The Stitchmaster ST 450 saddlestitcher from Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) has been in operation at SÜDKURIER Medienhaus in Konstanz since May of this year. SÜDKURIER Medienhaus' Stitchmaster ST 450 consists of four signature feeders, two cover feeders and an integrated compensating banderoling machine after the compensating stacker. A special feature is the saddlestitcher's feeder which allows newspaper products produced in a waterless offset process by a rotary newspaper press to be fed inline from the Ferag postpress equipment. For this purpose, Heidelberg developed a special feed conveyor from the Ferag unit to the Stitchmaster ST 450 feeders and incorporated it into the control system. As a result, the saddlestitcher controls the speed and synchronization of the feeders and the Ferag rewinding station after the trimmer.

The entire project - from order to installation - was completed in just under four months. "The cooperation between everyone involved - that is, Ferag, Heidelberg, and us - worked really well and was bang on schedule," explained Andreas Jörger, Head of Materials Management at SÜDKURIER Medienhaus. "Based on our good experience working with Medienhaus' commercial print shop werk zwei Print+Medien Konstanz GmbH, we decided to go with Heidelberg and the positive results have definitely vindicated this decision," said a satisfied Jörger.

Flexibility, high productivity, and top quality
There are two ways of feeding the printed signatures. They can be fed either directly from the newspaper press to the saddlestitcher via the Ferag transport system or indirectly via a rewinding station used for temporary storage which then feeds the signatures to the saddlestitcher. In addition to signatures, the Stitchmaster ST 450 can also feed covers. It then either outputs the finished, trimmed product directly or rewinds it to temporary storage. It is therefore possible to insert the finished product into newspapers via the Ferag inserting line without manual intervention.

The Stitchmaster ST 450 is also used as a conventional saddlestitcher and loaded with normal signatures. This flexibility allows SÜDKURIER Medienhaus to produce a variety of jobs, even with frequent changes. "We are extremely satisfied with the productivity and quality of the ST 450. This applies, in particular, to newsprint, which is more difficult to process," confirmed Jörger. "I can say the same for the Stahlfolder KH 78 folding machine, which we put into operation at roughly the same time," he continued.

SÜDKURIER Medienhaus is an innovative regional leader among media and service companies. Its portfolio includes daily newspapers, advertisers, magazines, new media, printing, communication services and logistics. The activities of SÜDKURIER Medienhaus are characterized by high standards of quality and a strong regional footing. SÜDKURIER is a leading daily in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It boasts a daily circulation of 409,000 readers in the Lake Constance, Hochrhein and Black Forest regions of Germany and is published in 16 local editions and as the Alb-Bote.