“It was a late-breaking decision to show it. It came from Italy overnight and only arrived at 9pm on Friday,” said sales and marketing director Ray Hillhouse. 

The new DigiBook 200 sits above the entry-level 150 model in the firm’s PUR line-up, and has more automation than the basic version. 

“We have added book block measuring to it, which sets up the heads automatically so users can go between different book sizes very quickly,” Hillhouse said. 

The binder has touchscreen operation and a hermetically sealed glue tank and nozzle system. It can produce soft- and hard-cover books, and runs at up to 200 books/hour. 

Hillhouse said the model was targeted at digital printers, and at anyone struggling to bind digital output using hotmelt kit.

“A lot of digital printers are interested in bringing PUR binding in-house because the setup charges when using an external supplier can make short runs cost-prohibitive,” he added. 

“One of our customers was paying £180 a time, which means just two jobs a month can cover the cost of having their own machine.”

The DigiBook 200 is priced at £27,000 and is available immediately. The family of machines starts at £23,000 for a 150, and goes up to £70,000 for the top-of-the range 450 variant.

 “The gluing heads are the same across the range, so the bind quality is identical. It just depends what level of productivity people need,” he said. 

The DigiBook 200 handles spine lengths from 110-320mm and the maximum book thickness is 50mm. 

Retractable spine milling means the device can go from soft- to hard- cover binding at the flick of a switch. Side gluing for the cover hinge is adjustable depending upon the cover style required.

Morgana (S5-E390) is running the binder with a new glue from Henkel, PUR CoolMelt. “Rather than having to wait 24 or 48 hours for the glue to cure, 80% of the curing strength is achieved in eight hours. PUR is becoming a same-day service,” Hillhouse noted. 

The firm has also launched new DigiFold Pro and Autocreaser Pro models at the show.