Open House Touts Book Production

Muller Martini and Nipson America recently hosted an open house at Muller’s headquarters in Hauppauge, N.Y. With the theme “A New Day Dawns for Book Production,” the event included live demonstrations of digital book manufacturing equipment and presentations from on-demand experts.

A complete digital book printing and binding workflow was shown in action, consisting of a Nipson VaryPress 400 duplex digital printing system along with components of the Muller Martini SigmaLine OnDemand solution. The workflow included two Nipson VaryPress 400 digital printers with EMT unwinder, StarCut sheeter/stacker from FME, a Shuttleworth Star Roller conveyor and a SigmaBinder perfect binder, SigmaTower cooling tower and Esprit three-knife trimmer. Perfect-bound books were produced in-line and near-line, with book blocks fed by hand.

SigmaBinder workflow flexibility comes from its built-in measuring station that utilizes laser technology to acquire the dimensions of the incoming book block. The electronic book size data is used to adjust the length, width and thickness settings of the binder. As a result, the machine literally makereadies itself, allowing it to produce up to 1,000 variable-sized perfect-bound books per hour.