“I was immediately impressed with the quality of engineering,” says Schulz, “but even more impressed with the speed of job changes between differing book sizes – as little as five seconds. This is increasingly important in our era of ultra-short book printing runs, where an order for just a few ‘C’-size books can be followed by an even shorter run of, say, A4 books. The WDF Fastset 60/700 enables virtually uninterrupted production from the perfect binder to finished books ready for shipping. It fits very well with our digital book production platform.”
SOS’s WDF Fastset 60/700 will feature a Data Matrix Barcode reading system that scans each book as it approaches the trimming station and sends the size and other instructions such as clamp pressure, to the trimmer in preparation for the five-second job change. Books can be automatically transferred from any perfect binder, cooled on the spine to set the PUR or other glue, dropped singly or in multiples into the 20 feed pockets which then convey the books into the final trimming station. Sewn book blocks can also be accommodated prior to casing in.
Managing Director of WDF (UK) Bill Tunstead mentions: “We are delighted that SOS has chosen Wilstead for its book-on-demand finishing. Our solution uses hydraulics for cutting and clamping, which we find is much stronger, more accurate and reliable than other methods such as pneumatics. SOS has also wisely chosen the Ethernet/serial link option that enables the reporting of production details to their IT system and also provides remote internet access for monitoring and software upgrades. Books-on-demand printed digitally are changing the publishing world and we believe the Fastset 60/700 is the perfect partner to any digital book press and binding line.”