Müller Martini says it is heading for Finishing 4.0 with the postpress developer bringing a host of highly automated systems to the show.
Included among these, the Infinitrim will produce books of infinitely different sizes automatically with no let-up in speed. It also launches its SigmaLIne with Connex which it calls a fully integrated line to finish industrial inkjet.
Müller Martini has called for a seamless workflow, a high degree of automation and precise machine construction
Bruno Müller, chief executive of the business, says, “We are a smaller company than we were before the GFC, but we are developing highly advanced systems. Changeover times on some cases have gone down from minutes to 30 seconds.”
Finishing 4.0 draws on the phrase ‘Industry 4.0,’ which Müller Martini calls, “The digitisation, and connectivity, of processes and systems along the complete value-added chain, throughout the given life-cycle.”
In turn, Finishing 4.0 stands for numerous innovative, intelligently combined industrial solutions for print finishing in both the digital and offset segments. Müller says, “That calls for a seamless workflow, a high degree of automation and precise machine construction. We optimally coordinate those three components and ideally enable a touchless workflow, allowing graphic arts businesses to keep their production costs low despite shorter runs and increased product variety.”
Müller says the solutions at its digitally connected drupa booth enable the industrial and cost-effective production of customised print products, creating a touchless workflow by preparing themselves fully automatically for each new product based on digital job data and handling production without the need for manual interventions.
Each day of the show sees live demonstrations in how to produce variable, customised magazines and books using an automated machine line-up – nine connected production lines in the saddle stitching, perfect binding, hardcover production and newspaper inserting segments used for the production of hundreds of copies of over 20 different (hybrid) print products.
The touchless production of products includes a personalised educational book – a job with fully variable content produced using three different systems, from the roll to the finished book; and personalised book blocks, each with a completely different page count, size, book thickness and content, all produced in sequence in runs of one copy using the SigmaLine digital book production system, which allows for VDP production thanks to three new modules of the Connex process and data management system.
Müller Martini then shows how to perfect bind books in sequence using the Vareo, which it describes as the first perfect binder at which all three clamps have their own servo motor and are individually driven, representing a technological revolution. The InfiniTrim then performs the three-sided trimming of books that vary from product to product.
Conventional three-knife trimmers have a cutting table and pressing pad, which have to be manually changed in the case of size changeovers. The InfinTrim allows three-knife trimming in runs of one copy.
It feeds the material horizontally, with the dimensions for the head trim and the finished trimmed size registered via barcode. The subsequent infeed wheel positions the book vertically. A servo-driven gripper conveys it from that position to the first trim zone for the head trim. The desired stopping point corresponds exactly to the position of the trimming line. Straight after the head trim, servo-driven transfer units convey the book using to the specified position for the front trim and then to the foot trim zone. Following the foot trim, the book moves to the delivery belt, without the machine operator having to intervene once during the entire process.
World premieres of new innovations and updates include the Primera MC saddle stitcher, the Alegro Digital perfect binder, the InfiniTrim three-knife trimmer, the Ventura MC Digital thread sewing machine, three new SigmaLine functions, the open Connex architecture and two MMServices tools that boost process reliability: MPOWER and MMSupport Glasses.
The company says the new Primera MC saddle stitcher enables extremely short processing times and owners can upgrade to the Primera MC Digital for processing digitally printed products. The Primera MC has a new vertical pile feeder. Operators can feed it from the front instead of from the top. It stands around 20cm lower than the flat pile feeder and provides a loading capacity of the signatures of around 40 cm, almost double that of the flat pile feeder owing to the reduced bundle pressure.
The Alegro Digital perfect binder features block thickness correction (the system independently makes adjustments from clamp to clamp and thereby compensates for book thickness deviations fully automatically) and dynamic job change function (job changes within a size family are performed on the fly on a barcode basis, without the need for operator intervention).
The Ventura MC Digital joins the thread sewing machine range, with the Ventura MC 160 and Ventura MC 200. Coupled with a flat pile feeder, pocket folder/processing folder for products from digital sheet-fed or web printing presses (with a sheeter) up to a signature size of B2, it offers a speed of 9600 cycles per hour.
Changes to the Diamant MC bookline include automation for the rounding, double backing and variable size application of the headband and the variable book cover feeder now comes in two versions. The Diamant MC
The FlexLiner has a new sword opening so that inserts can now also be inserted into the centre of trimmed tabloid and magazine products that do not have a low folio lap. With FlexFeed, a range of carrier products can be fed.
ConnexWatch, the Interactive WiFi watch, specially developed for the mailroom, assists the machine operator throughout the production process, ensuring that key information about the equipment is always right at hand to prevent unnecessary downtimes.
SigmaLine features three new functions: a new top speed of the SigmaFolder II now 1,000 feet. On-the-fly format change function so no operator intervention needed, and Connes modules enable VDP production.
Connex has new connectivity options with Prinect by Heidelberg, HP SmartStream Production Centre, and Switch by Enfocus. It has a new user interface as well.
A new customer portal, web-based and for use via a PC, tablet, or smartphone can give a current overview of the machines and provide real-time information about their performance and production status. MMSupport glasses, WiFi data glasses, feature a microphone and headphones, and open up possibilities for interactive troubleshooting to supplement the Help Line and Remote Line modules in the MMServices range.
Muller Martini also feature at the drupa booths of two digital printing press manufacturers, Canon Océ and Xerox, stitching several of their trade fair products live are using two similarly configured Presto II Digital saddle stitchers, each with an unwinding system, cross cutting unit (both from Hunkeler) and pocket fold unit (from Heidelberg).
