Muller Martini Inserting Lines for Germany, Italy

By: E&P Staff With contracts signed at the IFRA Expo earlier this month in Vienna, two existing customers have gone back to Swiss manufacturer Muller Martini for more mailroom equipment.

After installing and operating a Muller Martini ProLiner in June at its Meckenheim, Germany, headquarters, Schenkelberg's Union Druckerei Weimar subsidiary also invested in a Proliner. To replace an existing inserting system next spring in Weimar, the order calls for 12 insert stations, two NewsStack stackers, top sheet feeders, and cross strappers. It also will be equipped to accommodate two extra feeders for future capacity increases.

Founded in 1947 and part of Schenkelberg since 2004, Union Druckerei has a weekly print run of 3.5 million newspapers and inserts, and benefits from high insert use. "It's not only the overall volumes that are on the up, but also the denomination of the inserts. We've primarily been looking for a flexible, modular solution to accommodate the many zones we need to process -- and we've found this in the ProLiner," Union Druckerei Managing Director Ernst-Ulrich Dill said in a statement.

The system's software is expected to support Union Druckerei's wide range of products and varied customer requirements. For full monitoring and workflow control, the system also will feature the Mailroom Production Control system, as does the line in Meckenheim.

A few days earlier, Muller Martini announced that 18 months after commissioning a third inserting line with stitching and trimming, Centro Stampa Quotidiani, Erbusco, Italy, is investing in a fourth identical line, enabling it to increase production capacity, particularly for magazines, and mailroom's flexibility. It is expected to be taken into production in one year.

The order consists of NewsStitch and NewsTrim III components for in-line stitching and cutting of magazines and semi-commercials, NewsGrip-A conveyors, FlexiRoll buffers, a NewsLiner-A inserter, three NewsStack stackers with a route addressing, three packaging lines with film wrapping and cross strapping, and an automatic ramp system. Muller Martini's Mailroom Production Control system will allow full monitoring and control of the mailroom workflow, as on the other three lines.

Founded nine years ago as a joint venture of the owners of newspapers in Bergamo and Brescia, CSQ also ordered a fourth Wifag press (also identical to its last) to print the three dailies and a growing number of magazines, newspaper supplements and semi-commercial jobs (E&P Online, Oct. 16).

"This system means we can keep all our options open," Managing Director Dario De Cian said in a statement. "We can stitch our magazines and semi-commercials in the NewsLiner and cut them in the NewsTrim, or stitch them directly in the printing press and cut them in the NewsTrim, or we can simply deliver untrimmed products that have been stitched in the printing press."

Driving the installations, according to De Cian, are plans to change the three dailies from Rhenish format (15.2 x 21.2 inches) to Italian Berliner format (12.4 x 18 inches) next year. The primary objective, he said, is to cut production times for the magazines and bring them more into line with those for the newspapers. At the same time, the stitching and cutting system provides us with a back-up, which in turn increases our flexibility."