A few weeks ago, I reported on Muller Martini assuming much of Kolbus' perfect binding and hard-cover systems portfolio. So, I thought I would provide an update. Both firms are giants in the postpress field, with many, many years of history of providing continuous bindery innovation. When you think about it, this was inevitable.
When you properly plan a personalized variable data workflow, you will have integrated software, press, and finishing in a workflow where there is accountability and verification at every step in the process. Which is surely what you will need for success.
Recent surveys indicate that a majority of printing plant spending in 2018 will be on finishing. That makes perfect sense. The number of new products introduced for digital print has been dizzying. Advances in inkjet are enabling this technology to address an ever-wider segment of print. Inkjet is being used for higher-volume runs, as well as longer duty cycles of upwards of one hundred million pages per month.
Now more than ever, printers are investing in technology to automate their shops. Order entry and prepress is being automated with Web-to-print software, new digital presses continue to get more productive, and job information is flowing effortlessly through the system. That drive for automation is now being directed at finishing.
Although some areas of traditional finishing may be experiencing some bumps, there are LOTS of other opportunities open to the creative engineers who build finishing systems. One area is E-Commerce. Although e-commerce is Web-based, fulfilling the actual order requires someone to physically pick, pack, and ship the items.
Printers and trade finishers are always looking for new opportunities and business. One of the most interesting might be the luxury packaging segment. This is a segment that was basically created by Apple with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007.
Many, many years ago there was a children’s book titled “The Little Engine That Could.” Somewhat like the little engine, IBIS Bindery Systems Ltd. was founded in the U.K. in 1999 by a small group of bindery systems engineers. They were the first firm to design a saddle stitching system that was specifically designed to process digitally printed sheets printed on continuous toner or inkjet printers
OK, I digress from my usual finishing tech. discussion this week. Although I’m on the digital finishing side, I spent enough time in the high-volume offset world to become quite familiar with publication, periodical and catalog production.
Don Piontek offers an inside look at the PRINT 17 show floor, sharing some finishing technology highlights that were on display.
With the new generation of finishing systems, connectivity has become a big selling point. Given the shift to shorter runs, machine availability, makeready time, and productivity are all critical to profits. So, accurate metrics have become more important than ever.
