According to director Petra Aerni, the complete system – comprising digital printing press, SigmaFolder signature folder, SigmaCollator gathering machine, SigmaBinder perfect binder, SigmaTower cooling tower and SigmaTrimmer three-knife trimmer – is the ideal solution for the product range that Publikation Digital AG intends to offer: "Our activities center on perfect-bound products such as books, brochures, trade magazines, documentation and manuals for trade and industry, extracts from technical catalogs (such as those for exhibitions) and loose-leaf educational materials. Run volumes can be anywhere between 50 and 3000 copies."

Petra Aerni has many years of experience in the field of digital printing and is something of an expert; the SigmaLine caught her eye right away as it made its global debut at the Muller Martini stand at drupa '04 in Dusseldorf (Germany): "It's the perfect system to use in our fully automated publication factory, and our customers will also reap the benefits."

The SigmaLine from Muller Martini makes systematic use of the benefits of digital printing. It networks digital printing and finishing in one unique complete system, allowing fully automated production in one operation – from the roll to the completed book. Only this consistent integration of all component processes–from prepress data to digital printing and finishing right through to the finished product–enables short runs to be produced extremely quickly and economically.

There are a number of total solutions in use worldwide. In France, Nouvelle Imprimerie Laballery was the first in the country to start using SigmaLine and has substantially reduced book production time for short runs of up to 2000 copies. Managing Director Dominique Haudiquet reveals that "the total processing time for an order of 1200 copies produced using the SigmaLine is just two hours; with the offset printing process we needed three days." Bell & Bain, a traditional, 177-year-old company based in Glasgow (Scotland), uses the SigmaLine for digital production of short run books, short run journals and short run reprints. "We print and bind e.g. 50 to 500 books," says Managing Director Ian Walker, "and when they are sold, we produce the next 50 to 500. Our specialist areas include academic, technical and medical journals and books. Recently, however, we also began to produce fiction – because we are in a position where we are able to economically manufacture short runs for our clients."