Building 'The Bundler'
Randy Seidel likes to compare his company's latest invention to a car wash.
"When you wash a car by hand, you wash the different parts individually," says the president and chief executive officer of GMA, the Bethlehem, Pa.-based mailroom-equipment manufacturer. "But with a car wash, all the parts get cleaned at the same time." Likewise, GMA's new product, known as "The Bundler," consolidates three processes—stacking, bundling and tying newspapers, which normally require multiple machines—into a single step using only one.
The Bundler creates bundles at a speed of 25 per minute, adding bottom and top sheets and two parallel straps, six inches apart. "The difference between this and conventional technology is we don't drop the paper," Seidel says. "We ensure you have an accurate count and a high-quality bundle by taking the gripper right off the inserter [and] to the bundler fork. It's very scientific—no dropping, no launching the paper, no gravity."
Servo-driven motors automatically adjust the machine to accommodate product thickness, different distances and different speeds.
The Bundler is still in beta-testing but will be available commercially early next year. The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., tested an early prototype of The Bundler last spring, using the product nightly for a limited number of zones without slowing down the usual schedule.
"What it's designed to do is replace the traditional downline," says Rick Molchany, the paper's vice president of operations. "That would be a stacker, a piece of roller-top conveyor, a bottom wrap, and a strapping machine. The Bundler replaces all those pieces of equipment."
Newspapers planning to redesign their mailrooms or replace old equipment stand to gain most from the new product, according to Molchany. Because inserts are becoming more varied in shape, texture and size at the same time as their numbers balloon, The Bundler makes the process more efficient.
"In addition, some savings may be realized in newspapers that do draw-specific bundle counting for specific carrier draws," Molchany adds. "Like if one carrier wants 52 papers, the next wants 72, and so on. Right now, we're actually counting papers by hand."
The two employees who operate the traditional downline equipment during a typical Morning Call production run also handle the counting for draw-specific bundles. If the paper decides to replace existing equipment with The Bundler, only one would be needed to monitor the machine, which would do the counting itself.
Another advantage is that The Bundler streamlines downline and inserter technologies, which haven't always been compatible, Molchany argues.
"The Bundler speaks the same language as both, which helps push us in the direction the newspaper industry is moving toward—more targeted marketing, and smaller and smaller selling," he says.
Supriya Nayalkar is a free-lance writer based in Washington, D.C. E-mail, SupriyaN@aol.com.
The ABC's of QIP
NAA's Quality Insert Program has selected the Audit Bureau of Circulations to provide independent-verification service to the industry's emerging distribution-standards program.
During its annual circulation audits, Schaumburg, Ill.-based ABC will verify newspapers' ability to comply with QIP standards. Its findings will be published in a special report, which may be released as a standalone document or with the paper's annual circulation-audit report.
ABC will not audit preprint-delivery accuracy, only confirm that the newspaper is offering and providing—or has the capability to provide—services consistent with QIP's minimum-standards criteria. Those criteria include distribution capabilities, standardized billing formats, media-kit information requirements, daily and Sunday distribution capabilities by ZIP code, total-market-coverage program availability, and acceptance-and-distribution deadlines (TechNews, September/October 1998, p. 27).
"Our agreement with ABC gives us great momentum as we move QIP to widespread implementation," says QIP Board Chairman and NAA Treasurer William Dean Singleton, vice chairman, president and chief executive officer of Denver-based MediaNews Group. Once pilot newspaper sites are identified, the board will work with ABC "to adjust the QIP auditing procedures as necessary."
ABC President and Managing Director Michael J. Lavery says the audit bureau is "pleased to help enhance the accountability of newspaper free-standing-insert advertising and assist advertisers seeking QIP-insertion programs."
"From an advertiser's perspective, QIP's agreement with ABC makes it that much easier for us to verify an insertion program for newspapers," says QIP board member Tony Gasparro, vice president of advertising for the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company Inc. in Montvale, N.J.
QIP began as an NAA quality-standards task force in 1996. In 1998, NAA's Board of Directors spun off QIP as an independent entity governed by a nine-person board of advertising and newspaper executives.
Heidelberg's Packaging Push
Getting product out the door—efficiently and inexpensively—is the goal of nearly every industry, but for the deadline-sensitive newspaper industry, it takes on added importance. It's also the driving principle behind Heidelberg Web Systems' new NP1280 newspaper-packaging system.
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| Mirroring innovation in the pressroom, Heidelberg's NP1280 inserter is shaftless, allowing up to four separate packages to run simultaneously. |
Introduced at NEXPO®99 in June, the NP1280's design provides newspapers with a flexible, higher-capacity production environment, a growing necessity as the industry continues to place more emphasis on customization and tighter zoning.
"What we've tried to do is make the hopper more user-friendly and predictable, and we've designed it to achieve higher throughputs," says Doug Gibson, vice president of newspaper sales for Heidelberg Web Systems of Dover, N.H. "You can make all machines go faster, but with the conditions of free-standing inserts today, the tough part is making sure you can actually achieve those throughputs efficiently."
The NP1280 incorporates shaftless, servo-driven, multi-motor technology, and is expandable to up to 80 hoppers. A modular design and integrated control system allow changes to be made more easily, with reduced downtime. The master-control console is Windows NT-based, enabling easier system management. And the system's circulinear design broadens the range of mailroom options, allowing placement around support columns, for example.
As shaftless technology has improved the capabilities of today's presses, customers are now demanding that same performance with packaging systems.
"Customers want the versatility to be able to do finite zoning," Gibson says. "They want the ability to have multiple deliveries, just like on a press. And this machine gives them the ability to have four separate, distinct deliveries, so you can run four distinct packages"—an option attractive for newspapers producing multiple publications at a single site.
The NP1280 is currently being beta-tested at newspaper sites and is scheduled for national availability in January. During development, Heidelberg gathered feedback from publishers about infrastructure requirements and customer needs. That information was used to shape the NP1280 into a system that could work equally well in large and small shops.
An addition to Heidelberg's line of inserters, the NP1280 carries a slightly higher price tag. However, Gibson argues that long-term efficiency should offset initial costs.
"When you can tweak on-the-fly without stopping, there's true efficiency on each and every hop," Gibson says. He adds that the system's servo technology allows it to be turned on and off easily, and also allows operators to change zones faster and easier. This increased manageability, he says, can reduce system downtime.
"Flexibility is the key; it's what everybody wants," Gibson says. "Everybody wants to start the press later, but they want the paper out earlier. Newspaper customers want reduced maintenance, more flexibility, higher speed and more efficiency to make that 1:00-to-3:30 a.m. window."
Tom Di Nome is a free-lance writer based in Mamaroneck, N.Y. E-mail, tdinome@earthlink.net; phone, (914) 381-0766; fax, (914) 381-7549.