Finishing & Screen Printing

Ready for opportunities on the market thanks to modular Ferag technology

Monday 16. August 2021 - In order to be prepared for new opportunities on the market, Sattler Media Group has put a precollecting and inserting line from Ferag into operation. The system combines EasySert and FlyStream, and also ensures reliable insertion in very thin main products and at high speeds.

For the past 45 years, Sattler Media Group has produced high-circulation newspaper inserts, magazines and catalogues – initially in Hornburg and later also in Barleben near Magdeburg. With the acquisition of Sattler Direct Mail GmbH & Co. KG in 2015, dialogue marketing was also added to the service portfolio in Hildesheim. A further acquisition saw the establishment of the Sattler Premium Print business area in 2020. At the plant in Bad Oeynhausen, creative prepresses, customization possibilities in digital printing, flexible sheet and web offset production, gathering-stitching and perfect binding, plus storage and shipment logistics are all on offer. Moreover, Sattler also offers its customers services in shipment consolidation and the optimization of postage costs, plus advertising possibilities in the agriculture market segment via the Sattler Agrar Media publishing house.
As a result, Sattler Media Group and its workforce of more than 500 staff now manufacture at four locations along the A2 motorway (Bad Oeynhausen, Hildesheim, Hornburg and Magdeburg), utilizing one of the largest and most variable collections of machinery on the European market.
Meeting market demand
Sattler has long-standing experience of Ferag postpress processing systems at its plants in Hornburg and Barleben. However, a few years ago the company withdrew from the insertion and precollecting business as less and less products had to be inserted in newspapers. These could then be produced inline instead – for example, with intermittent glue application in suitably equipped web offset machines. Some services were also outsourced to suppliers.
Despite this, Sattler has been able to gain new orders in the meantime, predominantly in food retail where main inserts are frequently used as carrier products that are supplemented with special flyers. Ralf Büttner, the managing director responsible for technology and production, comments: “The increasing number of orders like this meant that it made sense to re-explore the area and manufacture ourselves. It goes without saying that the current Ferag technology is much more powerful, easier to set up and operate compared to the machines that we previously used, which were then around 15 years old.”
Of great importance to Sattler was to invest in modular, expandable technology that can be adapted at any time to the market requirements seen in the coming years.
The first step of this process saw a Ferag precollecting line – consisting of an EasySert drum, a FlyStream line and four hoppers – put into operation at the start of June 2020 independently from the existing printing presses. Two of the four hoppers and the hopper for the main product are equipped with a JobFeeder extension that enables a very efficient supply despite being carried out manually. The completed products are passed on to a compensating stacker and layer palletizer via a universal conveyor chain.
According to Ralf Büttner, in addition to the “simple and easy-to-learn operation” of the system, the possibility of reliably opening particularly thin main products with thicknesses of less than one millimetre for insertion was a key argument for choosing Ferag. The Ferag system uses an air blast and a small blade to reliably keep open the main product in the EasySert drum despite speeds of up to 30,000 collections per hour.
“Highly professional project management”
The fact that the new Ferag line was put into production by Sattler Media Press GmbH in Hornburg at the start of June following an installation phase lasting around one month was also due to the availability of the necessary workforce at the main Sattler plant.
During the entire process, from consultation and definition of the configuration through to commissioning, the Sattler team felt they were “advised perfectly” by Ferag. Ralf Büttner: “Ferag offered highly professional project management and scheduling, the likes of which we have never seen before.” Precise communication, the corresponding documentation and handovers were important to Sattler because the company carries out a great deal of maintenance services using its own staff.