Printweek Product Of The Week

Transcript

Product Portfolio Productof theWeek page 34 Tried & Tested FKS PrintBind KB2000 Me & My... ... Autobond Mini 76 TH page 37 Heidelberg Tango page 36 Buyers’ Guide page 39 Pre-flighting, workflowand RIPs PRODUCT OF THE WEEK Philip’s Help Line page 46 Services Directory page 47 For Sale & Wanted page 55 FKS PrintBind KB2000 THE ALTERNATIVES Morgana is confident that this binder has tackled the fuser oil problem and is perfect for digital, says Karen Charlesworth Max b ook si ze Min book si ze Max s pine thickness Max s peed Cost Contact The question of adhesive binding for the digital market has been a thorny one in recent years. The first rash of digital adhesive binders appeared in the late 1990s, and their claims of digital suitability rested largely on their format, speed and ease of use. Not that these qualities are irrelevant to digital adhesive binding, but it quickly became apparent that the nature of digital brought other obstacles. Toner-based digital presses cover the sheet in a thin but pervasive layer of fuser oil designed to keep the toner on and everything else out, including glue, making adhesive binding a bit problematic. So more recent entrants to the digital binding market – such as National Adhesive in the UK and Planatol in Germany – have formulated “digital” adhesives that bond through the fuser oil. Others, such as Morgana’s new FKS PrintBind KB2000, choose to tackle the fuser oil problem in a different way, by cutting slits into the book’s spine, for the glue (a standard EVA or hotmelt) to penetrate further and provide a stronger bind. The KB2000’s German manufacturer FKS Hamburg won Morgana’s attention at Ipex. Morgana sales manager John Clason says: “We’d been looking to get into digital binding for some time – it was a natural extension of our product portfolio.” The Morgana team spent late nights and early mornings at the exhibition, testing the KB2000 out on “different stocks, from different digital presses, with different glues and book thicknesses at different speeds,” says Clason. Hotmelt adhesive Morgana struck a deal with FKS to become the binder’s sole UK agent. It has since sold one machine to a purely digital printer and another to a hybrid digital and conventional litho printer. The KB2000 is a single-clamp binder that uses hotmelt adhesive only. It’s a single-operator machine, where the clamp does the whole spine prep, bind, cover nip and delivery in one pass (some other small binders bring the book block back to the operator for the cover to be put on). This singlepass operation is responsible for the fact that the KB2000 is about 50 books per hour faster than any other adhesive binder in its bracket. The KB2000’s clamp and its cover nipping device are both pneumatically controlled. Book thickness is dialled in at makeready time, and the bind cycle is initiated by a button on the 34 control pad. Once it has taken the book block, the clamp travels over a spine prep head that cuts single notches into the spine. These are not the usual two-dimensional semi-circular “nib’” shapes cut by notching devices on many adhesive binders, but simply a row of single cuts at 2-3mm intervals, made by a knife-blade. Because of this, the KB2000 generates little paper dust, and needs no waste extraction system. After slitting, the spine prep head then fans out the book block spine by around 10% of its original width, to enable the glue to get good penetration. The glue is applied by a triangular configuration of rollers: the first applies the glue; the second (which turns in the opposite direction) applies a second, thinner coating; and the third uses a doctor blade to scrape off excess. Naturally, the glue pot has a thermostat as well as a timer and standby mode. DUPLO MR-720i Duplo has no head-to-head rival for the KB2000, but the MR-720i matches or outdoes its specifications and speed. The MR-720i has an automatic cover feed with its own scoring. Spine prep is milling and notching, so it can work with sections as well as cut sheets. Hotmelt only, with the option for PUR, you can link up a three-knife trimmer, too. It jogs the book block before gluing it, so there’s no need to invest in a separate jogger. It has some automated set-up, including book thickness, glue length and nip pressure. SPECIFICATIONS Max book size 310mm x unlimited width Min book size 120x120mm Max spine thickness 60mm Max speed 320 books per hour Price £8, 583 Contact Morgana 01908 608888 www.morgana.co.uk Digital environment HORIZON BQ-150 The Horizon BQ-150 is a free-standing, single clamp, hotmelt-only binder with a maximum book size a fraction smaller than the KB2000, and a maximum book block thickness ofj ust half that of the Morgana. It can produce up to 250 books per hour, less than the KB2000. This is a cut-sheet binder whose spine prep is limited only to sanding and roughening of the sheet edges. Fume extraction is an option. An electric clamp can be programmed to book thickness. Cover feed is manual, and there is no scoring for the cover. The KB2000: offline jogging facility consumes time but counters problem of books not turning out squarely The book then travels into the cover application area where the cover has been automatically fed. In makeready, a scale on the nipping device must be set to provide a guide for future covers to centre themselves. “In a digital environment, people often don’t have makeready sheets available, so using the scale you can get it right first time,” Clason points out. It’s worth noting that the KB2000 doesn’t score its own covers. Anything under 200gsm, says Clason, doesn’t need scoring, but on the other hand, most digitally printed covers should be pre-scored whatever their weight to avoid the ugly fibrecracking that happens when they’re folded. The cover nip device nips the cover to the book, using the same pneumatic mechanism as the clamp itself and there’s an adjustable dwell time that can be tweaked via the central control panel. The KB2000 incorporates different heights for the nipping device. Thinner documents need the spine to extend further into the book, to give better pull strength. The KB2000’s nipping device can be set higher or lower, according to the document thickness. The other benefit of this, says Clason, is that it effectively gives a side-glue: “By squeezing the glue a bit higher from the spine, you get some that sits on the sides as well, which can again be useful for thinner docs.” There’s no trimmer to go with the KB2000, but it is returned to the operator, so no movement is necessary. After this it will either need to be guillotined, if the cover is larger www.printweek.com 222x38 1mm 140 x171mm 50 mm 6 0 0 books per hour £28 , 50 0 Duplo International 0800 387799 www.duplointernational.com www.printweek.com than the book, or can be packed straight away if no trimming is necessary. Something the KB2000 lacks – especially given the absence of a trimmer – is an integral pre-clamp jog. Without it. books will not be as square as they might be. So FKS has produced the PrintJog JL300, a standalone jogger than can take up to 350x500mm and 85mm-thick pike capacity, comfortably handling most of the KB2000’s input. It also has an inbuilt air-blast facility for getting rid of static. While offline jogging isn’t necessarily the most time-effective way to do the job, it counters the uneven books that result from having no jogging at all. Makeready, however, is simple. A central control console, mounted on the right of the machine, accepts the clamp thickness measurement. There’s no need to adjust for book length – it’s largely irrelevant to the binder, as there’s no (intentional) side-glue and no trimmer to set up. The position of the doctor blade on the third glue roller must be adjusted, but Clason says for most jobs, this is a standard position. The cover feed scale must be set and that’s all there is to it. Clason feels that the KB2000 is ideal for digital environments: it is low-noise (courtesy of the pneumatic clamps), easy to use and, with so little makeready, fast. “We think this machine will be very popular among digital print shops,” he says. At just over £8,500 for an installed machine with a supply of glue, the price won’t do it any harm either. Max b ook si ze 40 0 x30 0 mm Min book si ze 130 x130 mm Max s pine thi ckness 30 mm Max s peed 250 books per hour Cost not supplied Contact Graphic Arts Equipment 020 8997 8053 www.gae.co.uk WATKISS/RIGÓ LAMIBIND 420 Czech binder manufacturer Rigó teamed up with Watkiss last year to offer the Lamibind range, aimed at digital printers courtesy of a special fuser-oil-proof glue developed by German firm Planatol. Top of the range is the 420. With a single clamp, using single-shot hotmelt only, it is a bit slower than the KB2000. However, it can work with signatures – its spine prep head can mill as well as notch. It doesn’t bring the book back to the operator, but can if equipped. Non-automated, the clamp is self-adjusting and has a memory. It has manual cover feed and nipping. Max book size Min book si ze Max s pine thickness Max s peed Cost Contact 420mm x unlimited depth 130 x130 mm 50 mm 26 0 books per hour £10 , 70 0 Watkiss Automation 01767 682177 www.watkiss.com 35