Wheeling, Ill., - BÖWE BELL + HOWELL (BBH) and CapStone Technologies today announced an expanded strategic partnership to co-market their respective consulting services and products. The agreement leverages innovative technology jointly implemented at a customer site in St. Petersburg, Fla. The site is recognized as the world's most highly automated production mail facility.

"We're very pleased to expand our partnership with CapStone, who shares our commitment to providing customer-focused solutions," said Mark Van Gorp, BBH vice president of business development. "Our relationship will enable us to offer a broader scope of solutions that deliver radical improvements in automation and efficiency." As part of the agreement, BBH will provide sales and post-sales service support for CapStone's patented AutoViri robotic solutions.

"We are excited to partner with BBH and are equally energized by the opportunities for helping mailers exceed their production goals, while achieving an aggressive return on investment," said Tom Moylan, CapStone vice president of business engineering and automation. "Our success in previous projects is proof of the unparalleled and sustainable efficiency we can bring production mailers."

The agreement will enable close collaboration on the design and recommendation of mail-finishing systems, which can include BBH inserting and sorting equipment and production mail software, and the CapStone AutoViri products and automation systems.

AutoViri is a suite of proprietary robotic mailing systems that has the capabilities to tray, sleeve and palletize at the rate of today's high-speed production mail systems. When working at optimal levels, the AutoViri products allow other automated equipment to be increased to maximum capacity by removing bottlenecks. In addition, direct labor deployed on highly repetitive manual functions is reduced and production space can be recaptured and optimized.