Indian manufactured Bindwel installed in Angola
With its recent-most installation at Educavalor in Angola, Bindwel is not only boosting the made in India brand, it is also demonstrating how to save space plus reduce maintenance cost, energy consumption as well as overproduction.
06 May 2024 | By Charmiane Alexander
The Freedom 2K mini Bindline along with the Signa 4000 - 12 station gatherer, Freedom 2K perfect binder and inline connected to the Trimit 30C trimmer has been installed at Educavalor in Benguela in Angola. Educavalor is the book printing and binding business vertical of the Noveduca group of Luanda, Angola. The group, promoted by three brothers, is focused on manufacturing and distributing products for schools - be it benches or exercise notebooks. Also, they have a commercial printing plant in Angola's capital city of Luanda.
The USP of the Bindwell project at Educavalor is: The entire post-press line occupies 50% of the space required for the 5,000 books per hour Bindline.
Educavalor is headed by the group director Miguel Lopes who said, "We have production requirements of about 20,000 books per day; however the formats are vast and varied, and so, we need to turn around jobs very quickly." The main printing machines at Educavalor include a 560 mm cut-off Citiline from Manugraph and a four-colour press from Heidelberg, in addition to a raft of single-colour machines.
The binding department is centred around a mini Bindline - a unique 2,000 books per hour inline binder. At the heart of this line is the Freedom 2K fully automatic perfect binder which can change from one format to any other in less than one minute. Miguel Lopes said, "Looking at the complexity of our work, we opted for this unique solution from Bindwel which is manufactured in India."
Two years ago in 2022, the group set up their greenfield project for printing and binding textbooks in the city of Benguela about 400 kms from the capital. Benguela is a city in western Angola and capital of the Benguela Province. Benguela is one of Angola's most populous cities with a population of above five lakh.
Sudheeran V Nair of Bindwel who heads the operations for African market, and operates out of Dubai said "The Freedom series from Bindwel has no limitations to formats, lots and runs. The binders - both the 2K and 5K series can turn around very fast and will handle a huge range of formats."
Nair added, "Based on the customer needs, we can suggest either 2K or 5K, with the same performance guarantees. In the future, if the requirement for throughputs go up, we have the freedom of swapping the binder, adding a spiral conveyor and thereby meeting the demands of a book print firm." Nair along with Linto Joseph serve the African continent, working closely with business associates in other countries. The first level of service is provided from a nearby hub, backed up by Nairobi and Dubai.
Bindwel's book mission at Drupa
Bindwel will be present at Drupa, where the Bengaluru-based manufacturer will present the future of bookbinding. Kai Buentemeyer, the director of Bindwel-Stelda group, while speaking to PrintWeek from Rahden of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany said, "We will be showcasing Freedom along with Insta (the one book model) and Ekam (the bookbinding process line)."
Bindwel will showcase the three themes and live demos at hall number 6 B-04. Buentemeyer said, "With Insta, we are proud to put India in the one book model map, after Germany, Switzerland, Japan and Italy. While Ekam is akin to the lean production philosophy that is designed for a specific, yet popular "standard range" of book formats."
To illustrate the potential of Ekam, Bindwel will showcase a transfer module together with the Freedom binding line at Drupa. Buentemeyer said, "With this module, it will be possible to demonstrate the elimination of waste and the imposition of flow, two fundamental principles well known to the lean community, which is the inspiration behind the Ekam approach."
Buentemeyer said, "Among the numerous avataars of waste, waste of space is one of the costliest for printing factories." He explained how with Ekam, Bindwel demonstrates how a book factory can reduce space requirements by 50%. He said, "Together with space, the number of machine parts is reduced and maintenance cost, energy consumption as well as waste of overproduction, waste of unnecessary movements, waste of transporting, and waste of defects."
And finally, Buentemeyer said, "The third part of the spectrum is Freedom - that is not bound by any lots, runs or formats. Kai Buentemyer has been guiding the Bindwel team in India in addressing the changing requirements of book printing in the sub-continent as well as globally.
Do watch Kai Buentemeyer masterclass about books and binding on the PrintWeek YouTube channel.
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