The wrap stage of the Pitney Bowes line shown at drupa 2012.
Plain paper wrapping systems are an economically and environmentally attractive alternative to pre-formed envelopes, and support ‘white paper’ mail production. Andy Scott reports on some options.
The introduction of paper wrapping systems has provided high volume transactional mailers as well as document personalisation bureaux and printing houses with a fast, efficient and cost effective solution that can not only add to, but also integrate with their existing printing and mailing equipment.
A recent study by Nielsen has confirmed that a printed envelope is still the most preferred and effective mailing option, having the highest open and read rate of 84.5%. Wrapping systems replace the need for pre-formed envelopes by taking plain paper and forming it around the ‘insert’ on the fly. This cuts costs at several levels and also fits in with the growing trend towards ‘white paper’ all digital document printing and mailing lines in place of pre-printed items. Another advantage of a wrapper rather than an inserter is that it can form the wrappers around odd sizes or irregular shapes. Some wrap systems are for very large scales, but others are intended for small users.
Pitney Bowes launched its latest Mailstream Wrapper system at the drupa exhibition earlier this year. Rein Van den Bulk, product marketing manager for Pitney Bowes Europe, said: ‘The system is aimed at bureaux and print shops that are sending millions of transaction documents and mailings out. It is a high end product, so you need the print and mail volumes, but if you combine it with a full colour offering and targeted transactional documents as well as mailings then this will help the return on investment.’
The Mailstream Wrapper was covered in detail in Digital Printer October’s Finishing Line, here. The wrapping element of the system has been developed and supplied by Sitma in Italy (which calls it the WM30 in its own product line) and integrates into a standard Pitney Bowes MPS insertion line, replacing the inserting stations. It feeds paper from a roll and wraps it around the insertion, taking the form of a conventional envelope after being folded, glued and cut and optionally given a scalloped flap edge. The line runs at up to 26,000 pieces per hour.
This is said to reduce costs by 20 to 40% compared with pre-formed envelopes. Savings come from both paper wastage and warehouse storage, as mailwraps can now be produced on-demand, rather than pre-printed on pre-formed envelopes which need to be stored and then may go out of date.
The system can process pre-printed wrap material or print inline, which is particularly suited to the variable data market, or where companies such as energy providers are putting out two statements with different logos, such as electricity and gas.
Another manufacturer that has produced a system for bulk volume direct mail and transactional market is Buhrs, which introduced its Buhrs 5000 dedicated paper wrapping system at drupa this year. It runs at up to 30,000 products per hour, and can produce in line self mailers with inserts, while its paper wraps give the look and feel of a traditional envelope. Coupled with Buhrs Data Controller software (BDC), it can print by inkjet onto the paper feed roll.
According to Buhrs sales and marketing manager Ruud Oud, there is a growing demand for paper wrapping. ‘It is now increasingly being seen as a replacement for the traditional envelope, especially in the high volume segment of the mailing market,’ he said.
W+D bought the original Buhrs company’s mailing systems out of administration a couple of years ago, though not the rights to the Buhrs name and its wrappers, which are now owned by Value8, an investment company. Friedheim distributes the Buhrs systems in the UK.
W+D TIMOS.
At drupa W+D introduced TIMOS (Totally Integrated Mail Output Solution), a mail output solution that delivers envelope manufacturing, individual printing and inserting all in one pass, enveloped on the fly. It can produce to 15,000 peronalised direct mail pieces (which it calls TIMails) per hour. It prints, cuts, stamps and inserts and with four colour front and back digital printing.
Dr Marc Fleckenstein, managing director of W+D Direct Marketing Solutions, explained that TIMOS came about as a result of a realisation that customers prefer a ‘real envelope’ as opposed to a self-mailer. The project took some two years to come to realisation, and the company said it has been well received in both the US, Japanese and European transactional document and variable data sectors.
‘In the past you needed three elements to produce a printed mail solution – a folder, a printer and an inserting machine. We have combined all the elements to create TIMOS,’ Dr Fleckenstein explained.
The IBC (Intelligent Controller) software is the overall system controller, coupled with the BSC 3.0 system controller which can track the product at each stage, verifying data and providing detailed information such as date and time of mailpiece completion, weight and thickness, target destination and error detection. Elements such as selective inserting can be provided.
There are no installation of TIMOS in the UK so far but Dr Fleckenstein said that the company is in talks with two potential users, one a bank and the other a direct mail producer. The system is currently being field tested in Germany at one of the largest direct mail houses, where production ranges from 40,000 elements up to 300,000.
This year’s Cross Media exhibition in September was the debut for Kern Group’s White Paper Solutions. The company claims to be the only mailing vendor in the world that can offer five solutions to process white paper into a mail piece. Strategic business manager Clive Martin said: ‘The white paper solution is now recognised as the way forward with the ever increasing digital print age, saving our customers money with no wastage and storage issues. You need only print the number of pieces required – mailpiece on demand, print, form and deliver.’
The White Paper portfolio from Kern includes the Self Mailer, Page Mailer, Multi PageMailer, K515 EasyMailer and the K3400 module for existing and new K3500s to manufacturer envelopes inline. An entry level system starts at £10,000 with speeds ranging from 1200 to 30,000 mail pieces per hour.
The K3400 ‘White Paper’ Module can integrate with the K3500 high speed secure mailing system and consists of a Kern 100 unwinder feeding a one-up reel of white paper to the die cutter, which will cut the paper to the size and shape required. Optional cutters can be installed for different size envelopes.
When the paper is cut, it is transported to the print module and being flat, the mono, spot or full CMYK colour inkjet printer can print the front, back and flap of the envelope in the same pass.
Data integrity comes via the Mailfactory Product, which tracks the document through the system and ensures the correct information is printed on the corresponding envelope. After printing the flat sheet enters the fold, glue and trim module to manufacture the finished envelope, with a final 2D barcode check for correct envelope and correct prime document, at a speeds of 18,000 finished pieces per hour.
Mr Martin said ‘The most attractive and innovative part of this product range is that you can use white paper to create your own designs as colourful and imaginative as required dynamically. You can securely print the required number of envelopes to be processed and there are no stock wastage or storage issues.’
Kern’s K515 EasyMailer.
Kern’s K515 EasyMailer is worth a mention in its own right. It is not a traditional insertion line, but an unusual and very compact unit (with a 1150 x 2000 mm footprint), aimed at smaller on-demand users. It forms the document and its wrapper from the same A3 sheet, by automatically trimming the sheet, Z-folding the document part, and wrapping and hotmelt gluing the envelope half around it. The wrap ends up with an unusual diagonal back flap, which adds to its distinctiveness.
The Kern K515 EasyMailer produces envelopes with distinctive diagonal flaps.
Working this way means that any SRA3 format digital press can be used to print personalised mail campaigns. Printing both components on the same sheet practically guarantees data integrity. However, it will also accept the components on separate A4 sheets, using automatic identification.
CMC’s Jet Wrapper line at Ipex 2010 ran booklets from an HP T200 inkjet web press, forming envelope wraps from white paper and printing them inline.
Italian manufacturer CMC has sold a wrapping system called JetWrap (JWR) as part of its JMC mailing line family since 2004. At Ipex in 2010 it was demonstrated on the HP stand alongside the then new T200 compact inkjet web press, where it formed part of an end to end personalised mailing system. Brochures printed on the T200 were folded on a Lasermax Roll Systems Stream Folder, then taken to the mailing line where they were wrapped by a CMC JetWrap system. An HP Colour Print Module was mounted onto the CMC system to printed personalised four colour text and images on the outside of the envelopes.
A similar technology is used within the CMC One line, which can be used for both paper and film wraps. CMC can also provide a complete system called Combymail, which has a module that can automatically direct the mailpieces from a single input channel to either an inserting system or a paper wrapping system, as well as handling one piece self-mailers. This can run at up to 30,000 pieces per hour for both inserting and wrapping.
An optional die cutting module, WP-120, which goes after the roll feed to create windows for envelopes.
CMC has a partnership with Bell + Howell, which also supplies mailing lines. At drupa in May CMC showed a Hybrid Mail Solution on the Bell + Howell stand.
With the demand for quality high volume personalised mail and transactional documents on the increase, and the preference for the look and feel of a real envelope, clearly paper wrapping systems have an important part to play and will continue to evolve and develop going forward.
Contacts
Bell + Howell: www.bellhowell.com
Buhrs: www.buhrs.com
CMC: www.cmcequipmentuk.com
Friedheim: www.friedheim.co.uk
Kern: www.kern.co.uk
Pitney Bowes: www.pitneybowes.co.uk
Sitma: www.sitma.com
W+D: www.w-d.de
