Finishing & Screen Printing
Kolbus at drupa
Tuesday 01. March 2016 - The KOLBUS Book Manufacturing division will present 3D Format Variation of books on a running machine without stopping for make-ready. The key elements of this presentation are the KM 200 Zero-Make-Ready Perfect Binder with newly enhanced 3D Format Variation capabilities and the brand-new HD-HD 143 Three-Knife-Trimmer. This new zero-make-ready trimmer can trim books of different thickness, different height and different width without stopping for format adjustment. This will be one of the technology highlights at drupa 2016.
As always, this is all industrial scale equipment, capable of producing thousands of books per hour just as easily as runs of one book.
For feeding printed signatures into the system, KOLBUS will demonstrate the full versatility of its approach. For digital web-fed printing, the bookbinding system will be fed by the WF 100 Webfolder. With a capacity of up to 1.5 million pages per hour in its current, standard version, the KOLBUS Webfol- der has the potential to start working today and outlast several generations of digital presses. The WF 100 imposes no limitati- ons on subsequent finishing operations, perfect binding, sewing, stitching, perforating, gluing are all possible. For the link into the bindery, KOLBUS has a wide array of possibilities. Fully-automatic, intermediate storage, inline coupling, variable speed links are all possible. KOLBUS can also create systems for fully-automatic handling of inserts just-in-time and just-in- sequence.
Alternatively the KM 200 is also equipped for feeding of book- blocks or even stacks of loose-sheets. Furthermore, the KM 200 can easily be switched from paperback to hardcover book blocks.
At drupa 2016, KOLBUS will demonstrate this capability and, at the same time, introduce the brand-new Hardcover Book- line BF 513. This machine will make all the zero-make-ready features of the flagship BF 530 Bookjet-Edition available for the lower budget, 30 books a minute class.
KOLBUS Commercial and Publishing Printing division will pre- sent the brand-new KM 610 Perfect Binder. This new line of machines, running upwards from 5.000 books per hour, will be displayed in its 7.000 book per hour version. The new KM 610 series has been newly designed to incorporate the user interfa- ce structure of the future, taking ease of operation to a new level.
As a special feature at drupa, KOLBUS will be running the new KM 610 binder at full speed through the new digital zero-make- ready three-knife-trimmer HD-HD 143, thereby displaying the unparalleled hybrid capabilities engineered into the KOLBUS system.
This time, it will be KOLBUS youngest division that will put the most sensational exhibit on display. For the Luxury Packaging industry, an innovative production system for rigid boxes has been developed that will revolutionise the luxury packaging industry and will even impact the luxury goods industry. At our stand at drupa 2016, we will be producing rigid cardboard boxes with lids and metal fasteners on a fully automatic continuous flow line. This will be demonstrated at an unprecedented run- ning speed of more than 2.000 boxes per hour, and format changeovers will be shown to be just as easy as on a modern KOLBUS case maker.
For the luxury packaging industry, this is the beginning of a new era. For the first time, product changes will be done by re-setting a machine, rather than retooling it.
It will again be possible to produce luxury packaging in the same, affluent economies where luxury goods are sold. Minimum order quantities will drop dramatically, opening luxury goods market to small, artisanal manufacturers. And the famous mega-brands will get the possibility to fine-tune their production to sales trends on a weekly rather than an annual basis. At the same time, the product quality that can be achieved is far superior to todays market standards.
Workflow Design
On top of all this, there will be a lot of focus on the KOLBUS approach to workflow design and systems control, especially in view of the approaching era of Industrie 4.0. On the occasion of the pre-drupa 2016 International Media Conference, KOLBUS has put its XML syntax, in other words, the language that KOLBUS machines speak, on the internet for free down-load for everyone.
At KOLBUS, after observing the approach to work flow design over the past 15 years it was finally considered deeply flawed in that many suppliers try to sell proprietary systems. A proprietary system is directly opposed to the needs of the modern, networ- ked economy, were processes and resources need to be freely linked. Therefore, KOLBUS found it was time to deliver a power- ful signal by giving networking software away for free.
With this simple system, it will be easy for customers to design workflow systems within which they and their ultimate custo- mers can communicate directly with the KOLBUS production systems fulfilling the orders, wherever and whenever necessary.
KOLBUS hopes that this example may be followed so that the way can be opened to a future, perfectly networked industry including the printing services that it will need.
A brief introduction to KOLBUS
KOLBUS, known as a bookbinding machine manufacturer since 1900 and a veteran exhibitor at drupa since 1951, is among the biggest exhibitors at drupa 2016 with a 1,400 square metre stand. Still based on the rock-solid foundation of a fully-integra- ted engineering company, KOLBUS has developed into an all-round systems supplier for the Book Manufacturing, Commercial and Publishing Printing and Luxury Packaging Manufacturing industries and serves industrial users of Embedded Printing Processes.
KOLBUS provides product design, process design, systems engineering, supply and installation of manufacturing equipment and all relevant services. While benefiting from a very broad range of machines completely manufactured in house, KOLBUS has developed powerful systems integration capabilities that ensure that KOLBUS users can always be equipped with the
best available solution from wherever it is available. Recognising the advantage of being able to draw on its full machine-building resources, KOLBUS will always preserve these as a core compe- tence. But only integrated solutions from virgin paper to finished product will be suitable for many of the challenges facing the printing and paper converting industries and KOLBUS is perfectly prepared.
KOLBUS market segments
KOLBUS does not consider digital printing a segment. KOLBUS is convinced that digital-related capabilities are a given. The Book Manufacturing industries have been enormously enriched by digital capabilities. Both personalisation and truly customer- oriented logistics depend on digital print capabilities.
Commercial and Publishing Printing is still a fascinating market. Aesthetically pleasing products with a true wow factor and a surprising affordability will always be marketing tools in a class of their own. KOLBUS has and will keep research and develop- ment capabilities available for this industry segment.
The consumer and financial industries are no longer satisfied by supplying business forms or manuals. The process of merging a product coming off an assembly line with its technical documen- tation becomes a process embedded in the manufacturing value- chain. The former commercial printer specialised in manuals for cars turns into an automobile supplier using printing technology. What used to be a business form printer has either closed its doors or turned into a financial services provider using high-tech printing to provide documents on an industrial scale. At KOLBUS, this is referred to as Embedded Printing and KOLBUS caters to the special needs of this newly developing industry.
Another very young product segment for KOLBUS is technology for Luxury Packaging Manufacturing. Based on almost 90 years of experience manufacturing casemakers for the book industry, KOLBUS has created a range of solutions for paper-based rigid boxes. Introducing the industry to consistent quality, rapid and tool-less make-ready and adaption to digital printing, KOLBUS is creating new opportunities for packaging manufacturers and their ultimate customers, the luxury goods industry.