Binding and finishing technologies shown at Graph Expo.

By Erik Cagle

In-line Finishing Developments

Advances in in-line finishing were seen at the show, as digital print equipment vendors pushed the message of automation. Canon was demonstrating an Océ VarioPrint 135 with a High Capacity Stacker, which provides an interface for third-party finishing solutions, such as the inline MAX ring binder. Another VarioPrint 135 was shown with an SDD Square Fold Booklet Maker, operating at full production speed with text printed on the spine.

Elsewhere in the booth, an Océ VarioPrint 6320 Ultra Press was printing “War and Peace” on lightweight paper, using a Lasermax Roll Systems DocuSheeter unwinder, cutter and transport system along with MBO folding and delivery systems. Océ also partnered with Standard Finishing Systems to produce a saddle-stitched children’s book and comic book via the Horizon Stitchliner 6000 Digital and Hunkeler CS6-II, working in-line with the Océ ColorStream 3900 inkjet printing system.

Xerox won a Must See ‘Ems award in the Postpress Finishing category this year for its IntegratedPLUS Finishing Solution for Booklets, which allows printers to use both in-line and off-line finishing solutions on a digital press. A Dual-Mode Sheet Feeder (from C.P. Bourg), situated between the printer and booklet maker, can either send sheets directly to the in-line booklet maker, or it can be used to send sheets printed on another machine to that booklet maker.

In the latter case, a job is output to a stack cart and wheeled to the Dual-Mode Sheet Feeder. A hand-held scanner reads bar coded JDF data from a banner sheet that travels with the stack, and the booklet maker is set up automatically. The printer to which the booklet maker is connected can print non-booklet jobs to its stack cart even while the booklet maker is producing booklets from other engines.

Will we ever go back to long-run offset work? Is the variability and one-off flexibility of the digital press turning the old, heavy iron obsolete? If the Obama-Romney rhetoric parade of 2012 taught us anything, it's that the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

One thing is certain. If you plan on catering to both disciplines, it behooves today's in-plant to have finishing capabilities that speak to the needs of conventional and digital printing.

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Graph Expo: Finishing for Hybrid Workflows