Drupa Review

04/06/2008The mailing industry is constantly innovating, and nowhere can this be seen more clearly than at this year's Drupa exhibition. Held in Germany every four years this mammoth event takes over all twenty halls at the Messe Dusseldorf. Primarily an exhibition aimed at the print industry, mailing machine manufacturers are taking an increasing roll.

Representing the mailing industry at Drupa were Pitney Bowes, PFE / Neopost, BÖWE, KAS, Kern, and Müller, amongst others.

Mailroom News was granted access to view the latest innovations that these companies currently have to offer. Innovations varied from a mailing machine that makes its own envelope to a mailing system attachment that automatically adds accumulated envelopes into postal service boxes ready for collection.

Automailer 6 EXP

PFE have made a steady climb over the last 40 years entering the production mail market with the Automailer 5 and, more recently being taken over by Neopost earlier this year. PFE / Neopost have now launched their new production mailer called the Automailer 6 EXP. Capable of accumulation at up to 26,000 forms per hour and enveloping at up to 12,000 an hour this folder inserter is a worthy big brother to "the five". Built to use single phase (normal) electricity, the Automailer 6 EXP is now seeing its first installations.

EasyMailer® K515

The EasyMailer® K515 is described by Kern as "revolutionary". It truly is innovative, and patented, using a single A4 sheet of paper as an envelope and enabling up to 3 other A4 sheets to be folded with a z-fold and enclosed within. Kern has been working on this concept for sometime and it is now seeing use in a number of companies. For added security a mailing can be printed on to A3 sheets where half the sheet is the envelope and the other half is the enclosed sheet. The EasyMailer® K515 takes the A3 sheet, cuts it in two, and then generates the mail piece. The result is a fully personalized envelope and a definite match to the enclosed content.

Post-Box-System

Pitney Bowes had a number of mailing systems on display on their large stand at this year’s Drupa. Of particular interest to Mailroom News was their Post-Box-System (PBS). The PBS automatically takes the filled envelopes from a folder inserter, stacks, compresses, and transports them into mailing trays. The number of envelopes added to each tray is calculated to ensure they fit and a new tray can also be started when Mailsort groups change. Trays are automatically added to the system from a “magazine” and once the trays are loaded, a tray label is automatically printed and then added onto the outside of the tray. This results in a considerable time-saving as well as less strain on the machine operators. The Pitney Bowes PBS system now has over 110 systems installed and can be installed with most Pitney Bowes folder inserters as well as the BÖWE Turbo / Marathon, Kern 3000 / 2500 / 3500, and other high speed inserters.