Offset Printing

HEI Flexibility: Heidelberg showcases high-quality postpress solutions for digital and conventional print jobs at the Hunkeler Innovation Days

Thursday 17. January 2013 - End-to-end quality control in digital production of short runs

Flexible configuration ensures highly versatile production and cost-effective short runs
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) will be showcasing solutions for the high-quality production of digitally printed soft-cover brochures at the Hunkeler Innovation Days, which will be taking place in Lucerne, Switzerland, from February 11 to 15, 2013. This is a response to the trend toward shorter runs and maximum flexibility in postpress for digital and conventional print jobs, under the HEI Flexibility banner.
Together with its partners Hunkeler, ATS, Kama, and POLAR, Heidelberg will be exhibiting a flexible configuration for producing a complete brochure live. The brochure will consist of digitally printed content (web printing) and a cover and will be bound using PUR adhesive and given final three-edge trimming in a single step. A unique feature of this configuration is the end-to-end monitoring of the content and cover using barcodes. All units involved use the same barcode system to ensure at all times that the product is assembled and produced correctly.
The system consists of a Hunkeler UW6 unwinding module, a CS6-I sheeter, and a directly connected Stahlfolder TH 56 inline folding machine from Heidelberg, which folds the sheets and outputs them as a stacked pile using an FAB A560 ATS banding machine. Barcodes are used in the banding machine to ensure every set is compiled in full. Covers with a fold-out page are prepared by the Kama ProFold 74 folding and gluing machine. This scores the covers and turns over the flaps in the same pass to enable optimum processing of the covers in the Eurobind 1300 PUR. Here, too, a barcode ensures the cover and content match. The final three-edge trimming is performed automatically using the POLAR BC-330 three-knife trimmer, the production barcode being read once again at this point. Defective products are not trimmed and therefore don’t make it to the shipping stage either.
Wide range of applications – digital or conventional printing
The solution on display enables production of a large number of different products in short runs without having to carry out time-consuming changeovers. Digital and conventional print jobs can also be processed to suit individual requirements.
Heidelberg and Hunkeler have been working for several years as partners for integrated postpress solutions in digital printing. Stahlfolder folding units from Heidelberg are used in numerous Hunkeler installations throughout the world for digital web and sheetfed printing. With inline connection of its Eurobind Pro adhesive binders to Hunkeler book lines, Heidelberg is able to offer high-quality solutions for industrial digital print production.