Spiel Associates

In today's print-on-demand market, manufacturers are rolling out collators designed for shorter runs. by Chris Bauer The Kansas Department of Transportation's in-plant specializes in really big jobs—to be specific, high-volume 22x36˝ construction documents. Last year the Topeka-based shop output 1,679,100 square feet of these large documents. When it's not handling these projects, though, the 25-employee shop keeps busy printing smaller sized items like training manuals, monthly reports and a KDOT newsletter. To handle these jobs, the in-plant relies heavily on its 30-bin, three-tower C.P. Bourg BST 10 collator. "The best feature on the collator is that it's electronically programmable," notes Bill Crooks, print shop

If the books you print need to lay flat, plastic coil, spiral and double-loop wire binding may be the best choices for you. by Chris Bauer JUST ASK manufacturers of spiral wire or plastic coil binding equipment what advantages their products have over other finishing techniques. You will get a lot of good answers. "Undoubtedly, the greatest advantage of spiral binding is that when opened, the book lays flat," points out David Spiel of Long Island City, N.Y.-based Spiel Associates. "Lay-flat perfect binding was supposed to put an end to mechanical binding, but it hasn't because it doesn't really lay flat. Books bound

By replacing older stitching and binding equipment with new models, in-plants are bringing new business into their shops. by Bob Neubauer It wasn't the automation. It wasn't the ease of use, either. No, the biggest benefit the Heidelberg ST 90 saddle stitcher brought to Minnesota Life Graphic Services was new business, according to manager Tom Neckvatal. "It opened up the doors for us to do work we couldn't do before," he says. With the ST 90, the in-plant could saddle stitch 96-page books, plus covers. This meant jobs like annual reports, catalogs and manuals were now well within the capabilities of the

Print 01 featured numerous innovations in prepress, offset and bindery technologies. Find out all about them in part two of our show report. &002;by Bob Neubauer Walking the show floor at Print 01 was a printer's dream. Presses were churning out color posters, software was being demonstrated on large screens for small crowds, books were being folded, stitched and trimmed—wherever you looked, something was happening. Though the September 11 attacks brought the show to a halt, show management said about 66,300 people attended overall. Vendors reported a number of sales. Heidelberg's NexPress subsidiary sold more than 70 NexPress 2100 presses, part of

In part two of our Graph Expo report, we detail the latest advances in prepress, e-commerce, bindery and consumables. The recent Graph Expo show in Chicago drew more than 45,000 industry professionals to McCormick Place. Last month IPG took you there as we detailed many of the technologies on display, including direct imaging and digital printing innovations. But with nearly 575 exhibitors at the four-day event, we couldn't cover it all in one issue. So this month we're presenting even more Graph Expo highlights. Prepress Group Logic exhibited MassTransit, version 3.6, its high-speed digital file transfer and remote proofing software. MassTransit

Computerization is making cutters easier to use and helping in-plant managers deal with the steady decline in skilled operators. For cutting machines, technological innovation seems to have reached a point past which most further improvements and features seem superfluous. Indeed, today's machines operate about as quickly, efficiently and safely as anyone can reasonably expect. One factor, however, promises to influence the design of these machines for the foreseeable future: The lack of skilled operators to run them. "I haven't yet spoken to a single plant manager who hasn't said it's hard to find skilled help," says David Spiel, vice president of Spiel

What are you looking for in a collator? Find out what manufacturers suggest. WHEN YOU complete a printing job that meets your client's specifications, adding the finishing touches are like putting the icing on a cake. It adds oomph. But when an otherwise beautifully perfect-bound book is botched up with sloppy and seemingly careless stapling and stitching, elegance goes out the door and disappointment comes flying in. Nowhere was this more apparent than during the recent judging of In-Print® 98, the joint In-Plant Graphics/International Publishing Management Association printing contest. The judges, meticulous and discriminating in their approach, eliminated many otherwise beautifully printed

Today's saddle stitchers require a lot less effort to operate and offer much higher productivity. Find out how they can help you keep work in-house. TRENDS COME and go in any industry. But in printing, automation is one trend that has staying power. Take saddle stitchers. Many models boast features like faster makeready, easy operation and quick changeovers for booklet making. Quick set-ups and the ability to handle short runs also provide efficiency. Add user-friendly bells and whistles and production runs even more smoothly. "People that are hired to run the machines are not as skilled as in previous years," points out