Thorough market review revealed Xeikon delivers best quality for long-tail book printing

Eede, the Netherlands – Xeikon today announced that K-Lin, a leading Taipei book printer specializing in high quality culinary, travel and educational books, has chosen to install three Xeikon 9800 digital web-fed presses to support its first foray into digital printing. The company has also added a top-of-the-line inline Muller Martini book binding system which accepts direct roll feeding from the Xeikon presses. This combination makes it the most advanced printer of books in Taiwan. 

“We thoroughly reviewed both inkjet and toner digital presses from all of the top manufacturers during our decision process,” says Mr.Tsai, K-Lin’s owner. “We needed to ensure we could produce the very high quality our publishers expect, in line with offset production, and Xeikon came out at the head of the pack with good reproduction capabilities, including the fine details that are a signature part of many of the books we publish.”

Mr.Tsai states that the company would still continue to print most first edition books using offset, but adds; “For second and third editions, and for smaller quantities of specialized titles or books on demand, digital printing is ideal. We expect our Xeikon presses to be a key to our ability to profitably tackle what has been a challenge in the past. In addition, by adding inline book binding, we no longer need to outsource the binding of these shorter run books, which will save both time and cost.”

Mr.Tsai points out that while runs for these books are short, the number of titles is quite large. “We also needed a digital press that could print on almost any substrate,” he comments. “We can rarely make the decision about which paper stock will be used as this is defined by the publishers. Our Xeikon 9800s allow us to print on papers ranging from 60 to 360 gsm with the option for inline varnish, enabling us to digitally print covers as well.”

The Xeikon 9800 digital press is a high productivity single-pass duplex web-fed digital printing press that prints at 1200 dpi. It is part of a total solution that includes toner, print media, binding equipment and the Xeikon X-800 digital front-end, all working as an integrated digital book printing factory. It offers a fifth colour station that can be used for special toners, including spot colours and UV reflecting clear toner. The Xeikon 9800 prints at up to 21 meters per minute on web widths ranging from 320 to 512 mm.

“It has been a pleasure working with the talented staff at K-Lin as they add digital printing to their platform,” concludes Bent Serritslev, Xeikon General Manager Asia. “The company has mastered the ability to seamlessly direct print projects to offset and/or digital, and its publisher clients are delighted with its ability to cost-effectively produce smaller lots of books within a short cycle time, with no compromise in quality. It is a win/win strategy.”

For more information about products and services from Xeikon, including the company’s aXelerate business development program that helps customers get up and running fast – on new installations or for new applications – visit www.xeikon.com.