With this in mind, six years after the BravoPlus was launched, it was joined by the BravoPlus AMRYS (Automatic Make-Ready System). AMRYS allows users to quickly customise and change job formats via a touch-screen display.
“It reduces setup times by 50%,” explains Muller Martini product manager for print finishing systems Russell Cunningham. Other benefits include data retrieval, which allows you to transfer jobs from one machine to the next.
The company also developed a range of automated set-up operations, including automatic stitcher, conveyor chain positioning, timer and format set-up on the three-knife trimmer. Partial AMRYS is available on the conventional models.
Range of configurations
The BravoPlus comes with a wide range of feeder configurations from flat pile, vertical pile, tilt up, cover and card folder feeders. Stream feeders are also available. “It will load up your logs and the stream puts them into the feeder without the user having to continually load up,” says Cunningham.
Optional extras include the compensating stacker. “Which means you don’t have to manually get into the machine and move stuff around” says Cunningham. Sizes and package structure are entered and quickly adjusted on the compensating stacker or on the saddlestitcher’s touch-screen.
The conventional and AMRYS machines are readily available secondhand and Muller Martini will even still refurbish an old 321. “The BravoPlus has good residual value. It is safe and fast to set up – even the manual ones – and reaches a high production speed of 12,000 cycles per hour,” says Cunningham. To date, 75 conventional BravoPlus machines have been installed in the UK, and 890 worldwide.
Muller Martini sells refurbished secondhand models and will take back old models as part exchange. It will also refurbish machines bought through an independent dealer.
There are 28 engineers working in the UK for Muller Martini and service contracts are offered through the manufacturer’s Smart programme. Smart, standing for spares, maintenance and resource training, offers training courses, ‘health’ checks, service contracts, upgrades, and moving and re-installing the machine between factories. A new BravoPlus six feeder plus cover will cost around £250,000, not including the £40,000 stacker.
Nyland Graphics specialises in refurbishing and selling Muller Martini saddlestitchers and has recently sold two secondhand 2005 BravoPlus, for £150,000 each. “They don’t come on the market very often but, when they do, there is a strong demand for them”, says Nyland Graphics managing director Steve Nyland.
SPECIFICATIONS
Speed 12,000 cycles per hour
Max number of stations
14 feeders
Max product size 480x320mm
Min product size 153x115mm
Price
New BravoPlus six plus cover £250,000
New BravoPlus additional stacker £40,000
Used BravoPlus £150,000
What to look
• Background history
• General wear and tear
