ANDOVER, MA – Standard Finishing Systems will occupy one of the largest spaces on the show floor at Graph Expo in Booth 831 and will once again pack equipment into every square foot to create a complete feeding and finishing experience for its visitors. Standard’s all-inclusive showcase includes die-cutting, perfect binding and trimming, creasing and folding, saddlestitching, inspection systems, and roll-fed print solutions, as well as one world premiere and one North American premiere. The company will unveil an all-in-one smart sheet processing system from Horizon of Japan, and also debut a brand new dynamic perforating and punching module from Hunkeler of Switzerland.  

End-to-End Demonstrations

Standard will produce a comprehensive range of finished products, highlighting the short-run capabilities of individual systems as well as complete end-to-end workflows. Book blocks coming off one system will be perfect bound and trimmed near-line to produce finished books. In another demonstration, pre-printed rolls will be turned into saddlestitched booklets with variable perforations throughout in one single pass. Samples will be creased on one machine and folded near-line on another to create calendars, greeting cards and a variety of other folded output. B2 printed sheets will be processed into 28 full-bleed cut sheets with intelligent accumulation and stacking to create book blocks, which will then be transferred for near-line perfect binding and trimming. “Over 30 original applications have been developed to showcase the interoperability of the equipment,” says David Reny, Executive Vice President, Standard Finishing Systems. “Our goal is to show real-world production efficiency and demonstrate the flexibility of Standard Horizon and Standard Hunkeler solutions. Whether you’re looking for a single finishing system or a complete end-to-end workflow, attendees can experience the full gamut in one booth.” 

New Finishing Capabilities Unveiled in World Premiere

In a first ever showing, Standard will introduce the new Horizon SmartSlitter, an all-in-one smart sheet processing system that can slit, gutter cut, edge trim, cross-cut, perforate, and crease all in one pass. Perforation and creasing can be performed in both horizontal and vertical directions in the same pass. Skip perforation is also available for producing T-perfs and L-perfs which are ideal for coupon and ticket applications as well as business reply cards. The system can deliver multiple up greeting cards with or without creasing, table tents, invitations, and much more with both matrix and rotary creasing. For applications such as accordion folded pieces or perfect bound books, up and down creasing can also be performed in one pass. Standard size business cards can be printed 21-up on a sheet and processed to a receding stacker for easy handling. Designed for both offset and digitally printed output, the system comes equipped with print mark registration to accommodate image shift in both directions. And, in legendary Horizon style, the color touch screen monitor features a simple user interface for easy operation including job setup via barcode. The system accepts sheets up to 14.56” x 26.37” and can deliver finished sheets just under 2” x 2”. At the show, the Horizon SmartSlitter will be producing coupons with multiple perforations, direct mail pieces, business cards, card decks, and photo books for perfect binding.

Also in the cutting arena, Standard Horizon’s RD-4055 Rotary Die Cutter – a Graph Expo 2014 MUST SEE ‘EMS Award Winner – is still turning heads while churning out a variety of unique applications including door hangers, table tents, CD holders, pop-up business cards, stickers, labels, and specialty packaging. The system can die-cut, kiss-cut, crease, perforate, slit, hole punch, and round corner in one process for digital and offset printed sheets, and can achieve up to 6,000 cycles/hour on sheet sizes up to 15.74” x 21.65”. A repeat register function allows multiple-up applications from a single-up die to minimize costs. Two models are available for varying speed, paper size, and stock requirements. Creasing is also available for applications that require additional folding after die-cutting, such as boxes, pocket folders, and greeting cards. 

A North American Debut in Continuous Feeding and Finishing

The new Hunkeler DP8 Dynamic Perforating and Punching module will be part of a Roll-to-Booklet Solution, processing pre-printed rolls into finished booklets with dynamic perforations throughout at speeds up to 600 fpm. The line also features the Hunkeler UW6 Unwinder and CS6-I Cutter in-line to the Horizon StitchLiner 6000 Digital Saddlestitcher, and will be equipped with the Hunkeler WI6 Web Inspection System for full quality and integrity checking and tracking to the finished document. The WI6 can perform a number of quality checks including color tolerance, pattern matching, white space verification, voids, jet-outs, smearing, etc. and errored sheets can be automatically diverted. The Hunkeler DP8 adds dynamic perforation and punching patterns that can vary from sheet to sheet providing additional flexibility for direct mail, transpromo, and transactional applications. The module can perform multiple cross perforations, length perforations, punching and die cutting in a single process. A touch screen editing tool allows fast and easy setups. The system offers customizable, independent processing of two web lanes in 2-up production for highly variable jobs, and supports job storage and automatic retrieval of the proper perforation and punching patterns. This solution is widely used for the production of payment forms, tear-off coupons, mailings and security applications. 

Continuous-feed demonstrations will also include the Standard Hunkeler Roll-to-Stack Solution running up to 500 fpm and delivering straight and fully separated book blocks 3-up from a roll. The line will feature the new and improved Hunkeler LS6 non-stop stacker which easily handles lightweight and glossy paper at full press speed. Book blocks will be transferred for near-line finishing on Horizon perfect binders and trimmers to demonstrate easy set-up and changeovers with single person operation. Additionally, Standard will show a range of applications in partnership with key digital and inkjet print manufacturers including Canon, HP, Ricoh, and Xerox to demonstrate highly integrated feeding and finishing solutions across the show floor.

Taking Bindery Basics to the Next Level

Standard Horizon will also showcase individual solutions for creasing, folding, bookletmaking, saddlestitching, perfect binding, and trimming where innovative features take center stage to provide advanced automation, increased flexibility, and maximum productivity. Three different folders will highlight pharmaceutical and small-format folding, fully automated set-up including gap settings, lightning fast make-ready, and one-pass creasing and folding for digital print. A range of perfect binding solutions will be shown, featuring interchangeable PUR and EVA glue tanks, book-of-one production capabilities, and in-line variable three-knife trimming. A complete bookletmaking system with in-line creasing and bleed trimming will be producing professional quality, three-knife trimmed financial booklets, brochures, and calendars at speeds up to 4,000 booklets/hour. The system features format flexibility including 8.5” x 11” landscape capabilities, ideal for producing landscape brochures, photobooks or calendars. Additionally, a saddlestitching configuration will feature the Standard Horizon StitchLiner in-line with collating towers, producing true saddlestitched booklets with full bleed trimming at speeds up to 11,000 two-up booklets per hour.

Processing B2 Output: Smarter and Simpler

The Standard Horizon SmartStacker will be converting B2-size sheets (20”x29”) into as many as 28 full-bleed cut sheets with intelligent accumulation and stacking. The SmartStacker can be used in-line with the HP Indigo 10000 Digital Press, or offline. B2 output printed on the HP Indigo 10000 Digital Press will be finished on the SmartStacker to produce a variety of greeting cards and blocks of 3 different book titles with fully-automated, JDF-driven changeover between jobs. The system performs up to 7 slits/gutter cuts in one direction and four in the other for full bleed trimming as well as in-line scoring. It also delivers straight or offset stacks, or bypasses directly to additional in-line finishing devices. Book blocks will be finished on a Standard Horizon perfect binder and three-knife trimmer, with all necessary setup data sent from the HP SmartStream Direct2Finish workflow.

Vision Based Inspection Systems

The “VIVA” suite of vision-based inspection systems – custom-designed for document integrity, quality control and verification in production environments – will be shown at Graph Expo too. VIVA cameras for sheet-level and set-level integrity checking will be mounted on the Standard Horizon HOF-400 Sheet Feeder paired with the SPF-200L Bookletmaker. VIVA software will also be checking book block and cover matching on the Standard Horizon BQ-470 Perfect Binder. The VIVA line can be deployed across a broad range of Standard solutions to ensure quality control, integrity, tracking, and complete document reporting.  

Partners Extend the Workflow

Standard’s broad portfolio is supplemented by strategic partnerships that further streamline production and enhance capabilities. Standard will demonstrate Automated Production Tracking (APT) from Ironsides Technology on the roll-fed Horizon StitchLiner Saddlestitching line with Hunkeler DP8 Dynamic Perforator and WI6 Web Inspection System. The APT solution has been fully integrated with the Hunkeler WI6 Web Inspection System for robust track-and-drive capability, flexible report creation and dynamic data exchange with the customer’s host system. Standard is also offering Impostrip^® from Ultimate TechnoGraphics Inc., a powerful imposition automation software tool with Dynamic Templates that lets customers quickly and easily impose jobs with all necessary integrity and control marks for a range of roll-fed and cut-sheet applications, including book impositions for the Hunkeler PF7 Plowfolder, the Horizon Smart Binding line and the Horizon SmartStacker.