“Since we have installed the CMT-330, it has processed one-third of our total plant output, which is up to 350,000 books per month. Pretty good for a five-figure investment.” – Bruce Jacobsen, Executive Vice President, Bridgeport National Bindery
During its first 100 years in operation, Bridgeport National Bindery (BNB) served traditional library bindery clients. In 2003, the company installed its first digital printers and began serving the complete short-run book production needs of its rapidly growing on-demand customer base. A few years later, complete on-demand book production had become a significant part of BNB’s business. Most of BNB’s on-demand jobs were ultra small quantities, which led to a new set of operational challenges.
The Challenge
BNB had to find a way to reliably produce up to 8,000 perfect-bound books per day. Most of BNB’s jobs feature production quantities of 10 or fewer, in other words, 1,000 (or more) different jobs can flow through its perfect binding department each day. Reducing make-ready times to a bare minimum was a clear key objective.”
The Solution
BNB chose the CMT-330 three-knife book trimmer, Challenge Machinery’s premier book trimming solution for the shortrun, on-demand market. The CMT-330 integrates with perfect binding equipment for fully inline production. With the CMT-330, BNB could now consistently set up jobs in as little as ten seconds.
The Results
Like many graphic arts companies, BNB usually expects to break even on capital investments within three to five years. However, eleven months after installing the CMT-330, Bridgeport calculated that the machine had already paid for itself.
Customer Testimonial Provided by Challenge Machinery
Britt Cary
Sales Director, The Challenge Machinery Company
Mid-State Litho (MSL)
5459 Fenton Rd.
Flint, MI 48507
midstatelitho.com