Spiel Associates

Santee Cooper is South Carolina's state-owned electric and water utility and the state's largest power producer. The ultimate source of electricity for 2 million South Carolinians, Santee Cooper is dedicated to providing low-cost, reliable and environmentally protective power and water for the benefit of all South Carolina.

To help you pick the perfect binder for your in-plant, and get the best performance out of it, we consulted the folks who know this technology the best.

The move to a digital, on-demand platform was putting T.J. Keesler’s bindery in...well, a bind. Keesler, facility manager at Georgia Correctional Industries (GCI) in Buford, Ga., had to accommodate his customers’ needs for shorter runs and quicker turnaround times. “We just started out digital, on-demand printing about a year ago, and we realized that a lot of our customers wanted coil binding,” Keesler recounts. “We were farming this work out, or we were doing it at a much slower pace with some antiquated equipment and also some hand work. I wanted to automate the process.”

The STERLING® DIGIPUNCH® is a new, economical high speed punch designed for on demand and commercial printers. It will make it’s premiere at Graph Expo 08.

THOUGH MOST of the press conferences and “big news” at Drupa centered on digital printing, innovations in bindery and finishing were no less prevalent. In fact, many of them sprang from the very digital printing trends that overshadowed them. As digital printing speeds have increased, bindery equipment has also gotten faster, with vastly improved automation and simplified touch-screen controls to make them even easier to set up. JDF compatibility is becoming more common in bindery equipment, allowing devices to be preset using production data. Demands for higher-quality printed products have led bindery vendors to improve their paper-handling techniques. Folds look better on the latest

WHILE HARDWARE and software manufacturers have yet to devise a tonic that can cure the hung-over stitcher operator, many aspects of postpress efficiency have been adequately addressed...depending upon whom you ask. Some feel we have made leaps and bounds en route to shortening the after-press process; others believe we’re still being short changed. We’ve asked a group of industry experts their opinion on the progress made in automating postpress processes. Most agree that some areas have been bolstered, but they don’t agree on which areas. “I’d say binding, folding and stitching equipment have drastically improved to the point where we have eliminated a

THERE ARE two sets of attendees walking the show floor at Graph Expo. The first type has done his/her homework, knows all the primary players for a given product, has whittled down the equipment choices to a short list, and is at the show to see the machines in action. This person is on a mission. The second type has been to all the booths offering freebies, has three or four posters, two flash drives, one guitar and assorted other trinkets. For him, this show is a two-day reprieve from work. This tire kicker doesn’t really have an agenda. An educated shopper is the

Selecting a Collator: If there is a big difference in price, there is usually a reason. It is always good to test the equipment on equal footing and speak to owners about what they like or dislike about the system they own and what drove their purchasing decision. —Bob Flinn, director of Business Development, Standard Finishing Systems Consider the reliability of both mechanical and electronic components, the number of years the manufacturer has been in business, the number of years the machine has been manufactured, the average life of the machine. Speak with other end users. If possible, visit a current user and

With on-demand printing making book production easy, in-plants are increasingly upgrading their perfect binders. Here are some of the latest models. By Elise Hacking Book Block Gluing Machine American Binding's Book Block Gluing Machine Type ID 5000 is specifically designed for the production of high-quality gauzed books. The machine is equipped with two glue trays, one for cold glue at the entrance (with infrared drying) and one with hot-melt glue and lateral gluing. Dimensions and processing of the gauze can be electronically adjusted. The ID 5000 handles paper sizes ranging from 3.9x5.9˝ to 11.8x20.5˝ in thicknesses of .11˝ to 3.2˝. www.americanbindingco.com

Xplor joined up with Graphics of the Americas last month to bolster its conference. Did it work? By Bob Neubauer AFTER WATCHING attendance at its conference dwindle since the booming days of the '90s, Xplor International teamed up with the successful Graphics of the Americas (GOA) conference this year, putting on a joint event last month in Miami Beach that drew about 24,500 attendees, according to organizers. The partnership seems to have been a wise move, as it freed Xplor from the task of organizing a trade show, allowing it to concentrate on its educational mission. GOA, in turn, got a host of