Morten Madsen (right), Production Manager of Norhaven Paperback, shows Hans-Henrich Nysted, Project Engineer from Muller Martini Denmark, a signature.

Norhaven Paperback employs 160 people, but the company is not only the largest in the Norhaven Group in terms of personnel. With approximately 70 million books produced per year, the printer and bookbinder – which specializes exclusively in softcover products – also processes by far the greatest volume of paper. Single and four-color titles, paperback books as well as brochures, maps and comics, are printed on web offset presses (coldset and heatset).

Integrated Automatic Palletizing
To make certain that the enormous number of signatures can be fed efficiently to the two adhesive binders, Norhaven Paperback uses bundle stackers behind seven of the total eleven printing presses. New Vivo machines from Muller Martini are in use nearly around the clock on six printing presses, five of which are installed with integrated automatic palletizing. The final, older bundle stacker model, which is still running, will also be replaced by a Vivo.

“We have relied on bundle stackers from Muller Martini for many years,” says Production Manager Morten Madsen. “When it came time to replace the older types, I visited several operations in Europe together with Ole Sörensen from Muller Martini Denmark. The Vivo impressed me the most.”

Five of the six Vivos have integrated automatic palletizing.

“We Save Time and Money”
According to Morten Madsen, the new bundle stackers (which can be used with the greatest flexibility thanks to their proven design and also have the lowest spatial requirements in their class) bring numerous advantages to Norhaven Paperback: “The machines are very user friendly and the size change is very simple. That is particularly important for us because the range of our circulations lies between 1,000 and 100,000 copies. So we save a lot of time during make-ready. And we save even more money because we have very little waste, thanks to the reliability of the machines.”

One Operator for Two Operations
The fact that Norhaven Paperback often prints its products in two-up production – and therefore the bundles are relatively long and not very high – presented several challenges upon installation of the new bundle stacker generation. However, thanks to collaborative training with Muller Martini technicians on the first Vivo installed, start-up hurdles were quickly overcome. Now, only one operator is required per printing press and bundle stacker, whereas in the past each bundle stacker was operated by an additional machine operator.

In addition to its printing operation and bookbindery, Norhaven Paperback A/S also has its own pre-press department. Approximately 90 percent of the company’s products are exported. According to Morten Madsen, Norhaven Paperback is definitely encountering competition, particularly out of Eastern Europe. But his answer to that is: “We have to offer our customers top quality on the one hand, and we must be quicker than the competition on the other. To do so, we require automation of our processes. That is where our Vivos provide valuable services.”