KOLBUS has developed a special solution for cover production to produce hardcover books with straight and rounded spines. The printing and finishing process at Printforce is geared to the changing flow of orders and a variety of end products. The existing DA 270 casemaker still meets the increasing demand for book covers in print run sizes from 1 copy upwards. The variety of formats, the number of copies per title, and the increasing number of titles made it necessary to further optimize the batch processing for the fully automated production of the bookbindery.
To this end, the latest generation of casemakers, the DA 370, was investigated. This machine generation has various equipment options for producing "standard" bookcases for conventionally printed books, as well as a digital version with which the bookcases are cut from a cardboard format and book covers are produced with a rigid cardboard center strip.
With Printforce, hardcover books are produced with both straight and round spines. So another solution had to be found that was specially developed for this.
DA 370 Full Flex
The result is the "DA 370 Full flex". With this version, the front and back covers are fed separately and the cardboard for the spine is cut to the correct - variable - spine width and inserted between the front and back covers. This is done either with a thin center strip for books with round spines or with stronger cardboard for books with straight spines. The cover material is fed in batches, whereby the cutting of the cover material per book cover is done in the machine and is fully variable to the spine thickness. The result is optimum cover quality.
Hotmelt
While the previous version, the casemaker type DA 270, still uses hotmelt, the latest version uses hotmelt. The benefit is that processing is more stable and energy and raw materials costs are lower. Since the number of titles also means greater variability with the bookcases, the complete control and drive system of the DA 370 has been revised. All product-specific adjustable axes have recirculating ball screws that offer high accuracy and fast adjustment.
Incidentally, Printforce has not forgotten the existing DA 270. This machine has now been overhauled by KOLBUS and will be given another machine life with Printforce UK so that further growth in the bookbinding sector will be possible without any problems.
