Griffin Press pumps out the books with first HP T350

Adelaide book manufacturer, Griffin Press, is set for a digital revolution with the first HP T350 inkjet digital web press in Australia.

The high-power press which was launched at Graph Expo in Chicago last year gives Griffin Press a major advantage in book printing; in part due to the fact that it has been configured to run in-line with the Muller Martini Sigma bind line. This configuration will be used for print runs from a few hundred through to thousands.

Livio Barbagallo, managing director of Muller Martini Australia believes the investment is a huge step forward for the company. “It will shake up the market a lot and put Griffin Press in front,” he told Print21. “I think that we will see further interest in this type of thing, that’s for sure. Around the world the interest in such systems is tremendous and overseas, especially in the US, our factory is full of orders.”

According to Ben Jolly, (pictured) general manager at Griffin Press, the press was selected after an extensive review process and analysis of the digital web inkjets on the market. “The determining factor in our decision to go with the HP T350 revolved around the machine’s reliability and ability to produce a high quality end result on our standard book papers,” he said. “Our digital books will look and feel the same as our conventional books.”

The purchase of the HP T350 is the latest in a range of initiatives that Griffin Press has recently commissioned and implemented enabling the company offer in-line digital book production.

“As the demand for short run book printing continues to grow, we are experiencing increased customer demand from around the globe to deliver books into Australia. Our investment in the Xerox book factory in 2008, again a first for Australia, has been a huge success with the machine running seven days a week 24 hours a day in recent months,” Jolly said.