Finishing & Screen Printing
Thomson Reuters, Eagan: The Orbit Reduces Setup Times by as much as an Hour per Shift at Thomson Reuters
Monday 03. June 2013 - The three-knife trimmer is often the (time-consuming) sticking point during changeovers to a softcover line. That is why Thomson Reuters in Eagan, Minnesota, has installed two new Orbit three-knife trimmers from Muller Martini behind its existing perfect binders. The results have been realized immediately: faster setup times, shorter production processes, and longer knife life.
Thomson Reuters produces millions of softcover and hardcover books annually spread over 15,000 different publications. Three-quarters of all books produced by Thomson Reuters are perfect bound, for which the third-largest book producer in the United States uses four softcover lines. Those include two perfect binders from Muller Martini, a Normbinder and a Pony binder. As the print runs have seen decreases in recent years, the company has to carry out a large number of job changeovers in Eagan. “We have to change each line 10 to 12 times per shift,” says Rocky Aune, Technical Supervisor at Thomson Reuters.
The sticking point of the Make Ready system tends to be the three-knife trimmer. Or rather, was the three-knife trimmer until recently. Since last year, Thomson Reuters has been running two Orbit three-knife trimmers from Muller Martini behind two of its perfect binding lines (the Normbinder and a model from another manufacturer), with results that surprise even the experienced machine operators at Thomson Reuters. Now with the Orbit they can complete job changeovers five minutes faster than before. “I knew that the three-knife trimmer could be changed over quickly,” says Chris Troje, machine operator at Thomson Reuters. “But that it’s this quick exceeds even our wildest expectations. We now save up to an hour per shift.”
Hardly Any Fine Adjustments Necessary
The fact that the 18 machine operators, who operate all three-knife trimmers, are so fast is closely related to the convenience of operating the Orbit, according to Dan Duffy, three-knife trimmer trainer and, having worked for 31 years at the company, the most experienced trimmer operator in the bookbindery at Thomson Reuters. “As we are able to make fine adjustments on the fly and no longer have to set up each machine component individually thanks to the servo technology, we have been able to speed up the entire perfect binding process, while the quality of the end products has improved.” After the book dimensions are fed into the two Orbits at Thomson Reuters, 99 percent of the time there is no need for any more fine adjustments. With the previous three-knife trimmer, this rate was as low as 5 percent (i.e. 95 percent of the jobs needed to be corrected manually).
As the Orbit can be set up easily, there was a very short learning curve for the machine operators – quite unlike the learning curve with the older three-knife trimmer models. “Operating the Orbit felt good from the start and was great after just two weeks of use, while it took six months or more to get that comfortable with other three-knife trimmers,” says Troje. For some time now, Thomson Reuters also has run two Merit S three-knife trimmers from Muller Martini behind another perfect binder and on a Diamant 60 bookline. “Before installing the two Orbits, we were able to train optimally using those models,” says Duffy. By leveraging the similar operating system and Commander control screen with the Merit trimmers, the training on the Orbits was significantly reduced.
Longer Knife Life
Production of thick books is faster in particular, as the Orbit processes book thicknesses of up to 80 mm and Thomson Reuters frequently pre-gathers signatures. The knives used to have to be removed for the passage of the pre-gathered signatures through the three-knife trimmer. Now, with the servo control on the Orbit, the knives can simply be deactivated.
According to Steve Zweber, Director of Bindery and Subscription Services, the Orbit not only trims better, but the knives also last a lot longer and can be set up much faster than before. The knives on a previous three-knife trimmer from another manufacturer had to be replaced five to ten times per week; these knives last ten times longer. “We can trim up to 180,000 books with one set of knives. And after two months of running the Orbits, our supply chain group took notice of the drastic reduction in our outside grinding costs” says Zweber.
“Good for My Stress Level”
According to Duffy, there have been significant improvements in terms of changing and sharpening of the knives: “Either the complete set or individual knives can be replaced more conveniently and much faster than before.” The cost savings for the company due to the reduction in time and materials is just one aspect. Equally important is the increased level of safety, according to Warkel: “The less I have to deal with the changing of knives, the better. It also helps keep my stress level down.”