By Don Piontek Hans Muller, founder of today's Muller Martini and a master bindery engineer died last week at the ripe old age of 96. This got me thinking about where we are today, versus 20 or so years ago. Back in the heyday of high-volume print, the…
Go EAST Young Bindroid!
By Don Piontek It's no secret that the printing industry in the United States has contracted over the past 10 years. This has created challenges not only for printers themselves, but for the vast array of suppliers and manufacturers to the print industry….
The Laser Revolution in Finishing
By Don Piontek The business of diecutting, kiss-cutting, perforating, and creasing has always been accomplished via mechanical tooling, or rotary cutting or routing tools. Dies and blanks, various rollers and wheels, are all employed in the service of creating…
The Life Cycles of Digital and Offset
I come from the offset finishing world, but I now work in digital finishing. There are many differences in the “mind-set” of both, among them. In the offset world, equipment is evaluated and purchased for the “long term” i.e. five to seven years…
The Digital Finishing Challenge
By Don Piontek I'm lucky in that I get to work on a fair number of new digital print and finishing applications in my work. I also get to speak with a number of commercial printers, so, in a way, I have a front-row seat in the digital transition…