Success story
While the print market has seen a tremendous amount of diversification in recent years as companies go in search of new revenue streams, certain services remain a major part of many print-service-providers (PSPs).
One such area is bookletmakers, with demand for booklets and similar materials high across the market. However, with competition for this work also still rife, PSPs are having to find ways to differentiate themselves from the competition.
One way of doing just this is ensuring you are running the best kit to deliver quality work to customers at a quick turnaround rate. Here, we find out about the latest solutions available in the bookletmaking market.
Quality equipment
Morgana is one manufacturer that values the growth opportunities available in the bookletmaking market. Ray Hillhouse, vice president of sales and marketing for the offline business unit at Morgana’s parent company Plockmatic Group, says that selecting the right technology for your business and workload is critical when seeking to create a decent profit.
Morgana has a wide range of bookletmakers on offer
“High-pagination, high-volume products will be required where substantial work with large quantities is being processed; more modest quantities can be produced with our mid-range binders; whilst lay flat training materials or notebooks might be more suited to the twin loop wire style of finish,” Hillhouse says.
“Quality post-press equipment will deliver the style of binding needed with uninterrupted production. It should go without saying that trying to produce a style of finish that the machine was not intended for will only cause headaches to the production staff, as well as issues with the equipment itself. All of this is highly likely to impact margins.”
Highlighting some of the latest options from Morgana, Hillhouse picks out the Morgana PowerSquare 224VF and 160VF, which he bills as “innovative and complete” book-making systems for the production of offline books of up to 224 pages and 160 pages, respectively.
Hillhouse says the addition of the Vacuum Feed dual bin feeding system aids continuous production, ideal for larger run lengths, while each machine has four processes: stitching, folding, spine forming, and trimming.
Also from Morgana, the BM5035 and BM5050 devices can handle larger cut-sheet sizes, A4 landscape and oversize booklets, delivering these applications by handling sheets of up to 620mm in length. The BM5050 and BM3050 can staple and fold up to 50 sheets of 80gsm, to create booklets of up to 200-pages, and can handle 35 sheets to create up to 140-page booklets.
Hillhouse adds that the three core bookletmaking platforms from Morgana – the BM3000 Series, BM5000 Series and PowerSquare products – can be fronted by the vacuum feeding technology in the Morgana VFX vacuum feeder.
“There are several patented innovations in this feeder which provide for consistent feeding on the widest range of stocks,” Hillhouse says, adding: “The Active Process Control sensor is constantly monitoring the sheet position and air float between sheets, and adjusting the air flow when needed to continue consistent reliable feeding – even when feeding mixed media.
“The VFX is a dual bin feeder where up to 5,400 sheets can be loaded across two bins. Automatic bin switching allows one bin to be loaded whilst the feeder continues the run from the other allowing for long uninterrupted runs.”
Profit opportunities
Elsewhere and Dean Stayne, head of sales at Terry Cooper Services (TCS), agrees that there is still profit to be had from bookletmaking, having noted a significant increase in both the bookletmaking and perfect bound books markets over the past 12 months.
“We are working alongside companies that are producing high end digital booklet work,” Stayne says, adding: “Being the sole UK agent for CP Bourg, we have quite a lot to offer our customers when it comes to bookletmaking; we can offer online and offline solutions to suit the customers’ requirements.
“Bookletmaking has changed over the last few years as there are a lot more options to offer such as A4 landscape books, laminated covers and square edge spines. There is still plenty of profit to be made from bookletmaking and one of the main reasons for this is automation. We do often see one operator running two machines at once due to ease of operation and no set up times needed in between changeover of jobs making this very cost effective.”
There is still plenty of profit to be made from bookletmaking and one of the main reasons for this is automation”
With this, Stayne draws attention to the latest bookletmaking machine from TCS in the form of the CP Bourg BME bookletmaker. This fully automatic machine comes with A4 landscape option as standard, while users also benefit from up to four stitching heads.
Terry Cooper Services is the sole UK agent for CP Bourag
The machine does not feature a collating tower, as, with digital print the preferred option to print and produce booklets, CP Bourg opted against adding collating towers to any of its new bookletmakers in favour of a new sheetfeeder.
“The BSF Bourg sheetfeeder can feed the bookletmaker online or offline making this very versatile,” Stayne says, adding: “One offline bookletmaking system will normally sit at the end of two digital print engines such as Xerox, Canon or HP.”
Creative combination
Friedheim International also has a number of bookletmaker solutions on offer and finishing sales specialist Howard Cherry highlights the Hohner HHS Futura in particular. The automated saddle stitching line was first showcased at the Post Press Alliance open days in November 2020.
Available from Friedheim International, the Hohner HHS Futura has six different units
The solution setup includes six different units: stitching unit and trimmer, saddlestitcher, digital finishing mode, fold-stitcher, crossfolding, and a collating tower.
“The Futura can be equipped with any combination of feeding methods making the machine a true all-rounder, able to handle long runs with folded signatures using traditional signature feeders or short runs via the towers,” Cherry says.
The stitching unit and trimmer allows for A3 final format and B4 when feeding from the towers, with optimum trimming quality. It can stitch at thicknesses up to 5mm and allows for five different alternatives and combinable feeding systems, all of which are modular and expandable.
The saddlestitcher is a tool-less feature, offering users the choice of four different feeders, including a cover feeder, horizontal feeder, vertical feeder and compact plano sheet feeder, all of which can be combined if required.
A digital finishing mode allows the line to handle either printed web or sheets. Depending on the requirements of the project, production can be started with a buckle folder from sheets or with an unwinder and sheeter from a printed web via a Hunkeler system.
The fold-stitcher HHS Futura FS9 saves users a significant amount of time due to the integrated pre-process of the folding for a sheet length of up to 1,300mm and width of 520mm.
The crossfolding mode, in the current layout offered by MBO Postpress Solutions with the K70, widens the capability range of the Futura to folded products by a fold in a B1 format / 70cm x 100cm-like signatures fed directly into the feeders on the Futura for medium and high print run lengths.
Finally, the collating tower has an infeed width of 364mm and a sheet length of 610mm, giving users the ability to run small-format of 160mm x 120mm and a landscape format of 267mm x 610mm. The tower is offered with six and eight paper bins and is designed for a wide range of paper weights for both the content and the cover.
Skilled work
Elsewhere in the market and Duplo also has a number of bookletmaking options. Rob Thurston, head of sales in the UK at Duplo, says booklet production is still one of the most prevalent print jobs in the UK industry, as everyone needs them.
“In today’s market, the booklet production runs are getting smaller and smaller and becoming more targeted,” Thurston says, adding: “Professionally finishing booklets is still a skill and you need the right high quality machines to do a good job, because doing a bad job is easy to do, and even easier to spot – even for those who are not print professionals. With the Duplo bookletmaker range, our automation lends itself to these market conditions.”
With this, Thurston draws attention to Duplo’s latest solution in the form of the iSaddle 5.0, its new flagship machine launched in November. Thurston says this is a traditional saddle stitcher with the versatility for flexibility, speed, short runs and job changes.
Duplo says its new flagship Saddle 5.0 is a traditional saddle stitcher with the versatility for flexibility, speed, short runs and job changes
“Designed with today’s problems in mind, the iSaddle 5.0 has faster make readies with a wider range of jobs, produced in less time. It provides the convenience of production from a flat sheet, combined with features to produce a wide range of profitable applications, allowing users to differentiate themselves from the competition,” Thurston says.
Duplo also offers an entry level model in the 150 Booklet Maker, available with intelligent towers or digital sheet feeder, while it also has the ability to be completely automated with Duplo’s PC controller.
In addition, the 350 Booklet Maker range has options for either digital or light commercial print runs, while the top-of-the-range 600 Booklet Maker is a high production bookletmaker that Thurston says can deliver high quality jobs at both high and low volumes, while the Duetto system means it can be run for both litho and digital print runs.
O Factoid: Booklets, also referred to as pamphlets, have been used to spread information for centuries O
“It’s built for the commercial landscape, and Duplo’s automation allows printers to meet the demands of increasing print runs at shorter run length,” Thurston says.
Booklets continue to be a staple part of production for many print companies around the UK, and indeed the world, and with new products coming to market on a regular basis, there are plenty of ways for businesses to improve output and bolster production.
Operating efficiently
MDT Print & Design in Telford recently installed a KF640 bookletmaker/squarefold and trimmer system from Ashgate.
The KF640 is the first bookletmaker of its size and price to produce a maximum booklet of 320mm x 320mm and more common sizes such as A4 landscape and 12” x 12” booklets.
Gary Steinert, head of design at MDT, comments: “The addition of the square fold in-line unit, which sits between the bookletmaker and the trimmer is an efficient way to produce a perfect bound appearance with the security of a stapled finish.
“We have just completed an order for books for a university and are very pleased with the result.”
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