A 'World's First' for 'World's Oldest' Bookbinder
Acme Bookbinding's newest worker can't get injured on the job when doing back-breaking work. The reason: It's a robot.
One of the most labor-intensive and expensive tasks in our industry is the chore of cutting cover materials for hardcover bindings.
Generally, cutting cover materials is not a problem for large edition bindings. Kolbus and Crawley have furnished the industry with equipment where cover materials cut from rolls are de-curled, and are either sheeted or cut to size, with remarkable efficiency. Still, lifting a 54" roll of covering material, and mounting it into a cloth cutting machine, is hard, back-breaking work.
These days, with larger edition runs increasingly an exception, book manufacturers must adopt new technologies to cope with extremely short runs and on-demand tasks. This means they have to change such heavy rolls more often, and if that's not handled in a professional manner, pay workman's compensation.
Back problems are a binder's worst nightmare. Time lost due to back problems and claims is expensive. The solution is automation; not to work harder, but to work smarter.
Acme Bookbinding, located in Charlestown, Mass., near Boston, traces its roots as a Library Binder to 1821. Long before on-demand was in demand, Acme understood the need develop technology to bind one book at a time, in a cost efficient manner.
In 1975, owner Bud Parisi transferred his majority ownership to oldest son Paul, a Harvard economics graduate. John Parisi, Bud's other son, joined the company in 1980, after graduation from Bentley College; today he's Acme's plant manager.
In 1984, Paul decided to expand into edition bookbinding. He soon built a well respected, world-class hardcover and paperback book production facility. A recent visit to Acme's edition, on-demand, and library binding operations confirmed the reasons for their remarkable success in a tough and competitive business environment.
