Duplo USA

Saddlestitching could be the reliable and inexpensive binding method you have been looking for. Producing booklets used to be a much tougher job for the employees at Northern Arizona University Creative Communications. They had to hand collate sheets, fold them on a Stahl folder, three-way trim them on another unit, and then use a Rosback 201 stitcher to finish them. The alternative was to outsource the work. That all changed when the in-plant purchased a new Duplo DC10000S collator with an inline DBM200 stitch/fold unit and a DC-48TW face trim unit. "Now that we have it in, we are finding so many uses

Printers showed up in force to see the latest in graphic arts technology and learn how E-Commerce might affect their futures. From all reports, Graph Expo 99 was a huge success. According to the Graphic Arts Show Co., which organized the event, 45,217 people took part—including numerous in-plant managers who stopped to chat with In-Plant Graphics' staff at our booth. All told, the show's 622 exhibitors occupied more than 430,000 net square feet of booth space. IPG spent three days walking the show floor at Chicago's McCormick Place, examining the new equipment and talking to the numerous E-Commerce vendors. Here's what

When shopping for a new folding machine, consider your volume, the types of jobs you'll need it for and the unit's ease of use. Speed doesn't always matter. FINISHING IS often the difference between a prize-winning piece and one that is thrown away. Nowhere was this more evident than at the judging for the In-Print 99 contest, where a number of entries were eliminated due to poor folds. If these jobs were not up to par for our judges, then your customers probably took notice too. When looking to bring a new folding machine into your in-plant, think about your volume and what types

Jim Thorne, of The Colonial BancGroup, has doubled the size of his in-plant, brought in new equipment and shown his company he can save it money. Fresh out of the Navy and looking to take an architectural drafting course at Patterson State Technical College, Jim Thorne was disappointed to learn that the class was full. So he took a graphic arts class instead. From taking that class, Thorne says, printing "got in my blood." Thorne worked in various print shops in the Montgomery, Ala., area during the day and took classes at night, earning a degree in graphic arts. He was then hired to

In all the hoopla over print-on-demand, little attention is given to the bindery demands that help realize on-demand's potential. By Marie Ranoia Alonso Obviously, an on-demand printer that relies on digital printing technology must be able to assure customers that deadline-sensitive print jobs will be produced on time. After all, there's little advantage to digital color output if a job cannot be finished quickly. As a result, in-house finishing capabilities are necessary for an on-demand printing operation, which must decide if in-line or off-line finishing, or more commonly a combination of the two, will bolster its digital printing effort with enough postpress power. The

When purchasing a new collator, ask yourself what is best for your shop. is it time for you to start looking for a new collator for your in-plant? If it is, there are several important questions to ask yourself before making a decision. First off, can you afford to purchase the collator that you feel is best for your shop? If it's not in your budget right now, it may be better to wait until you can buy the equipment that you want. This is an investment that should last 10 to 15 years, so make sure you don't purchase an inferior device just

Automation and compatibility with digital printing equipment have revolutionized stitching equipment, making operator involvement almost obsolete. "Automation, automation, automation," declares Rick Trapilo, general manager and executive vice president of C.P. Bourg. This, he says, is the primary trend typifying today's stitching equipment. Since operator skill levels vary greatly, Trapilo says, stitching equipment companies are making significant changes to reduce operator involvement. "Threading a stitch head could be difficult for some operators," Trapilo explains. "We're virtually taking that setup issue out of the equation for an in-plant manager." Some automated features now include self-loading, self-threading and operator warning systems in the event of