The Alegro Heralds a New Era

Customers of the Alegro perfect binder featuring motion control award the machine top marks for its size range, product quality, processing times, flexibility and easy serviceability.

Motion control technology means that the stations have unit drives, enabling settings to impact directly on the product for maximum quality. It reduces the processing time for each job, which in turn lowers production costs and generates additional production capacity. Thanks to motion control, the Alegro is the answer to market trends such as decreasing run sizes, higher quality requirements and greater cost pressure. Since installing an Alegro, Johann Sandler GmbH & Co. KG in the Austrian town of Marbach has almost doubled the number of jobs it prints and finishes each year. “Entering the perfect binding segment marks the start of a new era for us,” says Managing Director Hannes Sandler. 

Sandler’s decision to commission another perfect binder following a brief period of operating in that segment in the early 1990s was the result of massive investments in printing technology. “We’re in for a penny, in for a pound – entering print finishing means that we also have to guarantee quality, transport and compliance with deadlines,” says Sandler with conviction.

In-house softcover was also on the wish list of its major customers. The company was prompted to invest in the first Muller Martini system in its 34-year history by the ideal complete solution that requires only minimal staff thanks to its high degree of automation and central control system.

Sandler’s extensive Alegro line with hotmelt and PUR, a splitting saw for ever increasing two-up production, a 3696 gathering machine, an Orbit three-knife trimmer, a CB 18 book stacker, a shrink tunnel and a Pluton palletizer from Solema also includes the Adhesive Monitoring System developed by Muller Martini. AMS minimizes glue consumption and production waste in perfect binding. A laser near the gluing unit continuously monitors glue application, even for differing glue patterns, by means of heat measurement. That enables adjusting the amount of glue applied at any time.

A high degree of automation, a central control system and minimal need for staff – Sandler has achieved those three key goals with the new Alegro perfect binder.