March 13, 2002 -- Short throughput times and shorter runs make digital printing particularly attractive both for short color runs and print on demand. Short runs of quality brochures, preliminary runs of annual reports, manuals or studies can be produced rapidly and at a reasonable cost. Intelligent finishing solutions designed with short runs in mind ensure real added value both for the printer and the print product buyer. This requires applications specially designed for runs up to approx. 1000 copies. The Bindexpert adhesive binder from Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) is ideal for fast and flexible finishing. It has two exchangeable glue pans for dispersion adhesive or quick-drying hot glue and combines simple operation with short setup times. Dispersion adhesive is ideal for digital color printing with the NexPress 2100 because of the paper types it uses. Bindexpert has a speed of 300 cycles per hour. Formats from A6+ to A3+ and all sizes in between can be processed. Simple, rapid changeover to different binding formats makes the Bindexpert the perfect choice for printing short runs. The machine has an extractor unit for paper dust and trimmings. Bindexpert supports a maximum binding length of 430 mm and a book thickness of max. 40 mm. The choice of cold glue or dispersion adhesive and the notching or routing of the spine make Bindexpert flexible in terms of possible applications. Nearly all paper types, coated, uncoated, or even laminated can be adhesive bound using Bindexpert. The main technical attractions of an adhesive-bound book for customers include the fact that the pages are firmly fixed and do not tear out easily and that the finished product is compact and appealing to look at. The core market segments for adhesive-bound books in digital printing consist of traditional printshops (commercial printers) on the one hand and in-house print departments on the other. A look at the regional markets shows that a great deal more books are adhesive bound in Europe than on the North American market. Heidelberg is exhibiting Bindexpert as a nearline finishing solution for the NexPress 2100 at Stand 6 A2, Hall 1 at CeBIT in Hanover. The NexPress will be used to print the Photographers Lookbook which will then be finished by Bindexpert to produce a high-quality, colorful sample book for the NexPress. However, Bindexpert is not just designed for use with digital color printing. In the small offset sector, too, print products such as advertising catalogs or product brochures can be produced with e.g. Heidelberg's Quickmaster DI 46 Pro and may be finished with a high-quality adhesive binding for run sizes of up to around 1000. "Bindexpert illustrates particularly well the wide range of applications of intelligent nearline solutions. Because of its flexibility in terms of the glue and paper types used, the product is excellent for printshops which are on the way to becoming media service providers and therefore often have offset and digital printing systems running in parallel," explains Dr. Jürgen Rautert, Head of Postpress at Heidelberg.