Joint venture launches its first high-speed web press

The first fruits of the partnership between Bielomatik and Matti Technology, a fully integrated 300m/min high-speed book and publications production line, is to make its first public outing at an open house event next week.

The duplexing Bielomatti PageMaster Press can be configured mono, mono plus spot colours or full colour.

It features a paper transport system from Swiss firm Matti – a company that designs and manufacturers OEM transport systems for the likes of Impika, Kodak and Xerox – Kodak Prosper heads and inline finishing units from German high-volume book finishing kit manufacturer Bielomatik.

Bielomatik and Matti joined forces to create the joint venture around 12 months ago. The new company, Bielomatti, will develop and manufacture bespoke high-volume inkjet presses aimed at a variety of applications.

“Both companies are extremely experienced in their respective fields; they’re major companies in their own right,” said Bielomatti UK sales and marketing manager Mike Comer.

The first PageMaster that has been built will be demonstrated at an event in Neuffen, Germany that opens next Tuesday (18 November) and runs to 26 November.

The demonstration machine will be shown producing books, brochures, magazines, manuals and personalised notebooks in a variety of paginations with products being switched ‘on-the-fly’.

The press can produce up to 110 finished products a minute two-up. It’s capable of 900x600dpi and will be shown running both coated and uncoated stocks.

The demonstration press features Kodak Prosper 622mm-wide linebars for mono as wells as 100mm-wide Prosper S10 heads for spot colours. The PageMaster will be shown printing reels front and back black with two spot colours at full width (24”/610mm), running two-up A4 landscape.

“It can produce ring-bound and whole variety of spiral-bound books, book block production, saddle stitched. The options are virtually endless thanks to the partnership of Bielomatik,” said Comer.

He added that as each machine would be built to the customer’s specific requirements, pricing was dependent on the individual configuration, although it would be broadly inline with competitor products in the low seven-figure range.

“We can’t really give a general price, because the machine will be custom-built based on exactly what the customer wants. Some people will want signatures, some will want just standard book block production, some will want black, some will want full colour; so we will configure each system for what the customer needs,” said Comer.

As well as the PageMaster, Bielomatik’s high-performance cross cutter, the CutMaster CFS 105, hardcover book-on-demand line, the Balraj BM 360 will also be on show at the event.
To for more information on the open house and the PageMaster, visit www.bielomatti.com.