ANDOVER, MA – Standard Finishing Systems will showcase 8,100 square-feet of post press and paper handling solutions in booth 1902 at PRINT 13 in Chicago, including a complete line-up of perfect binding, folding, saddlestitching, creasing, inspection systems, and continuous-feed print solutions for the digital and offset print markets. Consistent with its show theme “The World Loves Books”, Standard will demonstrate an all-inclusive range of equipment used in the book production process, from creasers that score covers for perfect-bound books to completely automated book production solutions that convert printed rolls to finished books with no manual intervention.   

The Printed Book

While the digital media revolution continues to spark innovations, Standard – together with its suppliers Horizon (of Japan) and Hunkeler (of Switzerland) – believes the paper book will always have its place. In fact, as e-books become the commodity, the value of the printed book will grow and the processes used to make that book will need to evolve in order to keep pace. “Today’s books are printed on demand when they are needed, or more importantly when they are wanted,” says David Reny, Executive Vice President, Standard Finishing Systems. “Standard is committed to providing the highest quality equipment to efficiently produce books as the market requires. Our solutions enable printers to carry on the long-standing tradition of the paper book and still remain profitable.”

Live Demonstrations and Presentations

Visitors will see over 20 different applications running live on the Standard booth to simulate real-world production environments, including personalized direct mailers with variable coupon perforations, greeting cards, variable short-run books, PUR perfect-bound photo books, full-color/full-bleed booklets, and a variety of unique folding applications. Presentations will be conducted four times daily to highlight several new solutions and demonstrate cost-savings in a variety of production steps, building profit into short-run work through lower waste and fewer touch points. With an emphasis on end-to-end workflows, Standard will show integration between systems by converting printed rolls or stacked sheets containing different jobs into several finished products, in a single process.

Finishing Flexibility Unveiled 

Alongside a host of its newest solutions, Standard will introduce the Horizon BQ-280PUR Perfect Binder to the North American market at PRINT 13. The binder offers single-clamp PUR perfect binding with professional quality in a compact footprint and is specially designed for the production of digitally printed books, personalized photo books, smaller sample runs, and other ultra short-run work. The BQ-280PUR can be operated by a single person and includes an automated, sensor-activated digital caliper system for consistent measurement of book block thickness every time. Other features include fully automated set-up (including carriage clamp, milling, glue tank, nipping, and cover feeder), an elevator delivery system that gently carries the freshly PUR-bound book down without damage, and special processing for extended spine length up to 15.5”. The binder achieves production speeds up to 400 books per hour, and is only one in a line-up of five different perfect binders that will be running in the Standard booth.

Standard will also demonstrate the new Horizon SmartStacker, which converts a B2 size / 20 x 29 digitally printed sheet into up to 28 individual cut sheets, with intelligent accumulation and stacking, and end-to-end JDF control. Developed in cooperation with HP and designed to run in-line with the B2- format HP Indigo 10000 Digital Press, the system can also be operated near-line to serve multiple print sources with sheet feeding capability up to 4,500 B2 sheets per hour. The SmartStacker edge trims and gutter cuts for up to 7 sheets in one direction and four in the other for full bleed trimming. The system can deliver finished product such as posters or postcards, straight or offset stacked, individual sets or book blocks, or bypass to in-line finishing for saddlestitching, perfect binding, or folding. By minimizing touchpoints and material handling, the new SmartStacker streamlines production and lowers labor costs. At the show, the SmartStacker will continuously produce a variety of greeting cards and blocks of 3 different book titles with fully-automated, JDF-driven changeover between jobs. 

The new Standard Horizon CRF-362 Creaser/Folder will also be featured to demonstrate creasing and folding of digital color output in one pass, with no cracking. The system can handle a wide range of coated, uncoated, or laminated stocks from 24 lb. bond to 16 pt. (and up to 18 pt. for creasing only) on sheets up to 14.33” x 34”. The CRF-362 comes configured with seven selectable fold patterns and six selectable cover creasing patterns for perfect binding. Capable of creasing and folding up to 5000 sheets per hour, this solution will be producing restaurant menus, greeting cards, book covers, brochures, and other marketing collateral at the show.

To round out the finishing line-up, Standard will display the new SPF-200L Landscape Bookletmaker with HOF-400 High-Speed Sheet Feeder for the production of landscape format booklets (11” x 8.5”) at speeds up to 3,500 booklets per hour. The system features fully automated set-up including fold roller gap adjustment and handles variable page count production. The HOF-400 can be connected to the Horizon SPF-200 Series Bookletmaker and the StitchLiner 5500 for saddlestitching of digitally printed output at speeds up to 45,000 sheets per hour. In two alternate saddlestitching configurations, the Standard Horizon StitchLiner will be shown in-line with collating towers to serve offset print needs and with the HSF-30 high-speed sheet feeder for lightning-fast production of digitally printed saddlestitched booklets. 

Continuous-Feed Finishing Solutions

In another North American premiere, Standard will show the Hunkeler Roll-to-Signature Book Block Solution producing ready-to-bind, glued book blocks from digital webs up to 30” wide. The Standard Hunkeler PF7 Double Plow-fold Module applies one or two perforations or scores, and then folds in the web direction before the CS6-HS rotary cutter converts the multiple-up imposition into 4-, 6- or 8-page signatures. These signatures are glued and stacked as complete book blocks on the new continuous SD7 Double Star Wheel Delivery Stacker. From there, the glued book blocks pass a pressing station and can be transferred to an in-line or near-line perfect binder for book finishing. The solution is capable of running at speeds up to 650 feet per minute, and 450 output cycles per hour (multiple books per cycle), which translates into 4,140 6”x9” books (96 pages) or 2,420 8.5”x11” books (96 pages) per hour. The Hunkeler Roll-to-Signature Book Block Solution can be used off-line or in-line with high-speed digital presses.

In a world first, Standard will demonstrate the Smart Binding System for continuous-feed digital print, producing short-run, variable books of different size and thickness from a roll with no manual touch points. A Standard Hunkeler UW6 unwinds a 20” wide pre-printed roll which is cut into sheets in the Standard Hunkeler CS6-I rotary cutter and then folded to signatures in the Standard Horizon AF-566F Folder. The signatures are stacked and glued into book blocks by Horizon’s new BBS-40 and presented to the Horizon SB-09V nine-clamp Perfect Binder. Bound books are delivered via conveyor for three-knife trimming on the HT-1000V variable trimmer. The entire system will be producing at a rate of 2,000 variable-thickness and variable-format size books per hour.

Standard will also demonstrate an integrated Roll-to-Fold solution, which combines Horizon folding technology with Hunkeler unwinding, dynamic perforating, web inspection and cutting expertise. Featuring the Hunkeler DP6 Dynamic Perforator, WI6 Web Inspection System, CS6-II Rotary Cutter with chip-out, and the Horizon AF-566F Folder, this solution will be producing complex, variable-data direct mail pieces in one pass at 500 feet per minute with dynamic perforating from sheet to sheet for coupons, reply cards, or convenience checks. The Hunkeler WI6 Web Inspection System will capture high resolution color images of the full web for in-line verification, quality inspection and integrity analysis of the printed roll. The Hunkeler Site Manager can capture feedback from several WI6 systems to track the complete print and finishing production environment, and communicate with the ADF server.

Digital Print Partnerships for Integrated Solutions

Standard will once again partner with key digital print manufacturers to bring highly integrated feeding and finishing solutions to the show floor. In the Xerox booth, the Xerox CiPress 5000 Production Inkjet System will be equipped with a Standard Hunkeler Roll-to-Stack Solution, delivering up to 1,650 straight and fully-separated book blocks per hour.

In a collaboration between Xerox, Ultimate Technographics and Horizon, new Xerox FreeFlow software will now enable simple, fully automated finishing set-up on Horizon perfect binders and three-knife trimmers. A job ticket will be produced within the print stream and travel with the job to the finisher. Then, the operator will simply scan the ticket and all finishing set-up data will be automatically transferred to the finisher for fast, easy, and error-free job changeovers. Live demonstrations of this capability will be conducted throughout the show in Standard’s booth on the Horizon BQ-270V Perfect Binder and HT-30 Three-side Trimmer.

In another technology collaboration, HP, Ultimate Technographics and Horizon have teamed up to enable the new Direct2Finish capability on a fleet of Horizon finishers, including perfect binders, three-knife trimmers, saddlestitchers and folders. Direct2Finish software allows simple yet fully automated finishing set-ups for HP and Horizon customers and streamlines the process for job changeovers. Live demonstrations of this capability will be conducted throughout the show in Standard’s booth on the Horizon BQ-280PUR Perfect Binder and HT-30 Three-side Trimmer.

Standard will also be running a broad range of demonstration materials developed in cooperation with and printed by strategic digital print partners, including Canon, HP, Ricoh, Screen, and Xerox. Standard Hunkeler finishing solutions will be processing rolls pre-printed on the Canon ColorStream 3900 Inkjet Press, HP T300 Inkjet Press, InfoPrint 5000 GP Inkjet Press, and Screen TruePress Jet 520 Inkjet Press to serve a variety of continuous-feed applications throughout the Standard booth. Additionally, output from the Canon imagePRESS C7010VPS, HP Indigo B2 10000 Digital Press, and Xerox’s new Impika Compact Ink Jet press will be used to demonstrate a wide range of cut-sheet finishing applications.

Vision Based Inspection Systems

The “VIVA” suite of vision-based inspection systems – custom-designed for document integrity, quality control and verification in production environments – will be shown on several systems at PRINT. VIVA cameras for sheet-level and set-level integrity checking will be mounted on the Standard Horizon StitchLiner 6000 Digital Saddlestitcher and Standard Horizon HOF-400 Sheet Feeder paired with the SPF-200L Bookletmaker. VIVA software will also be checking book block and cover matching on the Standard Horizon BQ-470 Perfect Binder. The VIVA line can be deployed across a broad range of Standard solutions to ensure quality control, integrity, tracking and reporting all documents. 

For more information on these Horizon and Hunkeler solutions, visit Standard Finishing Systems (www.standardfinishing.com) at Booth 1902. Print 13 attendees are invited to arrange a private equipment demonstration tailored to their application requirements by pre-registering for the Standard VIP Program at http://www.sdmc.com/print13/