November 28, 2023
Another year, another outstanding PRINTING United Expo! Held in Atlanta, GA, for the first time from October 18th through October 20th, PRINTING United drew tens of thousands of visitors to the Georgia World Congress Center for the printing industry’s largest North American event. Over 800 exhibitors across industry verticals were at the show to share, discuss, and demonstrate the latest in printing, finishing, embellishing, and more. PRINTING United Alliance, who organizes the annual trade show, filled out PRINTING United’s programming with knowledgeable speakers, insightful panel discussions, and engaging networking and relationship-building events.
Standard had a 4,800 sq. ft. booth at PRINTING United, the largest display of finishing and feeding at the show. Alongside our manufacturing partners Hunkeler and Horizon, we hosted live demonstrations of die-cutting, perfect binding and trimming, slitting and creasing, folding, saddlestitching, and roll-fed print solutions. We also partnered with Canon Solutions America, HP, Ricoh, and Screen on a series of pre-printed, roll-fed, and cut-sheet applications to highlight finishing’s role in the print production workflow and best practices for production efficiency.
One of the most popular solutions on display was the new Horizon StitchLiner Mark IV Saddlestitcher running inline with the VAC-L600H Collating Tower and the HOF-400 Sheet Feeder. The StitchLiner Mark IV combines signature scoring and folding, saddlestitching, and three-knife trimming into a single system. On the Mark IV, stitch length, balance adjustment, and thickness settings can all be changed automatically from booklet to booklet during operation for true variable booklet production with consistent quality. It can run at speeds of up to 6,000 booklets per hour for A4 portrait applications and 5,300 booklets per hour for A4 landscape applications. At the show, the Mark IV Saddlestitcher – along with 6 other Horizon solutions – were connected to iCE LiNK, a cloud-based information and diagnostics management tool from Horizon. Attendees were able to witness in real-time how iCE LiNK collects critical performance data so that subscribers can identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and more. iCE LiNK can also send alerts about parts that need to be replaced, schedule preventative maintenance based on historic production levels, and more.
Attendees who visited the Standard booth were also treated to live demonstrations of the dynamic Hunkeler/Horizon Roll-to-Cut-to-Saddlestitch solution which combined the Horizon iCE StitchLiner Mark V Saddlestitcher with the Hunkeler Generation 8 UW8 Unwinder and CS8 Cutter to produce stitched booklets from pre-printed rolls. A second Hunkeler line featuring the UW8 Unwinder, DP8 Dynamic Perforator, and CS8 Cutter ran inline with the Horizon AFV-564F Folder and produced two-up, tri-folded mailers live in the booth. Hunkeler’s Generation 8 winders were also featured by Screen and shown inline with their Truepress Jet520HD+.
“PRINTING United once again exceeded our expectations,” said David Reny, Executive Vice President at Standard. “The show floor was bustling from show open to show close, and everyone we met was passionate and eager about the finishing technology they saw in the Standard booth and the innovations showcased by the other exhibitors across every facet of the industry. The PRINTING United Alliance put together another excellent show, and we look forward to 2024.”
PRINTING United will return next year on September 10th-12th in Las Vegas, NV. We hope to see you there!