Bindery - Finishing

UNT Printing & Distribution has a range of sophisticated offset and digital printing capabilities. Here's a glimpse.

“Cracking was a huge problem for us,” reveals Gordon Rivera, coordinator of Campus Graphics at Allan Hancock College. He would cringe each time a nice four-color brochure came out of the shop’s Xerox DocuColor 250, went through its Challenge SRA3 tabletop folder and emerged with cracked toner on the folds. This wasn’t the professional-looking work Rivera wanted to be handing to customers at the Santa Maria, Calif.-based public community college. 

When Derek Seim transitioned into his role of Printing Service manager at Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) more than a year ago, he had to figure out what the in-plant needed to stay up and running. The Bryan, Texas-based shop installed a Xerox Nuvera 144 to produce more black-and-white work, as well as book covers, in-house. He knew it was then time to focus on overhauling the shop's bindery.

Kevin Drake recalls the days at Cornell University when in-plant employees were using an older Harris bookletmaker to create booklets for campus clients. The process was labor-intensive and the machine needed to be tended the whole time it was running, Drake says.

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.

Always on the move, the On Demand Conference & Exposition will take place in Washington, D.C., next month for the first time. We asked some of the participants what they plan to have on display.

To get the word out about its new MBO buckle folder with a rollaway knife unit, the Document Solutions department at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin created a video showcasing the new folder's capabilities. The video, which the in-plant put on YouTube and on its Web site, focused on the shop's "Three E's"—experience, expertise and equipment.

Though inkjet presses may have stolen some of the thunder, new bindery equipment was everywhere at Graph Expo. The crowds were consistently large in the bindery booths, and vendors were very upbeat about the show.

The University of Texas at Austin produced a video to show off its new MBO buckle folder and tout the in-plant's "Three E's"—experience, expertise and equipment.

Roundup of just a few of the inserting machines on the market for in-plants, plus reports from a couple installations.