“Our clients do not yet have a solid understanding of what digital printing is,” says Giuseppe Bracchi. The managing director of Rotolito Lombarda is convinced that “this, however, will drastically change in the years to come. By investing in SigmaLine, we have opened up the possibilities for our clients to order smaller quantities, enabling them to reduce their storage costs. As pioneers in Italy, we are ready for digital printing to really take off.”

As a first of its kind in the world, the Pantera perfect binder was combined with the SigmaLine for Rotolito Lombarda.

This modern company can now benefit from the many advantages of SigmaLine in terms of the speed and reliability of processing orders. “Thanks to this advanced technology,” says Giuseppe Bracchi, “we are able to complete orders in small print runs with short turnaround times and at low costs. In a nutshell, digital printing provides Rotolito Lombarda with new opportunities and applications in our on-demand business segment.”

Giuseppe Bracchi, Managing Director of Rotolito Lombarda (left): “We are now able to manufacture our entire range of print runs for our customers on site using the most advanced system.” Right: Bernd Volken, Managing Director of Muller Martini Italy.

The many visitors to Rotolito Lombarda’s Open House at the company’s new production site, inaugurated only a few months before, were able to see this for themselves. “Many of our customers were surprised by the diverse possibilities offered by digital solutions,” says Giuseppe Bracchi.

Printed manuals are making a comeback

In fact, digitally-printed books only make up a fraction of the impressive softcover volume for Rotolito Lombarda, the only Italian company with a fully-integrated, industrial high-speed total solution for digital book production. Using the HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Press and the SigmaLine, combined with a Pantera perfect binder as a global first, a wide range of products can be printed and processed, including mostly textbooks, technical manuals and novels. The latter are often printed as sample copies before the main print run is carried out using offset printing.

Giuseppe Bracchi has observed that technical manuals in particular are making a comeback. “To begin with, it has become evident that many users prefer holding a printed reference in their hands to the tedious job of clicking from one product website to the next. Secondly, these technical manuals can be quickly updated thanks to the digital printing process.”

The digital print runs in the lowest business segment usually have 100 to 200 copies, but they can increase up to 3000 copies. “That is our absolute limit,” says Giuseppe Bracchi. “For any print runs above that, we use offset printing.”

“Digital printing means printing immediately, and immediately means inline production”

Giuseppe Bracchi has long since been convinced that the future of printing will be digital, especially when the limitations on paper disappear. “Digital printing also means printing immediately, and printing immediately means inline production. The customer arrives during the day and wants to have his books that same evening.” As the only fully-integrated, total industrial solution for digital book production, SigmaLine from Muller Martini was the logical choice for Rotolito Lombarda.

Furthermore, the managing director says the company’s SigmaLine, which was commissioned last December, is very easy to operate: “The controls remind me of my home computer – I create something on the screen, press a button and the printer prints the selected pages. OK, using Pantera also requires some bookbinding expertise…”

Of course, this is also the case with Rotolito Lombarda’s most recent investment – two complete Corona C15 perfect binding lines with Orbit three-knife trimmers, Uno count stacker and Pluton palettizer in addition to Frontero face trimmers for cost-effective production of brochures with flaps in a single procedure. Rotolito Lombarda uses the two Corona C15 to produce a wide range of catalogs, magazines and books with print runs well over a million copies for customers in over 20 countries worldwide.

Rotolito Lombarda and its 370 employees have relied on Muller Martini systems since it was founded by Paolo Bandecchi in 1976. According to Giuseppe Bracchi, with SigmaLine on one side of the range of print runs and Corona on the other, the company is in an excellent position. “We are now able to manufacture our entire range of print runs for our customers on site using the most advanced system.”