The Tour de France has the “yellow jersey” and Reclam has the unique “yellow Bolero”: a hallmark that is wholly characteristic of uniform corporate identity. The “little yellow books” produced by Reclam, which contain world literature classics in a handy small format, are not just well-known within Germany, but also around the world. “The color of the new perfect binding line is a reference to our company and produces a wow factor for our customers,” says Production Manager Franz Dengler. “It also allows our employees to fully identify with the new machine.”

Uniform corporate identity: The new yellow Bolero at Reclam is set to give customers the wow factor.

According to Managing Director Franz Schäfer, there are two main reasons why Reclam Graphischer Betrieb, sister company of Reclam Verlag, chose to replace the aging Trendbinder installed in 1995 with a Muller Martini solution: “The long-standing partnership with Muller Martini coupled with its excellent service.”

Experts in Thin Paper

However, the full-service company, which employs 75 people in the technology department and uses two signature and web presses that predominantly print in single color, did not make it easy for itself and took a long time to assess the new perfect binder in detail. After all, besides the six million “little yellow books” published by Reclam itself each year in several languages and making up around 30% of its revenue, the company also prints a large number of additional softcover products for external customers, including timetables (e.g. for Deutsche Bahn), calendars and industrial catalogs.

Reclam specializes in particular in small formats and thin paper. “We can print on paper as lightweight as 30 g, making us experts in thin paper printing,” proclaims Franz Schäfer proudly. The fact that the company often prints in formats smaller than A6 format was an important factor in choosing the Bolero, as Reclam produces not only its “little yellow books”, but also many other booklets in two-up production. Therefore, the binding line includes a 21-station gathering machine, gauzing station, high-frequency dryer, drying section with two cooling towers, Frontero front trimmer (for the gatefolded brochures increasingly common at Reclam), Orbit three-knife trimmer and CB 18 counter stacker as well as a splitting saw.

Asir 3 for High Quality

Franz Dengler is, however, not only enthusiastic about the color of the new perfect binding line, but also about that all-important increased flexibility and productivity: “Usually, production runs over a three-shift operation, but since the Bolero was commissioned (on which the clamps are not numbered, but are given the names of famous German authors in alphabetical order), we are able to run our perfect binding tasks over two shifts instead.” Above all, thanks to the Book Data Center (BDC), it is now considerably quicker to set up the line. “Our machine operators were positive in their comments about the automatic measurement device and it has become an essential part of our operations,” emphasizes Franz Dengler.

Quicker production is coupled with high quality thanks to the barcodes printed on the majority of signatures. “The Asir 3 automatic signature image recognition system identifies all faults, which means we no longer receive any complaints from our customers,” says Franz Dengler. “The Asir code provides us with 100% reliability, which is of the utmost importance for sensitive products such as timetables, and what’s more, we can also now use Asir 3 to check the covers on the new perfect binding line.”

Every Type of Gluing Need Met

Managing Director Franz Schäfer was also impressed the speed at which Muller Martini installed the new perfect binder: “We didn’t lose a single day – the Bolero was assembled at a new location before the Trendbinder was dismantled, which meant we could get production underway on the very first day.”

Production Manager Franz Dengler is also impressed by the new Bolero’s different gluing options. Whether cold glue, PUR, hotmelt or two-shot primer, Reclam can now meet all customer requirements. The new Bolero is fitted with a high-frequency dryer for production using cold glue (a procedure that ensures an optimal layflat effect), enabling softcover books to be produced in-line at high speed as well. 

Managing Director Franz Schäfer (center) and Production Manager Franz Dengler (left) in discussion with Peter Stein from Muller Martini Germany.