Finishing & Screen Printing

Quantum Graphics Takes a LEAP

Friday 11. January 2013 - Eden Prairie based Quantum Graphics is a bullish print and media management firm in an (often) bearish print market. The Quantum Graphics management team of John Gardiner, Andy Shillock, and Guy Peterson are all print veterans, with over 75 years of collective offset and digital print experience.

Quantum recently took on another challenge with a Minneapolis-based children’s book firm. This company produced completely personalized, digitally-printed high-quality hard cover children’s books. There were many challenges in this assignment. Normally, children’s books are printed on fairly heavy paper board, for durability. But digital print engines are limited in the weight of the stock they can print on. So a compromise must be reached on paper stock.
Second, lots of static-content children’s books are printed and bound in China, where hand-assembly is typical. But personalized children’s books are definitely a U.S. opportunity. These are “books-of-one” in the truest sense, and delivery times may be a few days from the time of order. The book pages are printed on a board stock, typically three, or four-up. The unprinted sides are then glued together “back-to-back” and pressed. Later, they’re trimmed into individual books and cased-in.
Automating the assembly process is a challenge, but Zechini’s BtB children’s book machine does the job. The BtB automatically feeds printed boards, folds them in half, then applies a perfect layer of PVA cold glue to the unprinted side. The machine then presses these together in perfect register. A touch-screen operator interface enables the operator to quickly set the machine for the book page count. With the ability to cycle at up to 700 cycles per hour, the BtB is the perfect solution for ANY type of board-to-board book production.
In addition, the BtB can be equipped with a PAFRA, pen-type glue system which can “skip” adhesive application in certain areas of the book so that puzzles, or fold-outs can be inserted. Zechini makes an entire series of children’s book assembly and casing-in machines, from ultra-short-run, to high volume production.