knife technology offers a highly effective way to separate films.

Together with its partners, Heidelberg will demo digitally produced brochures at Hunkeler Innovationdays.

New feeder technology from Heidelberg, the Stahfolder PFX (Pallet Feeder eXtended), has been honored with an InterTech Technology Award from Printing Industries of America. The Stahlfolder PFX Feeder was recognized for its success in extending the proven benefits of the stream feeder technology used in Heidelberg offset presses to the folding department.

The Book Factory System (BFS)—created by two entrepreneurs in The Netherlands—is a mechanical and electrical system for the automatic movement of materials from print to finishing, that can increase efficiency substantially.

Printers have had to contend with an entire universe of substrates since Gutenberg. One of the major challenges has been the very lightweight papers used for financial, pharmaceutical, and legal printed pieces. Printing on these is no joy, as they don't have the tensile strength or body of heavier grades.

It's no secret that the U.S. print and finishing sector has been quite a challenge for vendors over the past five years, or so. Economic conditions and the continuing consolidation of the print industry have completely re-shaped the landscape they were so familiar with.

In order for printers to keep their existing magazine and catalog production contracts, they need to be able to produce such work with minimal manpower. Those in publication printing have to implement every type of automation efficiency that's possible.

As high-speed inkjet printers increasingly displace their offset cousins, roll-handling equipment manufacturers have realized that their units will have to acquire many more talents in order to maximize the digital production workflow. The newer systems can now convert the printed web into “bindery ready” work.

It’s a reality that digital print has enabled very-short-run book production. In fact, the term “book-of-one” has entered the language as a descriptor of the short-run process. Designing a system for producing books of one is no easy task.