Finish In Stitches

Improving productivity is not a new concept especially in pre-press and the pressroom, but the end of the process, the finishing department, often gets forgotten resulting in costly bottlenecks.

"Speed and efficiency are just as crucial in finishing as they are with the printing process, if not more so," says Brian Evans Post Press Product Manager, Heidelberg Australia & New Zealand (HAN). "Bottlenecks at the end of the process have a way of impacting on the entire workflow. In the current market where speed of delivery is crucial to ongoing success it is worthwhile looking at existing finishing equipment and assessing its capacity in relation to the rest of the workflow."

Two customers who have benefited from the installation of more efficient finishing equipment are Sydney's Focus Press, and Vega Colour Group in Melbourne. Both companies operate the Stitchmaster ST350, which sits in the mid range of the Stitchmaster family.

"Quality, performance and longevity" are the key features of the Stitchmaster range, says Brian. "The Stitchmaster range - the ST100, ST350 and the newly released ST450 - are extremely sturdy. As such we find customers tend to stick with the brand and to either upgrade or add a duplicate model as demand dictates."

He continues. "Most of our customers, like Focus and Vega, tend to buy in the configuration of six feeders, and one cover feeder, but we can accommodate various configurations with less than six or up to 16 feeders".

Heidelberg has enjoyed considerable success with the Stitchmaster range and as of March this year held 57 per cent of market share.   

Focus Press
In 1994 Focus Press opened for business with a staff of four. Today the company is one of the largest independent print companies in Australia employing more than 100 people over two sites in Sydney - head office is at South Strathfield 14kms west of the CBD and there is a production site at Matraville, near Sydney airport.

Focus Press prints for a broad base of clients on a national basis. The company installed its first ST350 in 2005 at its Strathfield site. This stitcher has turned over more than 100 million books.

Iain Ramsay, Operations Manager said, "It's a very sturdy machine and we've experienced very little downtime with it over the past six years. Make readies are fast and it is easy to operate so training staff isn't an issue. As a consequence when it came to putting in a second stitcher it was a very easy decision to stay with the ST350".

The machine at Strathfield has six hoppers plus a cover feeder and scorer. The newer ST350, which is housed at the company's site in Matraville has eight stations plus cover feeder and scorer and has been in place for 12 months. Both machines can handle up to A4. The older ST350 has a maximum capacity up to 96pp plus cover and the new version up to 128pp plus cover. Both plants are 24/7 operations.

Iain said the versatility of the ST350 means they can run anything from 300 through to half a million books efficiently. "We consistently get good production figures off both machines".

Asked what they produce on the ST350, Iain replied, "All types of stitching jobs go through these machines. We do a large volume of two-up work A5 or DL formats. With the ST350 we can successfully run jobs such as a 12pp DL two-up book at full speed and push through 24,000 books an hour which shows how fast and productive these machines can be". Focus Press also shrink-wraps inline.

The ST350 is just one of a number of finishing machines that Focus Press has bought from Heidelberg in recent years. "We chose the ST350 because of the quality and reliability of the brand and because it is backed by Heidelberg which gives us added confidence in the machine," he concluded.

Vega Colour Group
Vega Colour Group in the Melbourne suburb of Notting Hill, operates two Stitchmasters - the ST400, a reconditioned machine and a new ST350, which was installed last year. Managing Director, Peter Gude, said the motivation for the purchase of the ST350 was to replace what had been a back-up machine to the ST400.

Having benchmarked against the ST400, which is the model up from the ST350, Peter didn't expect the new machine to keep pace with their existing Stitchmaster. "The ST350 doesn't have the level of automation the ST400 does, but it comes very close to keeping up in relation to speed and changeover flexibility".

"With the innovation and new technology driving in the ST350 this machine has quickly become our primary workhorse, our main firepower. And the ST400 is now the back-up". 

Peter said the company's view on having back-up machines was simple.  "We don't subscribe to the excuse that a job has to wait because a machine is busy. The faster and more efficiently we can push through jobs the smoother the overall workflow, and that means investing in equipment that enables us to meet these objectives".

Vega's ST400 is configured to handle the company's two-up work, while the ST350 processes all manner of jobs from DL size through to A4 on a variety on stock and in ranging quantities from as low as 500 right through to a million books.

Bookwork sizes span anything from 8-12pp up to 60-80pp. The ST350 has six stations, and a cover feeder. Vega's model also features two-up trimming and "the small book feature, which we do use," said Peter. The ST350 is also fitted with extraction units to capture waste materials, which are then recycled, ensuring the machine falls into line with Vega's environmental policy.

Vega's commitment to the environment saw the company rewarded this year with the Innovative Solution Award in the Heidelberg Eco Printing Award 2011, the first Australian company to win such an accolade.

In conclusion Peter said, "When this machine was installed we just plugged it in and away it went. It operates constantly throughout the day, over two shifts, seven days a week, and there's been almost no downtime other than regular maintenance. It's a very easy machine to operate and we work it hard".

ST350 Highlights

• Trimming station - clamps the book and trims it. There are no belts running while the product is being trimmed. This is a unique feature to the Stitchmaster as belts that are continually running can cause scuffing.
• Two-up kit - with 4th and 5th knife to trim two-up doubling capacity per hour.
• Synchronisation - between chain and feeders means operators can program feeders via the control screen, eliminating make ready times and improving throughput times.
• Feeders - can be tilted back to allow the insertion and application of plastic cards such as loyalty program cards, onto signatures.  The flow of the feeders also reduces potential for marking. Feeders can be run at half or full speed.
• High capacity - vertical feeders deliver higher capacity enabling the loading of a greater volume of signatures.
• Inkjetting - enabling the insertion of personalised pages so each magazine can be personalised.
• Downstream inhibit - if a section of a book misses in a feeder the machine picks up the error enabling the operator to continue the run without having to de-collate.
• The Stitchmaster Range
• ST100 - maximum speed 9000, minimum 1500 per hour. Up to four double vertical feeders in banks of two and a cover feeder. Features up to 4 stitching heads and up to 4 loop stitching heads.
• ST350 - maximum speed 12000 minimum 1500 per hour. Up to 16 feeders, 6 heads and 4 loop stitching heads.
• ST450 - maximum speed 14000, minimum 600 per hour. Up to 24 feeders, up to 6 heads, and up to 6 loop heads. The ST450 can be configured for three-up work also.