Finishing & Screen Printing

Prim Hall introduces HOUDINI, an Automated Make Ready System.

Wednesday 29. October 2008 - What about all those bindery lines in the field, in operation and without any automated makeready? PrimHall is introducing an Automated Makeready for those forgotten heroes that are in the field with a lot of production left in them.

For over fifteen years, automated makeready systems have been available for various new equipment systems. Many vendors now have it, and many are in the third generation which can provide links with data systems that can download the job information automatically. It has come a long way. Many of the applications are focused on the shorter run where there are more makereadies in a day that some long run lines see in a month. With run length declining and many things pointing toward shorter and shorter run lengths, makeready is getting more attention.

Bindery operations are also looking for ways to decrease the labor and getting an operator out of a crew can mean some big savings on a 24/7 operation. In many cases, the need for an operator is primarily for the makeready. Thus, decreasing the makeready requirements for an operator may mean that another operator can pick up the remaining tasks so that eliminating an operator is a realistic expectation.

PrimHall is introducing at Graph Expo their first rendition of Houdini, an automated makeready for the UB Binders. There are hundreds in the field and while some have been enhanced with some makeready improvements, such as a digital readout, none have a comprehensive Automated Makeready System.

The other facet of the PrimHall strategy is not to address simply the new applications, but to address the systems that are in the field.

The first model that PrimHall identified for their Houdini target is the UB Binder. The UB has been around for over 35 years and, for such a long life cycle, has not gone under much evolutionary change. From an opportunity to provide a package to provide the Houdini Automated Makeready, it has a great deal of commonality of parts over it history. The UB System will follow a common pattern for all of the Houdini Family of Automated Makeready Systems. Customers will be able to select the adjustments that fit their product variations. The foundation kit will provide the displays and entry points, along with the thickness related adjustments. The other two primary kits will be for Backbone to Face variations and for Head to Foot variations. The remaining kits are feature related, such as for the scoring unit, additional saws and roughers, side glue kits, etc.

The sales process includes an on site survey to determine the condition of the existing adjusting devices and any specific requirements of the application.

With the trend toward shorter runs, PrimHall will find a lot of attractive opportunities for next model to equip with the Houdini Automated Makeready System.