Finishing & Screen Printing
Successful Video Demonstration: Zhi Sheng Bookbinding Invests in a KM 610.A Perfect Binder
Tuesday 07. July 2020 - Extraordinary situations require extraordinary (sales) measures: Following a successful live video demonstration of a KM 610.A transmitted from the Rahden plant to New Taipei City, Taiwan, located some 9,000 kilometers away, Zhi Sheng Bookbinding decided to purchase the 8,000-cycle perfect binder from Muller Martini.
Since General Manager Ding Qinchi was unable to visit the Blue Salon in Rahden for a machine demonstration as originally planned due to travel restrictions, Muller Martini presented the benefits of the KM 610.A using a live three-hour video transmitted via Skype for Business. This proved to be highly successful. Just a few weeks after the demonstration, involving four different products and three changeover processes, in which everything went off without a hitch, Zhi Sheng Bookbinding signed the purchase agreement for the comprehensive softcover line, comprised of a ZU 805 gathering machine, VA 424.A endsheet feeder, KM 610.A perfect binder (cover feeder for inline production of folded-in flaps), FA 650 face trim machine, HD153.P three-knife trimmer, and KL 301 compensating stacker as well as a workflow solution with job data management.
For Zhi Sheng Bookbinding, which employs 70 people and is involved in several business segments, and which relies on a BF 513 bookline for hardcover production, the KM 610.A is the first softcover solution from Muller Martini in the companys 18-year history. “Our goal,” says Ding Qinchi, “is to improve quality and to boost efficiency and therefore our competitiveness.”
The runs for the wide variety of perfect-bound products produced by the company (books, catalogs, brochures, magazines, comics, encyclopedias, travel guides) range from 2,500 to 3,500 copies per job. Zhi Sheng produces two-thirds of its volume as a pure bookbindery, and another third directly for publishing houses.
The KM 610.A will be put into operation at the beginning of 2021. For Inga Wiens, Regional Sales Manager at Muller Martini, this machine sale is “an excellent example of how we are able to maintain services for our customers during this difficult situation despite the travel ban. Following the premier with Zhi Sheng, we have given other successful live video demonstrations from Rahden for customers in Poland, the Czech Republic and Ukraine. And online demonstrations are being increasingly offered at other Muller Martini plants well.”