Optical Sanners for stitching lines

[Slice]

Hi all,

I want to retrofit a Muller 335 stitcher line with optical scanners. These catch everything from blank sigs due to double sheets, missed stitches, etc. Does anyone know if this is feasable and the cost to do 8 pockets, and who does it? I am in Toronto, Ontario, about 90 minutes away from Buffalo, NY.

Thanks for any opinions!

Paul Kett

 

[Al Ferrari]

Have you tried Muller Martini service?

Al

 

[ondemandbindery]

Yes it is actually. You may not like the price of it I am thinking but I have run a 335 that had it done. It was called Signature Recognition for the pockets and a Stitch Monitor. I will have to ask a few question before giving anymore input.

1-A stitch monitor is great especially if you are binding highspeed and a high quantity count. Short run work tends to be less of a problem because people do not lose so much focus. With that being said what type of quantities do you typically stitch?

2- As for the Signature Recognition, the typical theory behind them is to keep the Binding sequence in order (wrong form, wrong pocket) and not so much for blank Signatures. It would work for that but this problem can be remedied through quality control during the folding process. Have you spent some time researching this and does your Finishing dept. have a Protcol for quality control?

JW

 

[Slice]

Our runs are not that long, 2,000 to 20,000 but we do financial printing, files in at nine pm and product out the door at 8 am next morniing without fail, so it is done on a midnight shift, and also in a very tight timeframe. We risk serious financial consequences if something goes out wrong. Also these days the financial clients do not pay as well as the old days so everything is done very lean and not much time to check things. Yes I know I know, I can get a lecture here on cost of quality but this is what I have to deal with.

 

[ondemandbindery]

Wow, that was direct and to the point. I use to Bind financial work and I am fully aware of the Consequences of either missing Deadlines or incorrect Information. I laugh at shops that claim they have deadlines. Most of them have no idea....

That is good information and I could see something like this being a fit just for your reasons as stated above. Give me a few days and let me make a contact for you. I seem to remember the Optitech name for some reason. That system was for the Signature Recognition only but this was an older add on to the machine so I am pretty sure there are some pretty good advancements. Basically these systems will tie into the Stitching Carriage Solenoid and your stop circuits respectively.

HTH,

JW

 

[Slice]

Okay thanks. We are pretty frugal so an older system (as long as it is reliable and accurate) might be the answer.

Paul

 

[Mike C.]

We used a company called Mailquip for the optics on our mail equipment and we are looking into it for our stitcher within the next year.They are out of West Grove PA. but I know they travel all over. We were very happy with there service.
Mailing Equipment And Mailroom Supplies By Mail-Quip - New & Used
1-888-488-6649

 

[ondemandbindery]

I finally got in touch with someone in Maintenance at the Plant where I ran that Stitcher and it is long since gone but they piece milled it together. They had a controls guy actually put it all together. The Optical part will not be hard to install other than deciding what you want to do with the Production line once the Signature in question is recognized as not being consistent with the correct Sig. Ideally you would want the system so that it would reject it in the "bad work" tray but that will get involved. A simple way is for the Stop Circuit to get interrupted and shut the machine off with a simple light showing which Optic scanner has read a problem. That will of course interrupt Production but given the type of work you do that will pinpoint it and the Sig in question can be discarded.

As for the Stitch Monitor, it really is no more than a "go" or "no go" system. If you tell it that you have 2 Stitches, it will look for 2 metal objects (the Stitches) during each Production Cycle. You are probably doing some high page count work if you are Binding Financials and Stitch quality can be a problem so a monitor will not be of much here for that.

I did have a Controls Engineer quote me on putting a Stitch Monitor on a Minuteman and he was right about 8k. I was going to put my sensors at the back of the trimmer and the design was simple. Someone who knows how to put it all together can do it much cheaper.

Good luck,
JW

 

[Slice]

Thanks guys!