First manroland book press goes to China

Chinese printer Hucais has bought the first FormerLine book block solution from manroland web systems, as it expands from the packaging world further into digital printing.

Chen Chengwen, chief executive of Hucais, says, “We have established digital printing in our company in recent years, starting from our status as a successful packaging printer. Now we need to keep pressing forward with new developments, and that includes smart and future-oriented investments.

Manufacturer manroland says it has developed the FormerLine system for industrial-scale digital book production, and it will follow it with additional modular systems in the next two years. It has worked in close cooperation with Hucais to customise the system according to the printer’s needs, based on book production estimates.

According to manroland, the FormerLine allows “infinitely variable” cut-offs from 145mm to 420mm, and together with an RS 34 book block stacker from Rima-System, can produce stapled signatures or up to 6,000 auxiliary-glued book blocks per hour, with a thickness of up to 70mm.

By setting up web travel over two or three formers, manroland says the FormerLine can also produce four to eight-page or eight to 16-page products.

Eckhard Hoerner Marass, managing director of manroland web systems, says he is pleased with the level of mutual trust in the project. He says, “We want to use this project to prove how economical it is to produce with the FormerLine system. The objective is to win over further potential customers. In digital finishing, we provide a refined alternative that is hard to pass over.”

Hucais will receive the first production lines for offline finishing of pre-printed reels, with configurations to come later for inline production.

Chen Chengwen, concludes, “Digital presses and the FormerLine system allow us to supply our customers with high-quality printed materials. We remain flexible, and can produce efficiently even in smaller runs.”

GO TO MORE ASIA NEWS