New York, NY - High school and junior high students in New York City will get an educational boost from the OnDemand Printing and Publishing Expo taking place from April 7-9, 2003 at the Jacob Javits Center. Delphax, Muller Martini and several other partners have teamed up to produce a series of soft cover books at the show that will be donated to the young scholars. The means of production is an on-demand system that will be working continuously at the Delphax exhibit (#3335). A Delphax CR1300P ultra-high speed digital web press will do the printing and an AmigoDigital™ perfect binding system will transform the resulting book blocks into soft cover books with a production rate at times exceeding 700 books per hour. Modules provided by Stralfors Inc., Shuttleworth, Inc. and Amatco also will be integrated into the production system, while Boise Paper Solutions will donate the paper. “Our objective is to educate the graphic arts community about the productivity advantages of printing and binding soft cover books on demand by connecting digitally driven presses like the CR1300P to digitally driven finishing systems like the AmigoDigital,” says Andrew J. Fetherman, Manager of Muller Martini Corp.’s Digital Finishing Division. “And with the Books for Schools program we’re also helping to educate New York City kids by giving them some great literature to study.” At the same time the Delphax/Muller Martini production system will provide visitors to On Demand with a practical way to overcome the challenges of a highly competitive short-run book manufacturing marketplace. Muller Martini’s contribution centers around the AmigoDigital, a short-run automated perfect binding system that is based on the company’s popular AmigoPlus model. “The major advancement here is that the AmigoDigital is equipped to plug into a digital printing system and produce up to 1,000 fully variable books per hour inline or near line,” Fetherman says. “AmigoDigital automatically sets every length, width and thickness variable to the precise dimensions of the incoming book. That not only speeds makeready, but virtually eliminates the possibility of operator error in the postpress stage.” Fetherman also points out that only systems with a high reliability rating and capable of producing quality product need apply to the digital workflow. “The AmigoDigital turns unfinished book blocks into completed soft cover books using the same high quality techniques our high volume perfect binders employ,” he says. The On Demand Expo system will produce three classic works of fiction at the rate of about six 400-page books per minute. The titles are: The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, and Homer’s The Odyssey. Graphic arts professionals who wish to have a book donated in their name, can log on to. http://www.delphax.com/booksforschools/ default.asp?promocode=freebooks2 Dr. Askia Davis, Superintendent, New York City Department of Education’s Office of Strategic Partnerships, praised the donation program: “The three classics are timeless. The characters and challenges that they bring to life will remain vivid in the minds of our students as each continues to discover and master his/her own character and challenges. I extend the New York City Department of Education’s deepest expression of appreciation.”