Print Innovation Asia Issue 5 2022
24
A beautiful spine can be delightful "We always want to offer our customers the highest level of quality," says Gerhard Wittemann, Managing Partner of Grossbuchbinderei Schiffmann GmbH & Co. KG in Rösrath near Cologne. This is why the company is using a new VFN 700 spine nipping press from Muller Martini to avoid the spine build-up of the book block that occurs during thread sewing. "We now have an angularity in the spine that is really crazy." Gerhard Wittemann, managing partner of Grossbuchbinderei Schiffmann GmbH & Co. KG, is full of praise for his new spine nipping press. However, the fact that the quality of the thread-sewn products has been "dramatically" (quote Gerhard Wittemann) increased as a result is only one major advantage of the VFN 700, which presses every book block in the spine area and thus significantly
reduces spine build up. On the one hand, the inline solution accelerates the speed and also the production flow, and on the other hand, it increases work safety. "We previously had a standalone press from the 1960s that was operated by hand. But this was a work-related risk, which is why we disposed of it immediately after commissioning the VFN 700." "This machine is here to stay" Quite the opposite is true about the new spine nipping press, for which the Schiffmann bindery was on board at an early stage. For the first time in its company history, it was a field test customer for a newly developed machine. According to Gerhard Wittemann, this was with a clear
intention: "If I participate in such a pilot test, then it's with the clear idea of taking over the machine as well." He has only good memories about the field test period, the cooperation with the Muller Martini technicians and the production of samples with and without the press. "The exchange between the experts from the two partner companies was very valuable, and the quality of the end products rose quickly. For me, therefore, it quickly became clear: this machine is here to stay." Specializing in premium products Thread sewing of textbooks, health guides and pocket calendars with print runs of between 500 and 250,000 copies
