The new Prinova – focusing on the essentials

Muller Martini is launching a new 9,000-cycle saddle stitcher, the Prinova, this October. Thanks to innovative individual feeders, it can be changed over in the shortest possible time and is therefore ideal for short runs, but also predestined for medium runs. Before it reached market maturity, one of our long-standing customers put it through its paces.

“In production or process engineering, a field test is the penultimate empirical attempt by a manufacturer to test production quality under real conditions that cannot be manipulated. The term was taken from sociology and indicates that the use of a new device is no longer done in a laboratory.” 

What Wikipedia defines as dry theory is not the daily routine for a system manufacturer like Muller Martini – after all, companies don’t bring new machines onto the market every day. But a field test is always a special challenge for us engineers. And also a great source of anticipation. We look forward to the first reactions of the field test customer full of expectations. Is the machine running as hoped? Does it meet the customer’s requirements? What valuable inputs do we get from the field tester?

“It has a lean appearance”
It was no different this summer when, after installing our new Prinova saddle stitcher, we waited eagerly for the first feedback from Schär Druckverarbeitung AG in Wikon, just a stone’s throw away from our plant in Zofingen. Since the Swiss family business has relied on Muller Martini systems for many years, Chairman of the Board Paul Bucher and his son Yannick Bucher, who acts as Managing Director, are naturally all the more competent field test partners.

The cooperation accordingly produced positive results. Yannick Bucher, who himself works on the machines almost daily and had a positive impression of the new Prinova from the outset (“it has a lean appearance – Muller Martini has focused on the essentials”), gave us valuable tips on how to optimize the saddle stitcher time and again.

Single feeder with a servo drive
We have redeveloped the entire feeding station of the Prinova, it now has an individual feeder with a servo drive. The machine is capable of holding up to 14 individual tiltable feeders that can be operated easily by a single employee thanks to their loading height. As a result, it can be used for several applications, such as manual feeding or determining the optimal height for signatures. This allows you to change over the saddle stitcher much faster and produce (ultra) short runs substantially more efficiently. Thus, the Prinova offers a clear advantage in terms of efficiency compared to other saddle stitchers in this performance class.

Innovative operating concept
We have included a number of proven technological features in the Prinova from its “big brother”, the Primera. It has central operation. Its new user interface, which includes context-based displays and an innovative operating concept, increases the machine’s user-friendliness – which, in turn, shortens the processes. “The fact that all settings are made centrally on a large touch screen instead of selectively is a great advantage,” said Yannick Bucher, who put the Prinova through its paces for six months.

Speaking of user-friendliness and process shortening: we have made a number of process-related improvements on the new three-knife trimmer. For example, the thickness is now conveniently set using a quick-release lever. As a result, the changeover process is now even faster and easier, and top quality is ensured right from the first product. In addition, stationary belts (servo drive) ensure perfect trim quality. Because it can be opened from the front or the back, this extremely ergonomic three-knife trimmer can be set up much more quickly.

New Asir Pro Camera System
In addition to Motion Control Technology, which results in faster set-up processes, the new Prinova saddle stitcher also includes our new developed Asir Pro camera system. This system recognizes and compares the sections using a 1D/2D code and/or by comparing the images. As a result, end products containing errors are now a thing of the past. “We used the camera system without a problem during the Prinova test phase at our company,” Yannick Bucher confirmed. Since his company often has products with language changes, a reliable control system is, of course, particularly important to him.

If you work with conventional printing methods, are active in digital printing, or are planning to enter the digital printing market in the near future, the Prinova with its good price/performance ratio is the ideal saddle stitcher for you. That’s because as a digital-ready system, it is prepared for the digital transformation and can in the future be expanded to process digital printing jobs. This means, you are equipped to face the new challenges of the future, which will provide you with a high level of investment security.

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