offline booklet maker

[kslight]

I see a lot of plockmatics on eBay that are for sale, anyone have pushback on why to buy new vs a low mileage used machine? I feel like these things are tanks.

I don’t get the impression they are tanks from my service reps. I would see if you can talk to them / printers in town with one before putting the $ down.

 

[Robohopar]

I guess I wouldn't really know. Anyone that might have one that can speak on this?

 

[chriscozi]

I guess I wouldn't really know. Anyone that might have one that can speak on this?

Ran one on our Ricoh 7200 for 2 years - side trimmer and face and square back.
GOOD:
Set it up right and runs great - we ran 24 hr jobs repeatedly with few problems - paper grain is crucial.
Read and learn about the skew adjustments in the side trimmer - REALLY IMPORTANT.
BAD:
Ricoh Service techs don't have a clue - everything is your fault - ok - that's Ricoh.
Max paper size 12x18.

YMMV.

 

[iDigiPrint]

Does anyone use a power square 224? We’ve had this for a couple years and quality/reliability has been superb! No service calls needed. Perfect square backs on 140pp 80# gloss text/100# gloss cover. We’ve never had duplos, so I may be wrong on classifying what is “superb”. Am I clueless that our psq224 is below par of a duplo?

 

[jwheeler]

Does anyone use a power square 224? We’ve had this for a couple years and quality/reliability has been superb! No service calls needed. Perfect square backs on 140pp 80# gloss text/100# gloss cover. We’ve never had duplos, so I may be wrong on classifying what is “superb”. Am I clueless that our psq224 is below par of a duplo?

The PowerSquare is a beast!

I used to sell production gear for Konica Minolta. The PowerSquare that you're referring to (previously owned by Watkiss) is considered the top-of-the-line booklet maker that we could sell. Because it's so large and expensive, we didn't sell that many, but anyone who had it loved it. Watkiss is now owned by Plockmatic (who also owns Morgana and Intec now), and it still has the highest sheet capacity of all the booklet makers they offer.

The unit can be put inline with digital presses from most of the major brands, or you can purchase it in an offline configuration. It maxes out at 56 signatures (224 pages), while the plockmatics most are referring to here max out at 35 or 50 signatures (140 or 200 pages), depending on the configuration you buy.

 

[Robohopar]

The PowerSquare is a beast!

I used to sell production gear for Konica Minolta. The PowerSquare that you're referring to (previously owned by Watkiss) is considered the top-of-the-line booklet maker that we could sell. Because it's so large and expensive, we didn't sell that many, but anyone who had it loved it. Watkiss is now owned by Plockmatic (who also owns Morgana and Intec now), and it still has the highest sheet capacity of all the booklet makers they offer.

The unit can be put inline with digital presses from most of the major brands, or you can purchase it in an offline configuration. It maxes out at 56 signatures (224 pages), while the plockmatics most are referring to here max out at 35 or 50 signatures (140 or 200 pages), depending on the configuration you buy.

Wow, it does look like a beast. What’s the price point on one of these?

 

[iDigiPrint]

Wow, it does look like a beast. What’s the price point on one of these?

It’s around 120k usd, includes service and spare parts kit. The kit has multiple dc motors and almost every circuit board replacement except the pcb board which I had to replace. Cost was around 250.

 

[plotterraum]

I see a lot of plockmatics on eBay that are for sale, anyone have pushback on why to buy new vs a low mileage used machine? I feel like these things are tanks.

We like our Plockmatic 500, but it is really not a heavy duty machine. I think in the marketing materials it is also called a light production machine. -
We also own an old Foldnak 8 - very old school, - but also very strong - in my perception, the folding force is much higher there. Still - we mostly use it for large pages (it can be easily modified to accept pages with more than 60cm width, which we gladly use for our 30x30 books) - and everything else is going to Plockmatic.

 

[ReproElectroProspero]

We have the DBM-150T with a Plockmatic SQ-104 square fold on the end, as pictured
Space is at a premium in our shop and this is the smallest combination trim & squarefold solution you'll find.

IMO there's no point in buying a 150 without the trim. You won't guillotine more than a few at a time, coated stock especially will slide forward from the backstop and a bundle of booklets won't be consistent.

If space in the shop was more plentiful, we would have got the DSF-2200 feeder, which would be particularly great for booklets with pre-creased covers (we have 1,200 of those to do next week) however the hand feeder is OK if but a little flimsy.

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late to the thread, but wanted to say thank you for this post! been shopping for a booklet maker that can do squarefold and the options are all enormous or insanely expensive and for volume we don't really do. i can see this exact combo working well in my shop. thinking i'm going to order both and replicate your exact setup. appreciate ya!