Eight Danish and five Swedish household magazines – all of which are published by the in-house publishing company – plus certain monthly magazines are printed and stitched by Aller Tryk in Copenhagen. The circulation of these products amounts to between 80,000 and 250,000 copies. The Danish plant, which is fully set up and geared towards magazine production, faces two particular challenges. Firstly, the time frames between receiving the data and delivering the magazines by truck are extremely tight. In addition, the majority of titles published each week contain several pre-printed and often also pre-stitched magazine sections, such as TV listings, crossword puzzle books or other inserts, with up to six included in each publication.

Jesper Jungersen (right), Managing Director at Aller Tryk: “We benefit from synergies by having the same machines in use at both plants.” Left: John Jansen, Managing Director of Muller Martini Nordic.

Aller Tryk overcomes this second challenge with a PrintRoll system comprising 400 roller frames. This setup ensures that the signatures collected from the three heatset rotations are efficiently buffered and automatically fed into the three high-performance saddle stitchers from Muller Martini during production of the main publication.

A Supra to Follow the Two Tempo Systems
Aller Tryk uses two Tempo systems, which were commissioned in 2002, and a Supra saddle stitcher which has been in use for just over a year. The Supra was installed to replace a twelve-year-old system from another manufacturer, and features over six feeders, two merchandise tippers, an electrostatic blocking function, a Robusto stacker with strapping function, a film-wrapping unit and a Fontana palletizer.

Aller Tryk mainly uses the palletizer for the magazines it delivers to Sweden. While the two Tempo systems feature a pre-stitching unit, the inserts destined for production on the Supra are already pre-stitched in the new 48-page Lithoman.

Identical Setups
Aller Tryk, a Muller Martini partner for a quarter of a century, has an identical machine setup at its plant in Oslo, Norway. Positive experience using the Supra and PrintRoll systems in the Norwegian capital city was the main reason that the leading North European company opted for the same installation in Copenhagen, explains Managing Director Jesper Jungersen.

“We benefit from synergies by having the same machines in use at both plants. It means that we can transfer knowledge about production and spare parts from Oslo to Copenhagen. In Copenhagen, the machine operators can also work with the Supra as well as the two Tempo systems.”

A Weekly Record for 2010: 2.8 Million Copies
Thanks to the new Supra saddle stitcher, Aller Tryk in Copenhagen, which employs 115 people on a three-shift rotation from Monday to Friday, has increased its production capacity in the saddle stitching segment by 50% without increasing the number of employees. “This means we are even more competitive,” says Jesper Jungersen.

The three saddle stitchers can produce a maximum of four million copies each week. In the past year, the company has achieved a weekly record by producing 2.8 million copies, the majority of which are 20.8 x 28 cm in size. Some 95% of these copies are currently titles from the in-house publisher. According to Jesper Jungersen, “the company does, however, fully intend to showcase our specialty of producing magazines within a rapid turnaround to a greater extent within the market, and also hopes to produce more products for foreign customers in the future.”