We all get excited about faster and better quality digital presses, whether toner or inkjet; but what about the finishing? Can an offset printer adding digital rely on legacy finishing equipment to trim, fold, bind and stack the jobs or must he investigate digital-specific equipment – or even consider inline finishing? 

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a workshop put on by Swiss paper handling company Hunkeler, and presented by Asia Pacific Sales Director Patrick Lehmann. Now Patrick is a guy you’d love to have on any team. He is passionate about quality paper handling and his smile lights up like a Christmas Tree as he describes his company’s precision engineering approach to high volume paper handling for the direct mail, transpromo, book, commercial print and newspaper sectors. 

Hunkeler has initiated its ‘huncolor’ product programme where smoother paper paths reduce or eliminate marking on more sensitive full-colour digital print travelling at high speeds. Its main environment is reel-fed but configurations can go roll-to-sheet for use on sheetfed digital machines, roll-to-roll for offline finishing, roll-to-fold and roll-to-complete book blocks ready for perfect binding in, say, a Mueller Martini Amigo digital binder. Webs can be merged and plough-folded and even include web inspection cameras, like a mini web offset or gravure site. 

Its POPP 6 Generation of unwinders, rewinders, folders, collators and stackers can now travel at over 200 metres (656 feet) per minute, keeping up with the fastest digital web presses and the new POPP7 widens web width from 543mm (20.5”) to 670mm (26.8”). All of Hunkeler’s equipment is specifically engineered for the needs of digital production, with Weko paper conditioners included where necessary for re-moistening or silicone coating. 

Sheetfed digital also benefits from dedicated digital finishing equipment. Toner ‘cracking’ has long been a bane of digital printers, resulting in untidy spines on stitched products. Designers can ‘cheat’ by leaving a toner-free gap along the spine of the cover, but the best solution is a digitally-capable creaser/folder. Graphic Whizard’s CreaseMaster series scores the fold first, eliminating toner cracking. British company Morgana has also focussed on the needs of digital finishing with creasers, folders, numbering machines, collators, cutters and binders. Finishing giants Horizon and Duplo, as expected, have re-engineered offset finishing equipment to deal with sheetfed digital specifics, and included JDF features. 

We’re seeing more digital embellishing entering the market such as digital foilers, varnishers, coaters, spot-coaters, die-cutters and so forth. This is good news and it takes the focus away from ‘cost per sheet’ and adds value. 

At Drupa in May we saw several finishing suppliers with complete production lines, where the print engine was maybe only one-fifth of the whole concept – and could come from a variety of suppliers. This tends to indicate we could be headed for a finishing-centric (if that makes sense), digital future where the profit is in the paper handling, rather than putting toner or jetting ink onto substrates. 

As the ‘big guys’ of finishing take a keener interest in the growing needs of smaller format, slower speed digital printers, we can expect to see high-end capabilities coming into digital finishing, particularly with web/continuous feed. 

I recall one of the very first Indigo installations in the UK was a company printing hotel printware; door hangers, tent and pyramid cards, key wallets etc. Hardly a flat sheet came out of that establishment. They were profitable from day one and are still in business – all thanks to good digital finishing.