Drupa 2004:
From manual to automated print finishing
By Gareth Ward

Meeting the demand for faster turnarounds and shorter print runs goes beyond making the printing press easier to set up and change. There is little point in producing plates and then sheets from a press if the postpress area does not change to keep abreast of developments in prepress and the print room.

New ideas in engineering are changing the way that machines are designed: advances in information technology are linking stitchers, binders, folders into data networks; and automated set-ups and console control are allowing for remote management and are taking away much of the operating burden from staff.

The greatest impact, however, is going to come from JDF (Job Definition Format), the end-to-end production data format which is finding widespread acceptance in print areas. To date, finishing equipment manufacturers are not as well represented within the CIP4 organization as prepress and press vendors, but the major manufacturers such as Wohlenberg and Muller Martini and of course Heidelberg are members.

CIP4 is the acronym for the International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress. CIP4 is an organization that is working to develop standards to allow implementation of JDF into the information systems of printing and graphic communications companies. All are working to the goal of complete connectivity.

The idea of JDF is that if the format of a magazine or brochure, book or catalogue is known during the creation phases, the information can be used to preset machinery that is going to be used to produce it, saving manufacturing time. Crucially, as all the dimensions are set at an early phase, there will be no need to enter these figures again, so errors through miskeying data are avoided.

Keeping the customer informed
A second aspect to JDF is that information about performance and progress is gathered and can be retrieved from a central point or made available to a customer. Production scheduling and costing becomes more accurate and customer relationships are deepened.

JDF to its fullest extent, however, is not yet in use in connecting the finishing area to the rest of the printing plant.

Around the world, different companies are testing the idea of JDF to connect saddle stitchers, guillotines and binders with frantic work underway to be able to show results at Drupa.

One of the companies instrumental in this effort is Scenic Software whose UpFront software is set to be a key component in many JDF implementations. It is used to plan how a printed product will go on press, taking the figures needed to create an imposition to set up the folders and stitching lines.

Paul Verwilt from the company’s Belgium office, says that the Print Production Format file is being used to provide set-up data to guillotines, folders and to date saddle stitching equipment. “We have a number of customers who have connected UpFront to Muller Martini’s Amrys control system and we have tested the link with Heidelberg’s saddle stitchers. There’s definitely a time saving and we are working with a US customer on producing some return on investment figures.”

The development timetable is geared toward being able to demonstrate a full JDF implementation ahead of Drupa. “We have some alpha versions running,” Verwilt said, “with MBO, Wohlenberg and Muller Martini for folding, stitching and limp binding lines.”

Muller Martini is ideally suited for this having the Automated Make Ready system (Amrys) for storing and setting production positions of finishing lines. Where companies have repeat work, typically magazines or standard format books, this has proved effective at cutting preparation times. As stitching lines need to be stopped and made ready more frequently because print jobs are shorter, this facility begins to become as important as automatic makeready features on a press. Automation like this begins to pay for itself if there are more than three job changes per shift, Muller Martini reckons.

JDF for digital printing
In digital printing this number of different jobs can take place in an hour, placing an even higher premium on automated preparation features. It is a truism that the number of waste copies used to set up a conventional finishing line will be more than the entire run of a digital job, so waste must be kept to an absolute minimum. Consequently many of the finishing functions traditionally performed by separate pieces of machinery were built into the digital press, giving a digital machine the capacity to produce booklets, spiral bound products and even limp bound books.

There has been a move to break this physical link and have modular finishing options that can become part of a production line as required. If nothing else, it means that the digital press need not be so sophisticated and specialist finishing equipment can be used with the required press by linking the finishing module to the production line. Swiss manufacturer Hunkeler has been a leader in this respect for many years, offering an increasing range of systems to reflect the growing influence of digital production and its increasing sophistication.

Before digital print there was little need to add automation to finishing systems as runs were lengthy and there was no real drive to make them more effective. There was always time to make any minor adjustments using wheels and clamps because a certain amount of wastage was built in. With digital printing and especially personalized digital printing, integrity is vital. Automatic set up has replaced the trial and error methods and accuracy from the outset is vital.

Hunkeler does not have it all to itself. In Japan, Horizon has been working with Screen on building JDF interfaces between prepress and Horizon’s booklet makers, stitchers and binders. The company began with its i2i program as a CIP4 style interface to allow a department to be controlled from a single console networked to a number of machines. This allows a single skilled operator to set the machines and to monitor progress while less skilled staff carries out the more mundane loading and unloading tasks. More recently, Horizon has adopted CIP4 and is working towards full JDF implementation. Again, Drupa is the target to introduce this though it was able to demonstrate a solution alongside Komori at the Igas exhibition in September. At this point, the skilled operator will be able to carry out the set ups from the computer console.

JDF welcomes flexible production
In this instance, JDF is being used to bring the benefits that fully-integrated inline finishing offers while sacrificing none of the flexibility that near-line finishing offers, a solution that others are going to be offering. Horizon has been expanding from its traditional heartland in smaller systems towards more productive heavier duty equipment. It has meant that the company has come at the problems with a different eye and produced systems that challenge traditional concepts of what a stitcher should look like and how a binder should operate.

This begins to have a similar impact in the bindery that computer to plate (CTP) has had in the prepress department. Advanced equipment is replacing manual operation and offers leaps in productivity. It also encourages printers to manage more of the finishing processes in house. An increasing requirement is going to be reduced handling, because manual intervention at any level risks introducing mistakes. The need for palletisers, stackers and shrink wrapping machinery is going to increase because this not only reduces the demand for shop floor staff, but more importantly ensures that the product is present in good fashion for the next step in the process.

Heidelberg ties everything together
This is the argument that has been driving Heidelberg’s interest in the area. Prinect, its JDF enabled workflow, already can provide set-up data from the Signastation. This is used to offer rapid set up on its ST400 saddle stitcher and to prepare the latest Stahl folders. For guillotines, while it is possible to link them to a Prinect network, the preferred solution is to use Compucut, a separate console with an offline connection to the guillotine yet online to Prinect, the prepress workflow and to Prinance its MIS application. This comes under the heading of the Finishing Communications System. Data for the next job can be accessed from the system’s server and the required settings either keyed in or downloaded, depending on the sophistication of the equipment being used. All waste levels, real run times are fed back to the MIS for greater accuracy in costing and in production control.

The most advanced product in Heidelberg’s portfolio to date is the ST400 stitcher, which Heidelberg claims can be set up in two minutes only using the data feed. It is not just the availability of digital data that is making the difference however, but improvements in engineering. The ST 4000 uses servo motors to move its positional settings and direct drives, controlled digitally to free the saddle stitcher from the constraints of a drive shaft. It’s a technology that is becoming prevalent in many presses, particularly web machines. The ST 4000 as a result can move feeding modules in and out, add or remove card inserters and trimming units.

A similar approach is being adopted by Stahl folders, using servos to set the buckle plates and calipers. Having proven the concept on this machine, Heidelberg is sure to introduce the concept to other finishing systems. Others will be coming up with their own applications of this thinking, with drupa certain to provide the arena to compare developments. It is very much a modular approach where you only use what you need. In terms of reducing waste, the operator can decide to produce a single copy and the machine will obey.

Obedience is the key
Obedience is the key to tomorrow’s finishing technology. It is obedience to the instructions passed on by a JDF file, obedience to the demands of short makeready times and zero wastage levels. It does not matter that the finishing system is one designed for handling digital printing or one for long-run commercial printing. The same requirements apply.

About the author: Gareth War is editor-in-chief of Printing World magazine in Great Britain.