Texarkana, TX — The Baptist Sunday School Committee, the publishing arm of the American Baptist Association, has equipped its in-plant printing facility with a new Valore saddle stitching system. Although the 6,000 copies/hour machine has only been running at the in-plant for a few months, it has already saved the religious group time and money in the production of its tracts and related literature. “Since we’ve installed the Valore, I’ve had nothing but raves from everyone,” says Charles Easley, Plant Manager. “It’s really running great.” Easley says he chose the Muller Martini solution after polling printers and other in-plant managers who rely on the affordably priced Valore. “I talked to quite a few facilities that run them, and everyone who had one seemed very happy with it.” Easley was not disappointed when his plant’s Valore arrived. “We had been using a different brand of saddle stitcher and we got tired of it constantly breaking down and having to work on it,” he says. “Reliability is the first thing that sold us on Valore, and the system is delivering as promised.” Valore is equipped with built-in quality control devices including an automatic caliper that measures the thickness of each book. When it detects a book with too little or too many signatures, the mechanism kicks out the reject before it reaches the system’s integral three-knife trimmer. Valore is also helping the Baptist Sunday School Committee speed up its makereadies to streamline production. The machine’s electronic controls automate between-job adjustments and deliver the speed and convenience of tool-free set-up. “We’re just now getting into running Valore with an eye toward improving overall performance,” Easley remarks. “I’m confident we’ll speed-up our makereadies even more as we learn more.” As for printing the tracts and literature that are distributed all over the U.S. and abroad, the Baptist Sunday School Committee relies on three presses — a five-color Heidelberg GTO, a four-color Harris 486 and a two-color Speedmaster 102. “There’s at least one or more signature from each of the presses in virtually every book we make,” Easley notes. “That’s because we typically focus on the production of one title at a time. So it’s important that we have a reliable saddle stitching system to convert the workflows of three presses into a product that’s ready for shipment.”