A Bindery Bonanza at SIU

Rich Bauer, superintendent of Printing and Duplicating Services at Southern Illinois University, kept himself busy in 2012. The in-plant saw an explosion of digital work, variable data jobs and mass mailings, and Bauer had to install the right equipment to keep up with the demand.

Bauer updated his Carbondale, Ill., in-plant with several pieces of new bindery equipment last year, including a Morgana DigiFold Pro creaser/folder, a Morgana CardXtra automatic business card slitter, Xyron 4400 laminator, a second Pitney Bowes DI 950 four-feeder tower with inserter, and a Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS 1250 with in-line finishing features.

"Our workload went up so quick it was easy to justify the purchases to the university," Bauer notes. "The administration is on board with us. We have a great relationship, and that is a big plus."

The Morgana DigiFold Pro creaser/folder was added to help handle orders of short-run brochures. Bauer notes that, previously, the 18-employee in-plant would have to set up its large MBO folder, which is now only used for long-run jobs. Today, orders of 200 to 300 brochures can be easily completed whenever information needs to be updated.

"We have had excellent luck with that little machine," Bauer says of the DigiFold, pointing out that he has been impressed with its creasing capabilities. "It is so efficient and saves us from dealing with cracking. It also has much less waste than a large machine."

Bauer adds that the shop has always done a "ton" of business cards, printed in black and maroon. But the bindery would spend hours cutting them. The new Morgana CardXtra does a "perfect" job he says; all cuts are very consistent.

The Xyron 4400 cold laminator is much more efficient than the shop's old hot laminator, Bauer says. The in-plant uses the Xyron 4400 to laminate signage mounted on foam core for seminars and events on campus. Bauer felt like the shop wasted a lot of materials and ruined some jobs using the hot laminator.

To handle mass mailings, the in-plant added a second Pitney Bowes DI 950. The shop sometimes tackles runs of up to 600,000 letters with multiple inserts and personalization. Bauer notes that he bought the first DI 950 just to test it out, and wanted another to do multiple mailing jobs at the same time.

To end the year, Bauer replaced a Konica Minolta 1050 with a new 1250 in December. The 1250 boasts several finishing options including a multi folding unit, two- and three-hole punch, post inserter, saddle stitch finisher with face trimmer and sheet stapler.

"We had a really busy year, and everything just seemed to click," Bauer concludes.