Graph Expo Bound
For book manufacturing constituents looking for cutting edge solutions to their bindery equipment needs, an early October trip to Chicago may have been a good place to start. Several manufacturers exhibited their back gluing, casing-in, casemaking and manufacturing lines at the 2002 Graph Expo. Exhibitors were pleasantly surprised by the number of attendees at this year's show (nearly 38,000, according to the organizers), lending an air of optimism to the future of the printing industry.
BTM details the latest from some of the exhibitors who were on hand to demonstrate their offerings.
Banner
Banner American Products (www.banam.com), a manufacturer and distributor of pouch and roll laminators, showcased the 520HP Foliant series laminator and separator. Introduced earlier this year, the Foliant received a validation from Xerox, which tested the product as an off-line single side laminator and found it compatible with the DocuColor 2045 and DocuColor 2060, and the DocuColor 12 and DocuColor 40. The Foliant targets the small commercial print shop and book publisher. The single-side lamination system works with a variety of thin gauge films, using a chrome-coated working roller, which is regulated by exact thermal control. The 520HP Foliant series features a quick warm-up time, a user-friendly control panel, a microprocessor that allows automatic control of speed and temperature, displays run count and the amount of unrolled film available, and a film capacity of 10,000 feet.
Bielomatik
German bookbinding manufacturer Bielomatik (www.bielomatik.com) began developing a cost-effective solution for short-run case-binding in 1999. Bielomatik designed modules to cut the book-block, make the case, emboss the case and case-in the book. At Graph Expo, the manufacturer introduced the Bookmaster 360, the casing-in module it brought to the market this year. In 2003 Bielomatik plans to make the entire book factory available. The company considers the Bookmaster 360 to be the most important module. Needing no set-up time, it automatically case-binds a book in 10 seconds. The 360 moves a book block, either cut sheet from a digital press or threaded signatures, into the case feeder where double fan-gluing with cold dispersion adhesive is applied. Gauze is set to the spine, a headband is attached and the book is cased-in and rounded. The next book to follow can be a different size and the run-lengths can be set to any amount.
