Horizon looks to connect prepress to finishing with Drupa launches

Finishing, often considered “un-automatable” due to the complexities and options in each process, is becoming part of the digital redefinition of how print is produced. This will be evident across the board at Drupa where automatic job set up, rapid changeover and communication become key.

Horizon is planning three key product launches for Drupa to automate finishing process, but more importantly is focusing on connectivity from prepress to finishing with examples of six integrated production lines in operation on the stand. The key, according to president Ejiro Hori, is found in a job set up in prepress.

“At Drupa, we will present our finishing solutions tied to prepress where an efficient imposition can improve the equipment efficiency,” he says. “Please focus on each of these applications and pay attention to the imposition for each. We hope that you will easily see how an efficient imposition can positively effect the total process, including finishing equipment productivity and efficiency.”

This is a further example of the Industrie 4.0 concept of a smart and flexible workflow enabled by data communication along the production line. In live operation there will be a roll to booklet system; a book of one production line; a hybrid line including feeding of folded signatures as well as demonstrations of the new products.

These are the BQ480, a variable four-clamp binder to deliver 800 books an hour with complete variability on book thickness; the AFV-566T6F fully automated buckle folder able to change the fold pattern on the fly; and the HOF-400 an intelligent feed booklet making system combining digital and flat sheet offset jobs using barcode reading to determine the composition of a job before feeding to the SPF-200A booklet making line.

Horizon will also include a demonstration of its SmartStacker, taking a digitally printed B2 sheet, folding and collating this into a book block which is then fed into the Smart Binding System to create a photobook, educational book, catalogue or similar without further handling.

And the demonstrations include the likes of Canon, HP, Hunkeler, Tecnau, Komori, Screen and Fujifilm to highlight the full production process.

The speed that digital technology is advancing is so rapid that the message for the show is ‘Change the Focus’, something that Hori says applied to the company as well as the customers. The fourth industrial revolution, where technology enables inter connectivity between processes, is upon us.

“As a manufacturer of solutions for the print industry, we recognize that it is our responsibility to provide solutions that will allow our customers to take advantage of this trend. Interconnected, seamless solutions will be the key to success in our industry going forward into the future,” he says. “To meet our customers demands we will not only be providing new advancements in equipment, but complete integrated solutions.”