Located in Chicagoland, Triangle Printers Inc. is a nationwide printer, with accounts from coast-to-coast. But a vintage saddle stitching was slowing down the company’s potential for growth. That’s why a year ago, Triangle installed a Presto saddle stitching system from Muller Martini. A six-pocket model with an integrated cover folder/feeder, Triangle’s Presto has equipped the company to extend its full-service capabilities to new levels of productivity. “The Presto replaced a Sheridan-Harris six-pocket machine,” says David Saltzman, vice president at Triangle. “With Presto in our bindery, we’re confident we can handle bigger stitching jobs. Before, if something came in involving more than 25,000 pieces, we’d be pushing the limits of our saddle stitcher. But Presto routinely handles 75,000 run jobs, and we’re confident we can do them on time and on budget.” Presto can collate, stitch and trim books — one-up or two-up — at the rate of 9,000 cycles per hour. It features Programmable Logic Controls (PLC) and easily accessible hand wheels to facilitate rapid makereadies. And its flat pile feeders have been ergonomically designed for fast and easy loading. Saltzman provided a long lost of benefits that accrue from the features: “Presto is much faster, more reliable, and gives us better accuracy. Overall it’s a lot more efficient and predictable than any saddle stitcher we’ve considered.” Training on the machine was handled by Muller, when the Presto was installed last year. Today, Triangle has several operators and helpers who know how to run the system, providing the printer with a high degree of staffing flexibility. With a workforce of 55, a 50,000 sq ft plant, and a long menu of sheetfed products that covers everything from postcards to annual reports, Triangle is firmly ensconced in the high quality, mid-range market. Saltzman believes that the key to attracting new business and maintaining old accounts in the highly competitive niche is customer satisfaction. Presto helps make that a daily reality. “With Presto, we know how fast we can get the job done and we can count on it happening,” he says. “From a manufacturing standpoint, Presto has made our finishing operations more manageable and predictable, and that’s important when you’re working to keep your customers satisfied.” Presto also provides the production flexibility to handle special customer needs. For example, one of Triangle’s repeat projects is a 32-page catalog that ships with a business reply card stitched between its signatures. The Muller Martini stitcher can assemble it all in a single pass. Triangle is also utilizing Presto’s double drop feature. That’s where the same 16-page signature is loaded in two pockets to allow a single operator to run a job by making it easier to keep the machine loaded. The signatures drop at half the speed, alternating between pockets, while the chain runs at the normal rate of production. “On one- and two-pocket jobs, that helps us save on manufacturing and costing,” Saltzman says. The Triangle executive is pleased with the service and support Muller Martini has provided as part of his Presto package, but he’s even more impressed with how the technology is performing: “A lot of times you find there are limitations to equipment after you install it. For instance, you discover it can run only so many hours a day, or maybe it can reach its top speed on only certain jobs. This machine is doing everything they promised it would do. You could say that Presto is fully living up to its billing.”