A little over two years ago, SKN became the first company worldwide to install the FlexLiner, since the inserting system lends itself to inserts in inserts. SKN publishes two regional daily newspapers and an advertising journal and has its own publications and telephone book publishing company. The company employs 450 people at four sites.

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“We need technology that enables products without a lap to be opened using suction technology,” commented Christian Basse, SKN’s publisher and sole shareholder. Not only was Mr. Basse impressed by the FlexLiner’s new technology, which promotes innovative insert marketing and can be easily enhanced and expanded because of its modular design, but also by its high production speed. “Today we regularly produce at an average net output of 27,000 per hour, and even achieve a maximum speed of 30,000 cycles for relatively simple products with large run sizes. That has resulted in a total of 150 million inserts in two years, exceeding our expectations. The FlexLiner not only produces quickly, but has also proven itself over time to be a heavy-duty machine, and still performs just as well as it did at the time of its installation.”

Mr. Basse attributes the fact that the FlexLiner (which features stream feeders for the automatic feeding of products) has such a high performance to the partnership between SKN and Muller Martini. “Muller Martini made some modifications tailored to our production structure in collaboration with us, in particular to the pockets, thereby increasing our net output.”

In addition to inserts in inserts which is a premium, eye-catching form of advertising, SKN also places inserts into newspapers using the machine’s suction opening. Key advantages of the FlexLiner include:

Accuracy and reliability. Although it handles a wide variety of product types, the FlexLiner’s gripperless feeder boasts an incredibly low miss rate.
Increased uptime. Since the feeder rarely stops, jacket format changeovers are handled without interruption.
Increased uptime. Jacket format changes can be handled without interruption.
Short setups. Simple servo adjustments in the pocket wheel speed changeovers even when producing more difficult inserts.
Sword opening in addition to gripper and suction opening.
Seamless compatibility. The FlexLiner fully integrates with Muller’s Connex.mailroom workflow system.
Quality. Inserting packages are held together between belts throughout the collating process, resulting in the best quality package, particularly with thinner inserts.

ABOUT MULLER MARTINI

Muller Martini (www.mullermartiniusa.com) is the world’s largest producer of print finishing solutions for commercial and book printers, trade binderies, newspapers and digital book manufacturers. Muller’s innovative workflow solutions optimize processing efficiencies, while helping to build new revenue streams. With U.S. headquarters in Hauppauge, New York, Muller’s sales and support team provides training and responsive service to printers and binderies nationwide.