September 30 - October 2, Chicago, Illinois

Andover, Mass. ? Standard Finishing Systems will present a diverse lineup of feeding and finishing solutions at PRINT 18, the North American gathering place for those who thrive on the business of print, providing a clear snapshot of today’s breakthrough innovations and a vision of the road ahead.

A staple at the center of the show floor, Standard’s booth 1629 will once again be packed with equipment set up for live demonstrations in die-cutting, perfect binding and trimming, slitting and creasing, folding, saddlestitching, inspection systems, and roll-fed print solutions. Machines featuring advanced automation and new technology are among the highlights, with the Horizon StitchLiner Mark III Saddlestitcher raising the bar in booklet production, and Hunkeler’s Generation 8 keeping pace with the newest and fastest inkjet presses. A wide range of Horizon and Hunkeler application workflows will produce a variety of finished samples, demonstrating format flexibility, short-run capability, and smooth setup and changeover.

“The solutions and technologies we’re featuring this year are a direct response to the needs of our customers,” says David Reny, Executive Vice President at Standard. “Print service providers need versatility and efficiency to adapt and prosper in this fast-changing industry. By demonstrating real-world applications with smarter workflows ? from standalone systems to end-to-end setups ? we’re helping show attendees find the tools they need to bring their business continued success.”

Horizon Solutions Push the Envelope in Automation and Efficiency
The Standard Horizon StitchLiner Mark III is the latest introduction in Horizon’s acclaimed line of saddlestitchers, featuring expanded booklet size and increased productivity up to 6,000 booklets per hour. The system can produce a wider range of applications, including landscape-size booklets, 12” by 12” calendars, and pocket booklets as small as 4.5” by 3.5”. The Mark III offers fully automated setup, including stitching head settings, with no manual adjustments required for book thickness at the trimmer, delivering higher quality booklets with greater efficiency, even for variable stitch length and variable page count booklets.

Another highlight, the Standard Horizon BQ-480 sets new standards in automation and efficient, high quality production. The BQ-480 tops its class in several key areas, including setup and changeover for variable book production, where it reaches a maximum speed of 800 books per hour for book of one production, supporting book thicknesses from 0.04” (1 mm) to 2.56” (65 mm). Designed to meet the requirements of PUR book binding, the BQ-480 includes a gentle elevator delivery system with a mere 5mm drop to deliver books without damage or marking. The BQ-480 will be shown with the HT-1000V Variable Three-knife Trimmer, which trims up to 1,000 books of variable thickness and format size per hour, and will accept a broad range of input sizes and deliver trimmed books from 5.7″ x 4.05″ up to 13.39″ x 11.81″.

Also featured is the Standard Horizon AFV-566/TV-564 Folder, a highly automated and dynamic machine that achieves new levels of production efficiency in folding. The folder’s uniquely designed buckle plate ensures consistent, accurate folds, and accommodates a wider range of substrates. The system also boasts automatic scoring navigation and double-sheet detection, improved registration, and easier sheet loading. Other folders on display include the AFC-746F Large-Format Folder and AFC-566FG Folder, which allow a wide variety of fold patterns in a minimal amount of floor space at speeds up to 42,000 sheets per hour.

Alongside these products, Standard will show a range of individual solutions for creasing, slitting, folding, bookletmaking, die cutting, perfect binding, and trimming, loaded with features to provide advanced automation, increased flexibility, and maximum productivity. Among these, the versatile SmartSlitter all-in-one sheet processing system can slit, gutter cut, edge trim, cross-cut, perforate, and crease in a single pass. The popular RD-4055 DMC Die Cutter is designed to simultaneously die-cut and crease/score short-run product from both sides of the sheet, and can handle even complex creasing patterns and light packaging applications with ease.

Hunkeler’s Gen8: Ready for Future Printer Generations
Hunkeler's 2017 “MUST SEE ‘EMS” Award winning Generation 8 will be demonstrated in two unique solutions at PRINT 18. The first is a Roll-to-Fold Solution, ideal for direct mail, featuring the Horizon T-566 Folder, as well as the Hunkeler DP8 Dynamic Perforator, WM8 Web Merger, and CS8-II Chip-out Rotary Cutter. The second is a combination solution showing Gen8 Roll-to-Stack in-line with the Horizon StitchLiner 6000 Saddlestitcher. Both configurations will demonstrate the hallmarks of Gen8: greater automation, a wider range of formats and paper weights, and increased speeds (600 fpm) and web width (22.5”).

Gen8 was developed for the unique requirements of digital commercial printing, and has been designed with full color inkjet applications in mind. Gen8 modules support substrates from 27 lb text to 12 point card, as well as the smallest finished sheet format on the market (5.5” long x 4” wide), ideal for full bleed postcard applications. In addition, with the new LS8-30, sheets as large as 22.5” x 30” (B2+ format) can be perfectly stacked. Hunkeler has also taken care to consider ease of access, and all Gen8 machines feature an improved, service friendly design, as well as remote troubleshooting access for operators and service technicians.

Another exciting innovation is the extendable Hunkeler Workflow Manager (HWM), a modular platform for workflow management, job setup, production statistics, data interfacing, and service tools. HWM is a big step in the advancement of automation, with fully automated registering, and plug-ins for job edition and production setup for cutting, stacking, and dynamic perforating and punching, eliminating much of the manual setup of the line. Web inspection and item tracking features can be integrated to ensure smooth and consistent document production.

For more information on these Horizon and Hunkeler solutions, visit Standard Finishing Systems in Booth 1629 at PRINT. 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/print18/.