Muller Martini continues enhancing efficiency of book printers worldwide

Major book printers across the world continue trusting in Muller Martini solutions to enhance their productivity and quality efficiency. While China Translation & Printing Service Ltd (CTPS) in Dongguan (China) has become the first graphic arts business in Asia to install a complete SigmaLine book production system, King Fahd Complex is the world’s largest Qur’an printer who trusts in Muller Martini. Tokyo-based Kodansha is Japan’s largest publisher who also breaks new ground with Muller Martini. China Translation & Printing Service Ltd (CTPS) in Dongguan is now able to cost-effectively produce softcover books, even in smaller print runs, becoming the first graphic arts business in Asia to install a complete SigmaLine book production system from Muller Martini. “Why put knowledge to waste?” With this rhetorical question on the title page of the company’s most recent brochure, which informs clients of the manifold possibilities of digital book production, CTPS has hit the nail on the head. Until recently, the minimum limit for softcover books produced in an offset printing process and with various binding methods was 1,000 copies per print run. “With our new SigmaLine, our objective is to have significantly smaller print runs,” underlined Gladys S M Lee, deputy general manager/system director. On the occasion of the Asian premiere of SigmaLine in Dongguan, around 150 invitees from China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Australia and many other South-East Asian countries were also convinced about the performance of the machine. “This was the first time they had witnessed an in-line solution for the production of digitally printed books live in action,” says the managing director of Muller Martini Hong Kong.

Connex tipped the scales

Roughly 150 guests travelled to Dongguan for the Asian premiere of SigmaLine at the plant of China Translation & Printing Service Ltd.HP T300 digital printing machine, SigmaFolder, SigmaCollator, SigmaBuffer, SigmaBinder, SigmaTower, SigmaTrimmer and SigmaControl – CTPS decided on a complete, digital book production system for its nearly 50,000 sq m plant in Dongguan. According to John D Currie, the system’s centerpiece is the digital workflow system Connex. Connex guarantees a seamless interaction of all units. Connex communicates with all the machines involved: it ensures high levels of safety and transparency during production, generates job data for all systems and facilitates the sorting, grouping and planning of orders. These are indispensable assets, particularly given the trend toward increasingly short runs.

The leader’s trusts

One of the specialties produced by King Fahd Complex on the Diamant MC 60 is a pocket-sized edition of the Qur’an.King Fahd Complex has invested in two Diamant MC 60 booklines with the aim of enhancing the quality and productivity of its book production processes. This investment by the graphics company, which has its headquarters in Medina, a destination for many pilgrims, represents the company’s first purchase of a Muller Martini finishing solution in its 27-year history. With an annual printed total of 10 million copies, the King Fahd Complex for the printing of the Holy Qur’an is the world’s largest printer of the Qur’an. Both Muller Martini booklines at the King Fahd Complex, which employs a team of 1,500 people, feature the same configuration: In addition to the Diamant casing-in line, both machines comprise a Collibri gluing-off machine, a Ribbon bookmark ribboning machine, a Merit S three-knife trimmer and a BLSD 650 book stacker. As per Dr Mohammad Salim Al-Oufi, general secretary at King Fahd Complex, “We are certain that the Diamant is exactly what we need. Our technicians spoke in favor of the Diamant system following a detailed evaluation. We were also very impressed by the professional manner in which Muller Martini helped us to set up the Diamant project. We hope that this marks the start of a long and successful partnership with Muller Martini.”

Breaking new ground

The SigmaLine at Kodansha, consisting of a SigmaFolder, a SigmaCollator and a SigmaBuffer, is connected inline with an HP T300 digital printing press and a Pantera perfect binder with a Esprit three-knife trimmer.Tokyo-based Kodansha is the first graphic arts company in Japan to invest in a SigmaLine digital book production system from Muller Martini. Having some of their books printed by a partner company using an HP T300 digital printing press, the leading Japanese publisher will bind them using Muller Martini’s Pantera perfect binder connected to the SigmaLine. Kodansha is breaking new ground in response to steadily declining print runs in Japan. In the future, the country’s largest publisher will print some of its mangas, bunkos and shinjos with runs of between 400 and 3,000 copies using a T300 digital printing press from HP. The publications will be bound using a SigmaLine digital book production system from Muller Martini, which consists of a SigmaFolder (folding), a SigmaCollator (gathering) and a SigmaBuffer (buffering), as well as a Pantera digital perfect binder with a Esprit three-knife trimmer connected inline.