Posted by Andre Palko on Thu, Feb 02, 2012
Starting today Technifold customers now have a new resource page to visit for instructions and operating info on our line of bindery products. It’s not all there yet, but we expect to have a comprehensive listing within two weeks or so—we’re working on it daily! As of today we have FAQ’s for the EZ-Fit Tri-Creaser, Fast Fit Tri-Creaser and the Micro Perforator.
Included are the product-specific instruction guides that came with your product (we know easily they get misplaced!) and tip sheets to help your operators understand proper setup and troubleshooting. Additionally there is a list of Frequently Asked Questions which cover two main categories.
The first is Basic Questions relating to the various products, how or why they work and what to expect when running. The second category relates to bindery equipment operating issues regarding specific products as well as general creasing, scoring, perforating and trimming issues common to folding machines, scoring machines, saddle stitchers and perfect binders.
For those of you thinking about a Technifold purchase, these pages will likely answer some, if not all, of the questions you might have. And the Troubleshooting FAQ’s could give you insight on bindery issues you might be experiencing, no matter what type of products you are using.
If you have a question you’d like to see answered, we want to hear it! Please feel free to submit your question via the Contact Us form. We’ll get it answered and posted as soon as possible.
Posted by Andre Palko on Fri, Jan 27, 2012
Forget television for entertainment; check out the reality show taking place in your own shop. I had an interesting encounter with a Muller saddle stitcher operator that got me thinking about the psychology of bindery equipment operators.
The production manager of this shop (and the operator’s boss) had recently ordered our Spine Creaser to fit his Muller. A couple weeks after installation the manager called with some simple troubleshooting questions. We gave him a few things to try and asked some basic questions to ensure sure it was being used correctly. A day or two later another call comes, “My operator says your stuff doesn’t work and wants to take it off the machine. Frankly, I don’t believe him because all my friends love your product. Is there any chance you can you come in?”
Now normally we don’t do in-plant visits because nearly everything can be handled efficiently via phone or email. Within problems there lie opportunities, and I thought perhaps I could learn something to make the product better, easier to understand or easier to operate and possibly get some helpful photos. His shop was just a short drive from ours and the tone in his voice indicated a sincere desire to make this work.
So I show up and out to the stitcher we go for introductions. After being shown some samples of the problems we decided to set up the cover feeder and test a couple of stocks. I reminded him to check a few items which I had previously mentioned over the phone. After five minutes or so, the first ‘problem’ job looked fine. The issue with register had miraculously disappeared. On to the next job; another dramatic improvement. The production manager pulls me aside and asks, “What did you do? This looks about the same as we get with a die score and the other sheets register perfectly.”
“I didn’t do anything. I stood by and watched your operator. We chatted a bit, but that’s it! I never touched your stitcher.” My very presence was all it took to force the operator to step up to the plate and do his job, to do what he already knew how to do. I didn’t give him any secret bindery tip or tell him anything he didn’t already know. I did learn however, that he didn’t much care for change. He liked it when someone else scored the covers and all he had to do was drop them in the cover feeder and run. It was easier and it was what he was accustomed to doing.
I encouraged Muller-man to persevere through the brief learning curve and gave him my cell number in case he had any questions. The production manager seemed happy. The operator seemed…well, he seemed like an operator who had learned everything there is to learn before I ever arrived on the scene.
Fast forward a few weeks to a voice mail from the production manager, “Can you call me; I’m having a problem?” When we finally spoke a couple days later, he told me the operator ‘forgot’ all he had learned and was blaming everything on paper stocks, the machine or on our product. (The operator never called me.) In the meantime the manager called in a Muller technician for assistance. The end result—same story as with my visit. In a few minutes everything is miraculously running just fine; no repairs needed, no tools pulled off the machine.
What’s the moral of this short bindery story? It’s sad that the operator chose to draw a line in the sand with his job by closing his mind off to anything new. With an open mind he would have increased his value to the company substantially. My guess is he’s not long for that job. Plenty of books and courses have been created analyzing the issue of employee performance so I’m not going to delve into that.
I never got the photos or other product improvement ideas I originally thought I’d find. Instead I took away a valuable personal lesson. Each day I ask myself if there is something I’m doing that I would never do if one of my mentors were watching. Just as my very presence was a motivator, so too I try to keep an invisible motivator standing over my shoulder, encouraging me to persist through change, unpleasantness or difficulties, encouraging me to do many of the things I already know how to do.
Of course we should continue to study how to improve workplace performance. But in the meantime we should improve the one and only thing that we can change—ourselves. We’d love to hear your experiences, successes and failures at dealing with this issue, so feel free to share below. (allow a delay for moderator approval)
Posted by Andre Palko on Fri, Jan 20, 2012
When I was a bindery department supervisor, I’d occasionally hear this at our production meetings, “Don’t worry, Andre will fix it." 'It' could be any number of errors, large or small…a job backed up incorrectly, shortages, poor register, inks that didn’t dry, lack of production time or an incorrect imposition.
If you’ve been around bindery operations for more than a few weeks, you get used to being a Mr. Fixit. The nature and complexity of printing and print finishing is such that mistakes creep in no matter how well prepared and systematic you are about your operation.
Here’s a clever tip on how one bindery fixed a problem with a long-run perfect binding job. The problem is that hot-melt glues won’t successfully bind covers to books when the spine area is coated or printed. Sure, it was probably specified by the bindery to keep that are free of coating; nevertheless the job was printed and sitting on the bindery floor with a UV coating fully covering the spine’s glue area. There was no option except to figure out a way to run it on their Muller RB-5 or Muller Normbinder.
Their solution was to position a motorized wire brush at the delivery end of their Baumfolder. 
Next, a wire frame was mounted to the fold plate, with a support wheel riding just above the wire brush. (see photos and video) After some trial and error they discovered that the only way it worked was when the brush rotated in the direction of sheet travel, with the rotation speed faster than the speed of the sheet.
The fold rollers and slitter shaft hold the sheet while the brush removes the UV coating. Most of you reading this will never have to fix a problem like this…it will probably be something else surprising. Of course if you DO need to try something like this, be sure to follow all safety precautions and regulations.
Although problems like this can be frustrating when they appear, there is a certain satisfaction and reward in figuring out a solution. Hopefully this short video tip will inspire you to fix whatever challenge the world has in store for your bindery or printing operation today.
Many thanks to our friends at Technifold Mexico for the video. Click the video below to watch and as always, we welcome your comments, suggestions and experiences below!
Posted by Andre Palko on Fri, Jan 13, 2012
Around this time of year the cold weather questions start to trickle in, with static being a perennial favorite topic. Here are links to a few articles (including resources) that could help you in the coming frigid months, especially as temps start to dip. For those of you in Hawaii, the Caribbean and other warm climes, go ahead...be amused!
Static in the Print Shop & Bindery - Is There a Cure?
There may not be any flip-the-switch cure, but there are preventive measures that can keep you from pulling your hair out.
Tip for Beating Static on Your Folding Machine
A few homegrown but effective tips.
Dealing with Dry, Cracked Fingers in the Bindery and Press Room
Tired of having your fingers wrapped in Band Aids from January through April?
Cold Weather Tip for Folding Machines and Technifold Tri-Creasers
Ever leave your folding machine on a Friday in good running order only to find nothing but headaches right after the weekend? If it's really chilly on Monday mornings, or any morning, here's a shortcut that could save you some troubleshooting time on your folding machine.
Feel free to share your suggestions and comments below.
Posted by Andre Palko on Fri, Jan 06, 2012
Even if you never get near any perfect binding equipment, take a minute to watch this short video. For those of us involved in bindery work in any way, it contains a simple, relevant lesson.
Sent in by Rodrigo Castellanos of Tech-ni-fold Mexico and filmed at Offset Universal, it demonstrates a problem they sometimes encounter in their perfect binding runs. Occasionally the folding imposition on the web presses is such that the folded edge of the signatures is on the wrong side for the gathering and binding operation.
In this case, the fold is on the short side but the spine runs the long dimension. The collator/gatherer is set up to feed with the fold side down for jogging and grinding. In short, the fold on the wrong side means the book needs to be rotated 90 degrees after collating so that the spine can be ground and glued.
The gatherer feeding their Muller RB5 binder is not set up to do this automatically and at first glance it would seem a bindery worker might have to be positioned to do this manually. On a short run this is no big deal. When you have millions of books to bind, it IS a big deal!
The solution is ingeniously simple: change the timing on the gatherer delivery. This creates a vertical version of the "Bump and Turn" often seen in folder-gluers and other finishing equipment (and demonstrated on a folding machine in a previous Bindery Success Blog post). During normal operation the collated book block slides smoothly in to the delivery pocket. By taking it out of regular time, the book hits the edge of the delivery pocket in such way as to tilt (bump) it forward 90 degrees, landing on the edge that needs to be bound.
It works so well in this case it appears the machine was designed to run this way! No matter what kind of bindery or other printing equipment we run, this video reminds us to keep a little out-of-the-box thinking in our arsenal, to step back from all our experience and look at a problem with the eyes of a child.
Click the Video to Watch - Run Time is 70 seconds
As always, feel free to share your experiences and comments below!
Posted by Andre Palko on Thu, Dec 22, 2011
Ask five experienced guillotine cutter operators how to trim a sheet and you’ll probably get five different answers. So who’s right? Unless one of them signs the paychecks, it depends.
Last weeks article, 5 Signs Your Bindery’s Paper Cutting Practices are Faulty, had me on the hunt for standards and best practices with regard to cutting paper in a print shop. I can best illustrate the difficulty of this assignment by asking, “What’s the correct way to cut a sheet in half?”
Let's start with a manufacturer. A tip from Polar-Mohr demonstrates how to halve a sheet using 2 cuts (left). Assuming it’s a 40” sheet, cut 1 would be at 39.940” and cut 2 at 19.970”. Is this method correct? It depends. Modern cutters are made to handle paper, film, acetate, cellophane, foils, PVC, rubber, textiles, pressboard, tissue paper, cardboard, cork, felt, leather and linoleum, and more. From the manufacturer’s viewpoint, this is the fastest, most accurate way to halve a sheet.
If however, you are cutting blank sheets for printing, you’ll probably disagree with this method, as do I, because it doesn’t ‘back trim’ 
the sheet to eliminate the dust that results on the bevel side of the cut. The better question for us is, “How do I cut a sheet in half for my printing press so that the paper doesn’t contribute to press stops, hickeys or register problems?” Any guillotine cutter rep would agree once they had details on the purpose of the cut.
Which brings us to a second method for trimming a sheet for press: any edge being cut gets cut on the back side of the knife. Make cut 
#1 as shown (right), then rotate the off-cut stock, (left) carefully jog to the opposite side and then make cut #2 to remove the dusty trim.
One note on technique #2: do NOT use a jogging block to immediately jog the sheets up against the clamped, freshly cut edge, as you would do with a printed job. Doing so will deposit a good amount of dust from the off-cut side on to the clean back trimmed edge and defeat the purpose of this technique!
Depending on the weight of your paper stock, you may need to use a third technique. Text weight stocks will puff up with air, so you may need to add a clamping step to remove air along the length of the sheet, before turning to back-trim as described in method 2.
What if the stock you’re trimming isn’t square? 'Square' refers to the need for right angles at all four corners. When paper is ‘square’ the front and tailing edge are equal lengths, and both sides are equal lengths. Depending (there’s that word again) on the mill, a sheet can be out of square by up to 1/16” or more, which is enough to cause problems in guillotine cutting. If you get a trimmed sheet from your paper supplier, (versus sheeted stock) trimming tolerances can be plus/minus 1/32” the width or length of the sheet, guaranteeing more register headaches down the line.
Perhaps your press will run it just fine, but guillotining a precise, finished product becomes a challenge. Never fear, we have method #4—trim all four sides of the full sheet first, then cut the sheet in half and back trim. It’s a lot more work but for a precision job it is well worth the effort. I know from experience that it’s SO much easier to do this than it is to try to salvage a botched job later on the guillotine.
Let’s complicate matters and think about cutting a sheet into 4 pieces for the press. Now there’s one more cut to be made (with back trim) along the length of the sheet. When is it best to do that? Should it be done all at once or should I separate the sheet in halves first? Once again…it depends on paper quality, equipment condition, end use of the sheet and more. We could list dozens of methods for these two simple cutting operations.
Where does all this lead us? Right back to the notion that the best set of standards are ultimately those you create for your own unique use. My technique for trimming stock on an ancient 45” Seybold cutter without hydraulics or air was much different (and more painful) than the method used on a brand new 54” Polar.
Of course, be sure to start with manufacturer recommendations and never ignore safety practices. The techniques that deliver the results you need for your operation should become operational standards. If you are experiencing problems that can be traced back to guillotine cutter techniques, then it’s time to end operator guesswork by establishing a set of best practices. Then you need to enforce them, but that’s a whole different story!
We welcome your comments and stories below!
Posted by Andre Palko on Fri, Dec 16, 2011
A printing company production manager recently asked us about best practices for cutting paper on guillotine cutters. He writes, “I have a few people doing paper "their" way. I want to come up with one standard that everyone uses. I know there is a right way and a wrong way of cutting paper. However, I am thinking that some of my ways are incorrect.”
It sure sounds like a simple task—find published standards on an operation performed by tens of thousands of printers and binderies daily. The purpose of standards is to define expectations, but whose expectations are we talking about? Ultimately it’s the customer, expecting to receive a satisfactory looking print job.
Therein lies the problem; a multitude of printers with millions of customers, with an equal number of expectations! We know they all expect ‘great’ results on their job. So how do we narrow that big universe of expectations down to a simple standard on cutting paper?
Let’s break it down. We can’t manage results, only activities, in this case the activities of the guillotine operator. Thus we have job descriptions to tell an employee what their duties are. Then we have performance standards to tell the employee what results are expected for a specific duty, and how that duty is to be performed to get those results. It is probably safe to assume that one or more of the cutting methods mentioned by our reader are causing problems, otherwise the question would not have been asked. You’ve probably had similar discussions in your own shop.
To get to the heart of the matter, let’s work backwards from the problem. We can ask, “What are some signs that the paper cutting is not being done correctly?” From those answers you can start to compile a list of standards.
Here for instance, are five signs that paper cutting practices at a typical commercial printer could be improved:
- While cutting a print job you notice the press register seems to vary but upon closer inspection you find the paper is sometimes square and other times not. The paper was trimmed on the guillotine before going to press. The press registered precisely to the gripper and side lay but the inconsistent, out-of-square sheet makes it difficult to maintain register on the cutter.
- Register on the folder varies when running a trimmed brochure.
- The pressmen are complaining about hickeys on the stock you cut for them.
- The press stops frequently due to mis-feeds, short sheets, wrinkled or bent sheets when guillotined paper is used. Sloppy jogging, stacking or handling can cause this.
- Double sheets from your trimmed paper frequently stop the press, folding machine or other bindery equipment. This is often the result of trimming with a dull cutting knife.
These are examples of unacceptable results, so now we have to create the standards (and the related best practices) that will generate acceptable results. What’s unacceptable in your shop may be perfectly OK in other, so the ideal standards should be custom tailored.
Using these 5 warning signs above for example, we might apply the following practices to the cutter operators’ job:
- Before cutting, all printed sheets should be checked that the image is parallel to the gripper. (Eliminates mis-register from unit to unit when cutting.)
- Use correct clamp pressure for the stock being cut. (Use of manufacturer’s recommendation combined with your experience eliminates guesswork.)
- Paper trimmed for press must always be cut following these sequences [insert your preferences.] Polar-Mohr, for instance, has recommended cutting procedures for halving a sheet or for cutting 4 out. These can be tailored to your bindery operation. (More on this next week.)
- Paper trimmed for press must always be back trimmed (final cut is on the back, or flat side of the knife) using the following sequences. (Reduces hickeys on press.)
- When trimming paper for the press, discard the bottom sheet from the cut lift. (Reduces misfeeds from bad sheets.)
- Always use a sharp knife. (Eliminates double sheets from a dull knife.)
We could continue to drill down to discover more of what needs to be done, every time, to produce the desired results. Such an exercise could generate a lengthy discussion about who is responsible for what, and when. Getting back to our reader’s original search for best practices; how then, do we know if we have good standards and practices? If we have good, acceptable results every time the standards are used, then you have a good set of standards and practices.
If your paper cutting is not at the root of any problems, then you have good cutting standards. If some printing or bindery problem can be traced to a cutting practice, then it’s time to revise the practice and see if the results change.
Don’t fret; there are some good industry practices that we can use as a starting point for your own personalized standards. Next week we’ll take a look at specific techniques for cutting a sheet in half. Sounds easy, right? Well it is, if you get the results you expected.
As always feel free to share your experiences and suggestions below.
Posted by Andre Palko on Fri, Dec 09, 2011
This is a bindery trick that is elegant in its simplicity. In other words, you really must see this at work on a folding machine, even if you never plan to use it!
The scenario is this: you have a job that requires additional fold plates in the first right angle section. This could be due to the number of folds, extra perforating, extra creasing or other inline processing. If you can run the second right angle in tandem (inline) then it should be fairly easy (see photo at right)
But space limitations might make this impossible. Print shop and bindery floors often have folders crowded together with plenty of room for conventional right-angle setups, but no room for the unconventional.
But what if you could turn the piece as it enters the right angle? (photo at left) Rotating the signature or brochure at this point would eliminate the problem. I recall doing jobs where I parked myself (or someone else) on a chair at the right angle. The folder was slowed enough so that each piece could be hand rotated. Not so bad on a few thousand pieces, but on a long run this is tedious and expensive.
The video below illustrates a very simple technique to rotate the piece automatically. A single piece of strategically placed wire is attached to the frame. (right) Some experimentation with the following items is then required:
- Position of right angle side guide
- Machine speed and right angle speeds to control separation
- Register marbles: location and weight
- Position of wire
Once you get the right combination, you are back in the automatic folding business and the ‘impossible’ folding job is now a routine job. Thanks to Rodrigo Castellanos of Technifold Mexico for the video tip and to the folding machine operators at Offset Universal, high-volume producers of perfect bound books, where the video was filmed.
As always your comments, experiences and suggestions are welcome below, as are your video tips!
Click the Video to watch.
Problems viewing here? Go to www.youtube.com/technifoldusa
Posted by Andre Palko on Fri, Dec 02, 2011
When you work with folding machines, it’s inevitable that you’ll be involved with a job that is “impossible” to run. Perhaps one fold just won’t fold consistently, or the sheet is ripping, or scuffing, or hanging up in a fold plate, and none of your regular tricks work. And because you’re the last guy in the production line, the time scheduled to produce those hundreds of thousands of pieces has evaporated and the job, which arrived in your department at 3 p.m., has to be delivered the next day. Panic sets in as you start to calculate how many people it would take to hand-fold the job overnight. Yet most folder operators figure out how to run these “impossible” jobs.
One Bindery Success reader recently emailed with the following challenge: a 6” x 13” 4-panel roll-fold self-mailer, panels 1 and 2 are 4”, one folds on a score, one on a perf; panel 3 has a cutout window (let the fun begin!) and is 4” to the score and panel 4 is a 1” flap on the outside (the icing on the cake.) [see diagram at left] The piece was die cut including scores and perforations.
The problem: they could not get it to deliver without hand-sorting each and every brochure. If the piece was flipped and folded so the flap was on the bottom, the window would tear.
One of our colleagues, Paul Barrett, National Sales Technician for Tech-ni-fold Ltd. in the UK, and a bindery veteran with decades of folding machine experience, offered a unique and very unconventional solution.
Feeding as shown, fold the 1” flap first in plate #2. (You need to pack the plate to get this small a fold, itself a minor challenge.)- Fold #2: go down 8” into plate #4
- Fold #3: go up 4” into plate #5 (on 4-plate machines, an inline setup with the right angle section is required to accomplish this fold.)
This should unfold the 1” flap and then go to the delivery table...unfolded. 
The next step is the tricky part. Place the delivery wheels very close to the slitter shafts (exit rollers.) When the delivery wheels are set correctly, each sheet coming out of the exit roller will knock the now-unfolded flap back over again to complete the fold.
Paul says this technique worked successfully on a very similar job he 
did years ago. Another technique for tough-to-deliver folding jobs is to remove the delivery tray entirely. (This probably won’t work on the job described above.) Let the job drop directly into a box, one piece directly on top of the previous. Experiment with the size and position of the box for best results.
A variation on this technique is to create a slide (ramp) from the exit rollers down into the box to slow the delivered piece down or to change the angle at which it drops.
I’m not sure what technique our reader used to solve his problem, but he did figure out a solution in the time it took us to reply to his email. We’d love to hear how you’ve handled such jobs. Feel free to comment below or use the Contact Us form to send your techniques to us. If we can use the tip, we’ll even pay you $100, and if you include photos and/or videos of the tip in action, you can make up to $250.
Posted by Andre Palko on Tue, Nov 08, 2011
Chances are good that customer requests have gotten you involved in micro perforating, whether through in-house perf operations or through outsourcing. It’s common today for end users to run pre-perfed, pre-printed forms (supplied by their local printer) through their own laser printers, copiers or digital presses. Invoices and statements are good examples of this.
Perforating can be a nice profit margin booster, especially on regular re-prints. Then one day your customer calls to say that they’re having problems running your perfed sheets through their gleaming, newly-installed Turbo-Kopy-Monster 7000. Or perhaps the call comes in after you deliver a job produced on your own brand new perforating equipment, an investment you hoped would deliver a better product. Or perhaps the dreaded call comes in even though nothing has changed (at least nothing obvious.) No matter what the scenario, (don't laugh...these are all true stories) the specter of a beautifully perfed and printed job coming back home to be re-worked or sorted begins to haunt you.
There is however, a simple, often overlooked strategy to help you steer clear of rejected perf jobs: run a small test batch before you run the full job, especially if you’re new to perfing or it’s a job for a new customer. There are countless variables in paper, machinery and environment and all it takes is one to be out of whack to ruin the job.
Some Things to Look at When Testing
- If you’re perf is rotary, run a small batch and then flip a handful of sheets to perf from the other side of the sheet. Send both batches to your customer for testing. There are hundreds of copiers and printers on the market and each has a different path for the sheet to travel through the machine. What works on one copier may fail on another and in some cases, especially with the deep perfs typical of conventional folding and scoring machine perforators, success is a matter of having the perf blade hit the sheet on the other side.
- Try different perf teeth configurations (teeth per inch, or tpi.) It’s dangerous to assume for instance, that when a customer tells you he’s always used a 17tpi perf, that your 17tpi will do the trick. It probably will, but if the ties (the space between the teeth) on your perf are substantially different from the customers, the strength of the perf will be affected. A perf job run on a platen die cutter could also behave differently than a perf job run on rotary equipment, even though the same perf configuration is used.
Take care to keep the perf as flat as possible. Jagged, deep perforations found in perf + counter knife combinations are more liable to jam up in laser printers than a flat perf such as those produced with a perf + anvil combination (shown in drawing and also as used in our Micro Perforator.) A tip for flattening out a jagged perf on your folding machine: If you’re perforating in the main parallel section, run the flat, perfed sheet through a right angle section, close all fold plates, and flatten it with pull out wheels (or use counter knives) running directly on the perf.- A perfed sheet that folds after perforating might need a different perf than a perfed sheet that just gets imprinted. If you’re folding in-house it will be immediately evident when a perf fails…your folder will jam. So you stop and change the perf. But if you’re applying the perf and then sending the entire job to your customer for him to fold at some point, the failure won’t happen until all the damage has been done. It’s hard to recover from this scenario.
Other variables which impact performance of the perforated sheet include grain direction, humidity, coatings, ink coverage and static. Be sure to consider these factors for further testing if the basic perf test tips above don’t work. I’ve seen customers blame a “bad” perf for their problems when in fact static was the culprit.
Finally, if you are wondering what to do with a rejected job, try flattening the perf before you re-work the entire job. Use your folding machine (as described above), scoring machine or even a printing press to iron out the jagged perf and then re-test in the customer’s printer. It could save you!
If you want to live dangerously, go skydiving or play the lottery with your paycheck, but don’t send out that new perf job without a little advance testing. It’s a simple, common sense strategy which takes very little time for you and your customer, yet the dividends can be huge when you consider the true costs of even a single rejected job.
We welcome your stories, comments and ideas below!
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