KENNESAW, GA, April 28, 2002 -- At ON DEMAND, Heidelberg demonstrated a new product for offline finishing - the Stitchexpert. It is a flexible, high-performance unit for short-run brochures and stitched documents. With a maximum productivity of 4,200 stitched documents per hour, it cost-effectively processes runs of between 500 and 10,000 copies. This product broadens Heidelberg's saddle-stitcher portfolio in the lower speed range. The Stitchexpert offers a range of versatile applications that enable it to produce saddle-stitched brochures, side- and/or top-stitched documents and folded sheets or perform straightforward collation. The Stitchexpert can saddle-stitch a maximum document thickness of 22 sheets (88 pages), and staple up to 55 sheets with grammages of 262.6 grammages per square foot. It processes formats ranging from CD brochures to 20.4 x 13.8 in. sheets. The Stitchexpert consists of collating towers with ten compartments each, a stitching and folding unit with integrated front trim, a conveyor belt and a pile delivery unit for collated documents. All this in a compact design with a small footprint. The system is operated easily by touchscreen via a central input module. Errors are displayed conveniently on the screen. Functions such as the automatic changeover from an empty compartment to another compartment (double capacity) or simultaneous collation and saddle-stitching in the case of multi-tower systems further enhance productivity. Changing brochure formats is easy and fast on the touchscreen and no further conversion is necessary. Up to ten customer-specific jobs can be stored in the system, thus reducing setup times. Delivery of the collated documents takes place on a carriage in the pile delivery unit. This can be pushed with minimum effort ensuring rapid, reliable transport to another processing unit such as an adhesive binder. Quality with every stitch A large number of sensors monitor the production, ensuring that the required document quality is achieved. Empty compartments, full delivery units or missing staples are identified at once and the page counts of the documents monitored. Settings can be changed at the input module. This makes it possible to move the staple position or the cutting edge and, for example, to change the folding roller spacing in order to alter the stacking characteristics. The length of the staples can be adjusted to suit the particular document thickness. Lateral shaking of the documents ensures even alignment. Where images in particular are continued on a second sheet, a clean transition is essential. The documents then only have to be trimmed automatically at the front edge. A suction belt system ensures the paper is not damaged or marked during the transport process.