Ralf Zuchner, Head of the print finishing department at WVD in Frankfurt, in front of Muller Martini’s streamfeeder loading.

The Westdeutsche Verlags- und Druckerei GmbH is known for customized solutions, from data management up to printing and mailing. The company produces high-quality products, such as a daily financial paper, weekly trade magazines for the textile and food market as well as business reports, brochures, booklets and posters.

In order to achieve these goals, WVD’s print finishing processes have been automated to the highest degree. Fully automated loading has already been realized for the guillotine process through the “BASA” system of Baumann Solms, the press delivery system with Muller Martini’s Vivo bundle stacker and the Prima Plus saddle stitcher, which is equipped with Amrys (automatic presetting system) and can be loaded automatically via streamfeeder. Other processes, such as inserting, addressing and packing, have also been automated.

At WVD, press delivery is performed with Muller Martini’s Vivo bundle stacker. “We opted for this system, because quick make-ready and high-quality bundles are of utmost importance to us, since print finishing requires accurately finished bundles for the automatic loading of the PrimaPlus Amrys saddle stitcher via streamfeeder”, says Ralf Zuchner. Zucher praises the gentle separation of the products to a shingle stream, which guarantees a flawless workflow in the feeders.

Special use of the streamfeeders
“Not only a flawless workflow and high production reliability of the streamfeeder loading is important to us, we also found additional features that allow us to use our machine even more efficiently”, Zuchner says. “We noted that streamfeeders can be loaded with signatures of one or more short print runs still during a production run. If the axes of the feeders are controlled via Amrys, the set-up times can be further reduced.” In other words, WVD produces short print runs without long downtimes due to job-changeovers, allowing the machine operators to prepare short run production in advance, even during long-run productions. This saves time and manpower.

Even a rush job can be easily and quickly fitted in during a production run. Ralf Zuchner says, “While the original job is being run, the streamfeeders can be loaded with the signatures of the job to be fitted in and prepared for production. The parameters of the new job are entered in advance through the Amrys system. As soon as the rush job is completed, the previous production can be restarted by simply pushing a button.” As we can see, Zuchner is completely satisfied with the advantages offered by Amrys and the automatic streamfeeder loading.

At WVD, inserts are added (inline or offline) with Muller Martini’s Onyx inserting line. At the end of the production line, the automatic wrapping and packaging line of Muller Martini and Mosca provides a protective covering to the printed products so they can be delivered in mint condition to the readers.