industry expertise
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Promising signs from Rob Mauritz
I have been attending shows like the recent Print '09 for 25 years and have seen first-hand the movement away from big, heavy metal offset presses and huge binding lines to compact digital presses and fast turn, on-demand binding equipment.
"The traffic is good and most importantly, the decision-makers are here", Tom Welby of Colter & Peterson told me. One of the companies Colter & Peterson represents is Wohlenberg. They had their Quickbinder on display and were running LBS Combined Endsheets. The Quickbinder is a fast change-over perfect binder that can run 2000 books per hour. "Using the combination of the Quickbinder and your endsheet you create a bound book block in just minutes," Tom said. "Then", he continued, "all you need to do is produce a case and case-in, and you have a completed book; and you can do these for one-offs or for longer runs." Jerry Flesher, Flesher Company President, showed the many foil stamping options his company offers through a virtual presentation. "We find at these shows it is best to bring one or two pieces of equipment, such as the Premere, which is perfect for the on-demand market, and show the others online," Jerry said. Frank Richardi, Product Manager for Muller Martini, tracked me down at the show to ask how he could get his hands on some of our Combined Endsheets. A prospect looking at Muller Martini’s new AmigoPUR perfect binder inquired about running the endsheet on the AmigoPUR. I was able to "borrow" some endsheets from the good folks at Duplo, so Frank could complete his demonstration. The combination of the AmigoPUR and the LBS Combined Endsheet met the needs of a prospect that wanted to produce complete book blocks with this new PUR capable perfect binder. Jim Kaeli, Manager of the Book and Publication Binding Division for Muller Martini, reinforced the fact that the short run binding business is gaining considerable momentum. "We had many customer visits inquiring about our soft and hardcover short run and digital binding solutions. The continuing growth and development of inkjet is spurring this interest and our SigmaLine digital book manufacturing technology received considerable attention."
Duplo had a wide assortment of digital print finishing equipment on display such as their slitter/cutter/creaser and perfect binder product lines. As I mentioned, they were also utilizing the combined endsheet for case making showing how you can produce a completed book block off their DPB-500 Perfect Binder. “We had a good There was also talk of other must-attend events. Art Crawley, Senior Sales Manager for Kolbus Another benefit of attending a show like Print '09 are the chance meetings you have in the aisle ways. I ran into a dozen or so friends from the industry, some of whom I hadn't seen in quite a long time. It was a nice opportunity to catch up on their business and views of the market, etc. One such meeting was with Lynn Terhune. All in all, I highly recommend that everyone attend shows such as these. As the economy rebounds, it’s more important than ever to maintain that face to face contact with your customer base and your peers. Besides - you never know what snippet of information you will pick up that could help your company.
“LBS works closely with many equipment manufacturers, learning what materials their customers need to best operate the equipment. This is a true win-win, with the most important person, the customer, getting the right materials matched up with the best equipment for their needs.” ------------------ |
machine and Smasher building-in machine in their booth. "By doing this", John told me, "we allow customers to view a true print and bind operation". When I caught up with him in his own booth, he was excited to show me their latest addition; the Super Sticker. 
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