Poing/Zofingen, Germany, January 29, 2002 — Oce, a leading provider of digital printing solutions to the graphic arts industry, and Muller Martini, the global market leader in print finishing, signed a letter of intent in November 2001 to define the framework for future co-operation in the area of bookbinding solutions for digital printing presses. Initially agreed for a three-year period, the co-operation will position the two companies as each other’s preferred supplier. The partners will be pooling information and experience so that each player will be in a better position to identify what customers are likely to want in the future and to translate these profiles into exactly the right products and services for market demands. Muller-Martini’s AmigoDigital perfect binder, an inline binding system for digital printing, was unveiled in February 2001 during the Innovation Days hosted by paper processing specialist Hunkeler AG, Switzerland. During the Oce OpenHouse fair in May 2001 and at Print ´01 in Chicago the AmigoDigital was exhibited as a finishing system for the Oce Demandstream 8000. This enables flexible production of high-class books at speeds of up to 4,000 A4 pages per minute. By forging this alliance, the two companies are anticipating the growth in customer demand for seamless, end-to-end workflow. Tighter integration of the printing and bookbinding steps will give customers even better turnkey solutions for digital printing and book finishing.