Until a year ago, softcover production at Seaway Printing in the town of DePere in the US state of Wisconsin was characterized by several work steps and a correspondingly large number of manual interventions. That changed drastically with the investment in a SigmaLine Compact from Muller Martini. The result is astounding: the productivity of digitally printed books has been doubled!
Compared to the 35 million magazines that are saddle stitched annually on the two Muller Martini systems, Primera MC and BravoPlus, the three million books per year at Seaway Printing account for only 8.6% of the printed volume. But in terms of sales volume, softcover products account for over 25 percent at the long-established company, which was founded in 1884, employs around 75 people in a 5/24 (printing) and 5/16 (finishing) mode. “This business unit is therefore very important to us, and its importance is continuously increasing,” emphasizes Kevin Heslin, who manages Seaway Printing as President together with his son Ian Hesling (Vice President).
The print runs for books covering a wide range of products – from children's books to novels – that are produced for publishing houses in almost all US states can be as high as several thousand copies. However, the average is 600 and is increasingly falling. And that in turn requires a highly efficient production process – the key phrase here is frequent changeovers.
From left: Eric Olsen (Sales Manager Muller Martini North America), Ian Heslin (Vice President Seaway Printing), Kevin Heslin (President Seaway Printing), Andy Fetherman (Regional Director Muller Martini North America).
Before: multiple work steps, extensive manual labor
Three decades ago, when the company entered the digital printing business – “its share is increasing significantly, and we are benefiting from our extensive experience” (Ian Heslin) – the workflow was suboptimal until a year ago, after an HP T250 digital web press had been put into operation. This was because it was characterized by multiple work steps and correspondingly extensive manual labor.
A Hunkeler unwinding/cutting/stacking system processed the printed rolls into two-sided sheets in stacks to form book blocks. The sheets were then fed manually into the Muller Martini Alegro perfect binder with a Granit three-knife trimmer, which was installed in 2019. The fact that the two-sided sheets shifted and curled during transport made manual feeding difficult and unproductive.
After: an interruption-free inline solution
Consequently, an interruption-free inline solution with as little manual intervention as possible was urgently needed – and Seaway Printing found it in the SigmaLine Compact from Muller Martini. “We flew to Switzerland in 2023, first attended the Hunkeler Innovationdays in Lucerne and then did some extremely successful tests at Muller Martini's Print Finishing Center in Zofingen,” says Kevin Heslin.
In March 2024, the SigmaLine Compact was put into operation in DePere and connected inline to the HP T250 and a Contiweb non-stop unwinder – with striking results. “Our productivity for digitally printed softcover books has doubled since then,” says Ian Heslin, visibly pleased.
Numerous other advantages
Increased efficiency is just one of many advantages of the SigmaLine Compact. Added to this are the simplified processes, the associated lower resource requirements (a single machine operator can run the entire line), the significantly improved quality of the end products compared to the previous solution, the additional production capacities and less paper waste. In particular, the reduced labor costs played a crucial role in Seaway Printing's return-on-investment considerations.
“The key to our success”
It's no wonder that Kevin and Ian Heslin have a positive overall view of the SigmaLine Compact's first year of operation: “An uninterrupted production process, to which the Muller Martini Connex workflow integrated into the Prinect workflow from Heidelberg also makes a significant contribution, is the key to our success. Many other graphic arts companies lose a lot of time and money in this regard. We are really impressed and our employees love the machine. Although the changeover from our previous production method and the training were a challenge for them, they are very satisfied.”
The icing on the cake is still missing...
For completely interruption-free inline bliss, “only” the perfect binder remains. But Seaway Printing is already evaluating other options in this regard as well. “We are looking intensively at
Antaro, so that the HP T250, the SigmaLine Compact and the perfect binder would form a complete line,” say the two company visionaries, with an eye on their next planned investment.
You can also read about the SigmaLine Compact in this blog on the Muller Martini website.