Digital Print Center Gets Finishing Touch

Faith-based book publisher RBC Ministries was spending too much time and money outsourcing soft-cover books. So in October, the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based company christened a brand new digital print center, equipped with a pair of HP Indigo presses, to bring production of soft-cover books in-house.

Finishing those jobs is a new Standard Horizon BQ-470 perfect binder and HT-80 three-knife trimmer, both networked with the pXnet Bindery Management System. A Kluge machine handles embossing and foil stamping.

"We were having a problem with a growing inventory, and the decision was made to do these books on-demand," explains Director of Print Operations Kendell Martin. "It has been a really good solution for us. We ended up insourcing all of that work back to our in-plant, and now we can do all of our book work internally."

In December, the start-up digital department produced more than 70,000 soft-cover books. Martin plans to soon get the department's volume up to the 100,000-books-per-month mark. The digital print center is a three-shift operation manned by newly hired employees and workers from other parts of the in-plant.

"Our book sales are doing very well, so that puts a bit more demand on the department, but that is a good thing," Martin notes.

The in-plant employees had no prior digital printing experience, so Martin wanted to equip the digital print center with affordable and easy-to-use devices. The Standard Horizon perfect binding system was a good fit for the operation, he says.

"We purposely waited for the newly released HT-80 unit to become available because of the added enhancements," he adds. "The ST-70, its predecessor, is a good unit, but the HT-80's automation and JDF compatibility were especially appealing to us."

The in-plant employees required minimal training on how to use the new bindery equipment because of the simple user interface, Martin points out. The shop can quickly handle changeovers between book sizes, and Martin has been impressed by the scoring and gluing quality.

The binder and three-knife trimmer's icon-based color touchscreens provide automated setup, with programmable memory for up to 200 different jobs. On the HT-80, stepper motors position all guides and clamps to ensure quality cutting at speeds up to 1,000 cycles per hour.

The PXnet management system allows operators to send jobs electronically to the bindery machines and then reports back operational information, such as number of cycles and the time it took to complete the job, Martin says.

Next up for the digital print center is a UV laminator and coater and a Standard Horizon StitchLiner 5500 to handle short-run stitch and trim work, Martin reveals.

RBC Ministries employs 70 people at its in-plant facility, providing services including printing, binding, warehousing and fulfillment, all geared towards fulfilling the parent company's mission of making the Bible understandable and accessible.