Pining for the good old days of print is a popular pastime but while many pundits like to crystal-ball gaze into the industry of tomorrow, it’s a fraught endeavour. Doctor Who’s Tardis might be your technology of choice for a bright future, but you’ll require technology of another kind to actually get there.
There are few places where this technological upheaval is more apparent than in the bindery. A decade of development has irrevocably changed post-press. The finishing department has had to transform in a bid to stay ahead, or at least abreast, of three major developments: the greater productivity of offset presses, the rise and rise of digital print, and market pressure for higher quality, more attractive products at a more competitive (read: lower) price.
The bindery has to work faster to keep up with faster presses. After all, if your bindery can’t keep up with the higher volume of print, it pretty much defeats the purpose of all that offset horsepower. But litho aside, the bindery also has to provide finished products as quickly and simply as possible from “green button” digital engines, which are often run by operators whose knowledge of bindery techniques extends only as far as the green button itself. And, of course, the finishing hall must meet tougher demands from print buyers who expect to pay less for more.
Quick changeovers
If one thing is motivating change in the bindery, it’s the need to reduce makeready times and processes to get more finished sheets on the floor. Just as presses have slashed makeready times, so have many cutters, folders and stitchers. Bindery equipment is much simpler to understand now than it was a decade ago, if only because it’s easier to use.
While the machines themselves are more complex and sophisticated than ever before, operating them has never been more straightforward. This enables faster preparation and production, and significantly, does so while also reducing labour requirements, the single most expensive factor in print production.
“Green button” machinery isn’t really a new concept. It follows on logically from CIP3/4 and JDF concepts introduced around the turn of the century.
Ferag Australia managing director Thomas Klumpp points out a two-pronged advantage to new bindery equipment designed to improve productivity and reduce labour costs through simpler, easier operation.
“Bindery equipment has come a long way in operator friendliness. Intelligent electronic systems help set up the equipment for the job and also to get consistent output. On top of this, the design of our systems has been done according to ergonomic principles, which makes them easier and safer to use,” he says.
“With more intelligent and more capable equipment, fewer staff can operate more machines, but more importantly, the output – for example, the number of copies – per staff member has increased due to today’s better equipment. This is necessary to cope with the need for higher productivity, which drives our industry.”
His counterpart at Muller Martini Australia, Livio Barbagallo, is largely in agreement, but adds a caveat – the print or bindery business needs to understand its own ability to meet production levels and have a realistic projection of its growth and market expectations.
“The technologies available nowadays provide customers with options to run the equipment with very few staff. Of course, this depends on the individual business’ usage of the equipment and the level of automation the specific piece of equipment is suited for.
“It is always a question of labour versus equipment cost, which in the end justifies the level of automation. Of course, depending on the business, there can also be other factors that justify a higher level of automation, for example, safety, skill levels available, complexity of task, and so on,” says Barbagallo.
Printers and specialist binderies have differing requirements for operational simplification. Commercial printers that install their own bindery equipment usually want to bring processes in-house to reduce outsourcing times and costs, and often seek the most versatile machines that can be operated by relatively unskilled employees. Specialist binderies are less interested in saving on labour and more interested in increased sophistication because they usually have in-house skills on tap.
“Bindery equipment is easier to use now,” says Peter Halter, a director at McPherson Binding in Sydney.
The specialist bindery, based in the Sydney suburb of Rockdale, has seen trends come and go since it opened in 1978, and has not been persuaded that new, highly computerised machines are the best direction. McPhersons has a staff of skilled tradespeople who can handle high-volume traffic and specialised orders.
“It’s now simpler to use from an electronic set-up point of view. There’s a high capital cost in bindery equipment, especially folders, if you have automation all over it. But for a trade bindery, it’s not really worth it. I don’t really need that much automation because of the way we operate our production here.
“But if I was a printer and I put a binder in, I’d have to go for an automated machine. One of the problems from a printer’s point of view is utilising the machine. If a printer buys a saddlestitcher and uses it three days a week, he’s going backwards, big time. As a trade binder, if we don’t operate a new machine two shifts, five days a week, we’d be going backwards too,” he adds.
Perks for operators
Tom Ralph, managing director at bindery equipment distributor Graph-Pak, has watched developments in equipment bring operational benefits for users, and usually a better return on investment.
“Bindery equipment has come a long way in the past 10 years. Advanced electronics and touch screen controls, as well as more user-friendly features, have removed the need for a lot of manual intervention. Features such as touch screens can often store settings, and many offer a memory situation to make it easier for the operator,” he says.
If that’s the case for offset printers and trade binderies, it’s even more important for digital printers, who often don’t have skilled bindery operators among their staff. For many, the bindery exists inside or alongside the digital print engine, and must be fully automated.
“Because of innovation, equipment such as cutters, creasers and slitters are simpler devices to set up now,” said Raj Dang at GBC Australia, distributor of Duplo and other equipment aimed at digital printers.
“Similarly, instead of an operator needing to do all the set-ups manually on a folder, now machines are smart and can set themselves up once fed with a few parameters. Even at the desktop level for laminators, GBC has introduced a machine that feeds, laminates and trims the documents itself.
“User interfaces, touch screens and setting up jobs via PC has definitely made bindery equipment easier to use. Most new products manufactured by GBC and its suppliers, such as Duplo, EBA and Eurofold, all ensure that future products are more user-friendly, easier to set up and, as far as possible, have diagnostics built into them. For more complex products such as high-speed laminators, UV and spot varnishers, the trend is to also incorporate remote diagnostics using web cams,” he adds.
The IT revolution
The technological evolution has necessitated a change in the skill set of the typical bindery operator. Ryan Trevathan, director at specialist trade binder End Print Solutions in Sydney’s Girraween, says the role has migrated from mechanical engineer to IT supervisor.
“They [machinery manufacturers] have taken the mechanical ability away and made it a more IT role than ever. We have a couple of apprentices, and I tell them they need to learn on older machines instead of new ones, because all they’re learning on new machines is computer inputs not mechanical techniques.”
But there is a fringe benefit from electronic control of equipment, says Trevathan. “Computerisation is making a difference to the quality of finished work now. Generally, it is better now than it was in the past. That’s probably from computer set-ups being more precise and consistent than manual set-ups.”
The takeover of manual tasks by machines has created a chicken-and-egg conundrum for the industry. With the urgency to rid the process of manual labour to cut costs, that labour has deserted the industry, leaving a dearth of skilled personnel, which has driven up the cost of that labour.
“I think training is now more important than ever,” says Trevathan. “Without it, you’ll kill the trade off altogether. But the people coming in now are less skilled than they used to be. I think that’s because most printers now can’t be bothered to put apprentices on. There were far more bindery apprenticeships 20 years ago than there are now.”
McPherson’s Halter says: “Our industry has been no different from any other. When skills are short, people are more in demand, and manufacturers are making machines that require fewer people to operate, so you don’t need to have those smart operators.
“You can teach people to use it based on pressing buttons. They do miss out on some basic knowledge though, unless they do it the old-fashioned way. Newer staff often know what a machine does but don’t really know how it does it,” he adds.
Keeping it old-school
Old-fashioned skills are of real importance to Ron Baddock, director of Les Baddock & Sons Bookbinders, a specialised binding company with a long history of skilled service.
“This shop was started back in 1918 by my father, in a very small way, and he built it up from there. I joined him here in 1937,” says Baddock. “We do all kinds of bookbinding, including leather, slipcases, case binding, cloth and perfect binding. We have about 25 employees presently, but we once had about 50.
“To an extent it’s true that machines allow you to do more work with lower staff numbers. Computers now make many operations easier and quicker. But in our area, manual expertise is very important, and we use some machines 20 or 30 years old because they’re still quite serviceable. We would gain little by replacing them with new machines because the skills and knowledge we require are in the people, not the machines,” says Baddock.
Graph-Pak’s Ralph says: “Training is more critical today than ever. For an employer to get the most out of their equipment, the training process must be driven thoroughly so that new operators and personnel such as maintenance staff and management can get the optimum results for their investment. The best equipment in the world is no use to anyone if no one can use it.
“The demand for bindery tradespeople is higher than it has ever been, and due to this demand not being reached, employers have no choice but to look for alternatives such as operators with lower skills and qualifications. I think this downward trend is a result of newer technology coming in as a ‘band aid’ option. Features like push-button set-ups and remote troubleshooting have been offered as a solution to the demand for experienced tradespeople,” says Ralph.
Despite the best efforts of both manufacturers and users, it will be a while yet before the “lights-out” bindery will claim a leading role in the industry.
10 Years On – Technological innovation
Cutting
Emphasis in development has been on greater safety and precision, with better ergonomics. Higher productivity has been a bonus.
Folding
Faster makereadies through electronic/touch screen set-ups, but manual supervision and control are still very much a necessity.
Saddlestitching
Removing painstaking manual set-up tasks with PC and touch screen data input has resulted
in much faster makereadies, and more accurate stitching. Still requires experienced hands to
push productivity levels.
Perfect binding
Electronic control of most mechanical operations has added precision and higher throughput. Once the province of specialist binderies for long-run jobs, now manufacturers sell “almost green-button” perfect binders that suit the budgets and workloads of small commercial and digital printers for print-on-demand books. Horizon and Duplo are two manufacturers that have found ready markets for perfect binders that slot into digital workflows.
Auxiliaries (stackers, joggers, lifters etc)
Improving ergonomics, reducing manual labour, saving time, cutting OH&S problems are some of the benefits of auxiliary equipment that often costs just a fraction of the price of a new machine. Probably the best investment any bindery can make to boost throughput and profits.
Comment below to have your say on this story.
If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@sprinter.com.au.
Sign up to the Sprinter newsletter