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.
The best design reflects the culture of its time. And that's what I love about this invitation for the annual Luminocity Gala 2012, which is known for being a fashion-forward event. Drawing inspiration from the fashion forecast, the designers incorporated trending colors and styles.
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.
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.
As the workloads being assigned to digital continue to grow, the existing "digital" finishing machinery is coming up short. Many (but not all) of the available folders, booklet makers, and binders are a bit light for these higher volumes and compressed production cycles. This has created real opportunity on the finishing end, and a diverse lot of finishing manufacturers are jumping into this space.
Publisher’s of all stripes are after the same goal: an inventory-less workflow in which unique books can be seamlessly printed and bound, one after the other. The capability to do the printing part of that equation is here already.
You may consider it to be part of the general packaging sector, but label printing and finishing require less equipment (in general) than the other markets segments. Your operation may be a better fit for labels than you think.
As the printing industry changes, so too must its dealer network in order to survive. Digital printing systems have now evolved to run 24/7, and at much higher speeds. The existing “digital” binders, stitchers, folders and such were not designed either for these speeds or work volumes.
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.
Digital printing and finishing has clearly transformed the print industry, but it’s also having an equal impact in packaging. A fascinating demonstration at GRAPH EXPO 2012 married a laser diecutter with a short-run folder-gluer to produce small printed cartons.
