The other day, I received an email from a true "legend" in the bookbinding industry. The email informed me, that after 65 years of service, he was finally going to concentrate on more important matters like taking care of his family. The man is the RIT Professor (Emeritus) Werner Rebsamen. And what a storied career the Professor has had.
This is a story that's no doubt been repeated more than once. You're a company with a long and glorious tradition of manufacturing first-class finishing equipment. You've had a terrific run through the 70's, 80's, 90's and into the 21st century. But in the last four years, things have shifted.
The cost for producing a sewn book that's digitally printed, adds a considerable lift to the overall production price. Now there are certain markets, school yearbooks, some wedding albums, and higher-quality hardcovers which demand sewing. And in those one-off segments, price is not such an issue. But for other segments, it's a harder sell.
Many of us over 40 years of age marvel at the digital proficiency of the 20-somethings. We look at the millennials (and those younger) and their desire to be software engineers, programmers, entrepreneurs, video game developers. But, we wonder, who's going to run the saddle stitcher?
In a bid to keep cash flow robust, bindery systems vendors embarked on a campaign to offer extensive maintenance and upgrade services.
We haven't seen the introduction of new perfect binders from major finishing vendors in some time. But the recent Hunkeler Innovationdays event proved to be the perfect venue to introduce some new technology. Both Muller Martini and Meccanotecnica showcased new perfect binders with new technology in Lucerne, Switzerland.
The digital production environment places special needs on manufacturers of traditional offset finishing systems.
It wasn’t very long ago that pundits were declaiming the death of printed books, to be replaced by the glow of millions of e-readers.
The Wohlenberg Quickbinder is entering a crowded, mature field. It will be interesting to see whether the system can make its mark.
I often get calls from printers (and binderies) asking about that "smart" saddle stitcher that they've heard about. There is a substantial difference between a conventional saddle stitcher and the IBIS Smart-binder. I can visualize tiny lights going on in their heads as I explain the Smart-binder's unique technology.
