The Smart-binder X (SB-X) was designed to meet the requirements of a US printer that needed to produce a large volume of low-pagination, A5 portrait booklets.

Whereas previous Smart-binders were capable of 2up A5 landscape production, they were limited to 1up A5 portrait, which created a bottleneck when trying to run in-line with modern high-speed digital presses (running at 100-200m per minute).

Ibis has increased the maximum spine length with the SB-X from 320mm to 457mm enabling 2up A5 portrait production and doubling the output speed for this specific format from 5,000 to 10,000 books per hour.

John Cracknell, managing director of Ibis, said: "We have always been able to do 2up A5 landscape at 10,000 books per hour, but if you wanted to produce A5 portrait booklets at very high web speed in low paginations then the limit is the cycling speed of the stitcher/trimmer.

"In 1up production that means the limit was 5,000 booklets per hour, but by stretching the machine to get 2up we can produce two booklets every cycle and so the output is doubled to 10,000 per hour.

"The printer we built SB-X for had quite a specific application so it's hard for us to know exactly what the demand will be but we have come across customers in the past that have wanted to produce A5 portrait booklets at very high web speed in low paginations."

Because Ibis had also had enquiries about finishing variable tabloid newspaper-sized products in-line, it took the decision to increase the maximum book width as well from 230mm to 280mm, making the SB-X suitable for both applications.

"This launch is another example of our commitment to meeting our customers' needs and to satisfy a growing demand for our market-leading systems that make digital print more relevant and immediate to the recipient," said Cracknell.

The SB-X costs from around £125,000 excluding any options (such as sheet pile feeder, extra buckle folder, book stacker, cover feeder, etc).