This article was first published in the March 2021 issue of Australian Printer, by Muller Martini Australia sales manager Roman Beeler

Post-press is just as important as the pre-press and press stages as it is post-press that ultimately shapes how the final product will look and feel like. Even though it is one of the last stages of a press cycle, it is the first thing that customers notice.

Poor quality finishing will often put customers away as when they open a book, magazine, brochure, or any other printed material, the first thing that they notice is any uneven cutting, bad binding, or any other post-press related finishings.

Waiting to consider post-press production until your print job is complete is a recipe for disaster. The finishing of any printed product needs to be planned as much as the printing itself. Poor planning can result in expensive re-prints. The finishing process also requires know how and the correct equipment. 

The most logical thing for print service providers to do is to consider the whole process; otherwise the result of pre-press or press stages can easily be a waste of time and resources in the post-press area.

By considering the whole process from the very beginning to the end, one can ensure smooth and efficient production with minimised waste.

This is most obvious in the digital space, where our solutions such as the Sigma lines actually generate the pagination and sends it back to the digital printer.

In the market, new equipment is increasingly becoming automated and machines can self-adjust without manual intervention. Also, we have noticed that shorter set-up times are becoming more or as important as equipment speed, with most factories facing shorter run lengths.

Machines are also becoming increasingly equipped with barcode readers, which reduces errors and waste. Digital solutions allow for better control over the process and customers can easily view and analyse their production data thanks to analytics software (such as Muller Martini’s ConnexInfo) which helps in identifying and fixing problems.

Some of the most popular post-press machines at Muller Martini is as follows:

• Muller Martini Vareo and Infinitrim – which allow for a variance of sizes and thickness all the way down to “Book-of-One” (where every book is different)
• Muller Martini Alegro – a mid-performance (7k/h) range binder for the conventional market with quick set-up times, minimising down-time
• Muller Martini Primera PRO – a mid-performance (14k/h) range binder for the conventional market with quick set-up times, minimising down-time

Such machines are necessary for printers because of automation – meaning quicker setups, quality control – resulting in less waste, and higher productions speeds. This is because with pressure on prices and margins, printers need to constantly improve their efficiency to stay competitive and profitable. Investment in both automation and process digitalisation can help secure this.

There are still many older post-press machines in the market that are used for daily commercial production. However, with the technological progress on new equipment and the changes to shorter run-length, these machines are basically not competitive.

Many that move into digital printing are doing this with smaller conventional post-press equipment behind the printing lines, which entails a lot of manual work and tracking. This is fine when volumes are small, but difficult to manage and inefficient when volumes increase.

There is not necessarily an imbalance between quality and quick delivery in the market, but more so a question of what the print factory is set up for in terms of equipment and systems. Factories, especially, that have been set up for fewer orders of traditional long runs of standard products are now are facing the challenge of more shorter run-length orders.

At this stage, equipment with automatic adjustment features and barcode type tracking is required, no matter if we are talking inline solutions after the digital press or near-line/off-line solutions.

It can, at times, be difficult to justify investments in new lines, but instead of replacing post-press equipment such as stitchers and perfect binders one-for-one, we do see customers replacing two old lines with one new and still achieving the same output.

Obviously, it still requires some level of investment, but it also reduces the ongoing operational costs to man-power.

For example, the hard-cover book technology now allows for “first book sellable”, meaning that even small runs over hardcover books is feasible. This is probably more of a niche opening than a “bandwagon” issue, but could be a profitable segment.

Going into the future, we expect digital and digital-ready equipment to become more popular. This will require an increased integration between printers’ MIS systems and down-stream equipments, allowing for smoother production planning.

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