New Bedford, MA -- The first high-speed near-line commercial booklet maker that handles paper formats large enough to stitch, fold and trim print output from a wide range of traditional analog and all digital presses currently available, was announced today by C.P. Bourg, the world’s leading technology developer and supplier of in-line and near-line document feeding, binding and finishing equipment.
 
The new C.P. Bourg BME Booklet Maker accepts paper input up to 14.5 x 23.5 inches (370 x 600 mm) – the largest sheet size currently output by digital printers – and produces up to 5,000 booklets per hour. The new booklet maker will be featured next week at On Demand Expo at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia March 31-April 2 in the C.P. Bourg booth #1715.
 
A variety of unique features and innovations built into the Bourg BME are aimed at improving near-line finishing speed, efficiency and flexibility. Included among the many are fully automatic control of BME operation via a 300-degree swivel-mounted 12-inch color touchscreen terminal, tool-less job size changeovers, the ability to fold up to 30 sheets of 20-lb bond, and a totally visible straight paper path with a new, soft-handling paper folding mechanism designed to prevent marking, scuffing or scratching delicate digital prints. Operators can select top, edge, corner or saddle stitches from a simple menu on the BME control panel; choose a topstitch bypass hastening other finishing functions; and make fine adjustments to stitch position, fold position or trim distance in increments of 1/10 mm “on the fly,” as the job is running.
 
For trimming booklets, the Bourg BME features a heavy-duty face trimmer with unique blower-assisted scrap removal. The trimmer also features two micro-thin blades that act like scissors, to precisely cut each paper face to within 1/256th of an inch and sharpen both blades every time a cut is made, allowing hundreds of thousands of booklets to be trimmed before blades need to be replaced.
 
The new BME Booklet Maker can accept sheet output from Bourg’s proven BST-d+ Suction Tower Collators typically used with analog printers. It also works with the new C.P. Bourg BSF Sheet Feeder, which is designed to dramatically improve the efficiency of near-line production finishing for environments with on-demand printing, including collated digital variable data print (VDP) output. The BME is also designed to connect directly to a wide range of production digital printers.
 
“Printers today are looking for every advantage they can find to make their operations faster, more efficient and more flexible,” said Richard Trapilo, Executive Vice President and General Manager, C.P. Bourg, Inc. “Our new BME Booklet Maker not only meets these demands – it addresses each with a long list of features and innovations that make the Bourg BME a smart investment for almost any print finishing application.”