WO2007096851A1

WO2007096851A1 - A book manufacturing system

Info

Publication number: WO2007096851A1
Application number: PCT/IE2007/000023
Authority: WO
Inventors: John Malone; Declan Malone; Gerard Malone
Original assignee: Vlm Content Limited
Priority date: 2006-02-21
Filing date: 2007-02-21
Publication date: 2007-08-30

Abstract

A book manufacturing system has an order server (30) for interfacing with customers to receive book orders, and for generating an electronic order including book manufacturing parameters and an address for at least one document of content for the book. A production server (32, 60) parses the book order to automatically generate a unique multi-component identifier for the book in which at least some identifier components specify book manufacturing stage instructions. It also writes the identifier to a production database (61) job ticket, and to each document for the book. The production server (32, 60) generates document printing instructions according to the job ticket (61), and transmits (71) said instructions to selected digital printers. Each digital printer operates in response to instructions to print (73, 74) book pages or a cover in which at least one page includes the unique book identifier. Manufacturing stations perform a manufacturing stage downstream from printing. Each receives printed pages or a cover, reads the printed identifier, and transmits at least a component of the identifier to the production server. The production server transmits manufacturing stage instructions to manufacturing stations in response to receiving an identifier upload, and each manufacturing station operates (76, 82, 111) in response to the received manufacturing stage instructions to perform the manufacturing stage and route the pages to a next manufacturing station.

Description

"A Book Manufacturing System"

INTRODUCTION

Field of the Invention

The invention relates to production of books.

Prior Art Discussion

Book production is typically in large runs. Where books are produced in very small quantities it is typically done manually by a computer printing the pages and a person manually binding the pages. An example of the latter is production of real estate brochures. Another example is production of a legal title pack product which incorporates a cover and multiple legal documents. In this example the production "run" may be only one product.

It has heretofore been thought that a large degree of manual work has been required in these circumstances or that print-shop quality is not feasible.

The invention is directed towards providing automation in production of books in very short runs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the invention, there is provided a book manufacturing system comprising:

an order server comprising means for interfacing with customers to receive book orders, and for generating an electronic order including book manufacturing parameters and an address for at least one document of content for the book; a production server for parsing the book order to automatically generate a unique multi-component identifier for the book in which at least some identifier components specify book manufacturing stage instructions, for writing said identifier to a production database job ticket and to each of a plurality of documents for the book,

a plurality of digital printers linked with the production server;

wherein the production server comprises means for generating document printing instructions according to the job ticket, and for transmitting said instructions to selected digital printers, and each digital printer comprises means for operating in response to said instructions to print book pages or a cover in which at least one page includes the unique book identifier;

a plurality of manufacturing stations each for performing a manufacturing stage downstream from printing, for receiving printed pages or a cover, for reading the printed identifier, and for transmitting at least a component of the identifier to the production server;

the production server comprising means for automatically transmitting manufacturing stage instructions to manufacturing stations in response to receiving an identifier upload, and

each manufacturing station comprising means for operating in response to the received manufacturing stage instructions to perform the manufacturing stage and route the pages to a next manufacturing station.

In one embodiment, the electronic order is structured with a plurality of sections, at least some sections specifying a manufacturing stage parameter set or a book content document, and wherein the electronic order is in a mark-up language.

In one embodiment, a section specifying a content document includes a content category of cover, insides, or divider and text or image content format. In one embodiment, a section includes an order time stamp.

In one embodiment, a section specifies a render type.

In one embodiment, the production server comprises means for generating an identifier component corresponding to each electronic order section specifying manufacturing stage parameters.

In one embodiment, the manufacturing stations include stations for page folding laminating, drilling, die cutting, binding, assembly, and collation.

In one embodiment, the production server comprises means for transmitting instructions to manufacturing stations to write the book contents to a digital medium, and the production system comprises manufacturing stations for labelling and verifying said medium.

hi one embodiment, the production server comprises means for performing content image processing to generate the content-printing instructions.

hi one embodiment, said image processing means comprises means for rotating the content.

hi one embodiment, said image processing means comprises means for cropping the content.

hi one embodiment, said image processing means comprises means for determining if a document is electronically locked, and for splitting the document into page-sized sections for printing without unlocking the document.

hi one embodiment, the image processing means comprises means for:

rastering the document to provide a bitmap, regenerating an electronic-format document from the bitmap, and

splitting said document.

In one embodiment, the rastering means comprises means for opening the document in a restricted context and for generating a raster image of each page.

In one embodiment, the each raster image is compressed.

In one embodiment, the regenerating means comprises means for generating an empty shell document and for writing the raster images to said shell document.

In one embodiment, the image processing means comprises means for writing the bitmaps to an audit log file, and the production server comprises an audit means for retrieving the bitmaps keyed on the unique identifier for verification of content of a book including a document which was supplied in locked form.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Brief Description of the Drawings

The invention will be more clearly understood from the following description of some embodiments thereof, given by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:-

Figs. l(a) to l(c) are together a flow diagram illustrating a manufacturing method performed by a system of the invention; and

Fig. 2 is a flow diagram for an image processing method implemented by the system.

Description of the Embodiments A manufacturing system for producing books is best described in terms of a process it implements to manufacture books.

Referring to Fig. 1, Internet order servers 30 receive orders from clients for documents for a book to be produced. The production method allows production of a variety of different books and printing in any of a wide variety of formats. A book may, for example be a property title book having covers and a number of documents inside such as property title, map, and survey documents.

The process is highly automated and it ensures that service level agreements are maintained and economies of scales are met even if a print "run" is only one book. The method processes in the region of 2000 individual book runs per day. The orders are placed with the Internet based server 30, which seamlessly delivers these orders into an automated production workflow at a print plant without manual intervention. The overall manufacturing system comprises the order servers 30 and the downstream production equipment.

A production server 32 automatically retrieves orders directly from the server 30, prepares the documents for production and submits them to a print plant. The physical book production steps include digital printing, laminating, folding, cutting, binding, assembly and collation are automated.

Ordering

An order is placed on the Internet order server 30. The order is an XML file having a defined structure. The order is structured with a number of sections each defining in XML not only document details but also production data to assist with driving automated production. The XML is generated by the order server 30 transparently to the customer by background software for interfacing with the production server 32. The order structure includes a section for each of: — names of documents and of templates for documents for the book; - a type specifier for each document, for example cover, divider, content text, and content image types;

- sequence number of documents in the book;

- a time stamp for each document; - a byte count for each document;

- render type, for example colour or greyscale, or

- book print run quantity;

- paper weight,

- number of pages; and - orientation of each page.

Polling for New Orders

The production server 32 polls the order server 30 and scans for new entries at a pre- defined time interval such as every 15 minutes. It extracts any new 'order tickets' found and starts to process each order. It then downloads the associated content documents from a directory of the server 30 for preparation. The documents are typically in PDF™ format. The extraction of these files can be done via HTTP, FTP or VPN.

The server 32 tests the order to check validity. The structure of the order allows efficient validation because there is a pre-set allowed set of values for each section of the order. These take the form of allowed ranges for numeric values such as print run quantity, and rules for other sections such as document names and type specifiers. If a validation check is negative the server 32 posts a negative status message to the server 30 in step 33. It may also generate and send an email alert to a system administrator in step 34. If verification is positive, a positive status message is posted to the server 30 in step 35. If not duplicated, the server 32 posts an alternative positive status message in step 36.

Document Generation The server 32 prepares a document file to a correct configuration based on the order type as indicated in step 40. There are two types of order:

Paper: three types, "Gold", "Silver" and "Bronze". - Digital: these are in the form of USB, CD-R and Email.

Based on the order type, the server 32 modifies the original content documents for preparation for production.

For Paper Gold/Silver the server 32 generates a separate A3 PDF cover 43 and inside pages 44 in step 42. There are a variety of cover templates. These can be estate agent branded covers for example. The method enables images to be placed on the cover as well as the address details. It generates a separate A4 inside document 44 incorporating the source content. Bleed, crop marks, and a unique barcode are added to the cover and insides documents 43 and 44.

Step 42 is illustrated in more detail in Fig. 3. Each document in turn specified in the book order is processed. In steps 151 and 152 the document is rotated to a specified landscape or portrait format if necessary. Also, if necessary, the document is cropped in steps 153 and 154. A particular difficulty is posed for full automation if any document is locked by encryption. Such locking is important for documents such as land registry documents, so that there is full confidence that the end-product book exactly re-produces the correct records, hi step 155 the image processor recognises that the document is locked, it raises an exception, and it performs the following steps:

156 Rasterise the document to provide a bitmap representation of the document's content. This involves opening the document inside a restricted context, enumerating through the document, and generating a high quality compressed raster image of each page.

157 Regenerate a PDF™ document from the bitmap. This involves generating an empty, shell, PDF document having the same encryption and other document attributes such as font definitions as the original PDF™ document. This transfer of attributes is automatic. 158 The document is effectively split by writing each rasterized page to the shell document. Because of integrity of the step 156, these pages match exactly the pages of the original document. The result is an un-encrypted document having the exact same content as the original document, but split into a number of pages to suit the book dimensions. The bitmaps are saved to an audit log for any subsequent traceability audit of the processing of the encrypted document. An audit function retrieves strings of bitmaps keyed on the unique identifier.

For "Paper Bronze" in step 45 the server 32 generates a "black and white" A4 inside single-page document 46. The server 32 places the address details on the front page of this document. A generic cover is used in finishing, with die cut to display address.

The USB and CD-R formats are not "books", but is an advantageous aspect of the manufacturing system that it has the flexibility to produce the books in digital form if that is what is requested with the order server 30. For these formats in step 50 the server 32 generates a single page document 51. The same options to personalise this document as with Paper Gold and Silver are used and in step 51 the server 32 locks the PDF to prevent editing.

Submit Order To Print Plant

The server 32 then delivers the prepared documents and production instructions directly into the print plant. This can be submitted through any of a number of protocols, such as Email, FTP, VPN. To prepare the file for submission the server 32 in step 55 adds bleed and crop marks for the paper orders and for all orders it adds in step 56 a bar code representation of the book unique identifier in step 56. This identifier is described in more detail below.

The documents and instructions are submitted to a production database 61 hosted on servers 60 in the print plant. When the instructions are received a job ticket is created in the database 61. The job ticket contains all of the ordering details and its status is updated as the book is produced. The database 61 is used in production control operations including production management, report generation, customer service tracking, and customer confirmation emails. There is secure IP -restricted Web access to the database 61 via a LAN 62, which gives foil visibility into production performance, and report generation.

The unique identifier which is generated by the server 32 in step 56 is located: - in each book document;

- in a book document folder; and

- in the job ticket record in the database 61

Naming Convention

The naming convention of the book identifier plays a very important role in the production process. The following are examples. 'Gold_Cover_Q2_0076034544001.pdf 'Gold_Insides_Q2_0076034544001.pdf - 'USB_Q4_0076034544002.pdf

The identifier drives the production process automatically, with each successive component in the naming convention driving a next manufacturing stage. The identifier components are generated from the original XML order document generated by the order server 30. In some cases there is a direct correspondence between an XML order document section and an identifier component. The manufacturing plant instructions are transmitted by the database server 60 according to a current string or component of the identifier. The manufacturing plant has stations for the stages of digital printing, folding lamination, drilling, die cutting, "perfect" binding, staple binding, assembly, and collation. The digital printer assigned to the book reads the identifier, accesses the database 61, in response receives the content to be printed, and prints the pages. A different digital printer prints the cover (if any) with the same control procedure. From then on the product has a physical form, with the barcode representation of the identifier in the margin. A conveyor system routes the pages to the relevant manufacturing stations by reading the barcode, uploading it to the server 60, the server 60 recognising the identifier component and the next corresponding manufacturing stage, and generating and transmitting the relevant instructions to the maαufacturing station to implement the stage. The preparatory processing involved in generating the XML order document and processing the document is very important at ensuring that there is "seamless" downstream book manufacture.

The book documents are written to a directory 65 and the server 60 draws from this directory to manage the processing of the manufacturing stages with distribution directly into print queues. This is a rules-based automation, with dynamic generation of manufacturing station instructions.

Print Production

As shown generally by step 70 the production server 60 generates and stores documents for each order type.

"Gold" cover documents are sent in step 71 directly to a sheet fed printer for printing on 250gram paper. It is then gloss laminated in step 72 and sent to a press. The barcode on the cover is scanned, which allows the server 60 to automatically find the insides documents, and submit them for printing in step 73. The insides are printed on SRA.4 on 135gram paper in step 74, and are sent to binding along with cover. The cover and insides documents are loaded into a binder (steps 75, 76), barcode verified, bound and QC checked. The finished document is sent to dispatch.

The Silver Cover PDF is sent (71) directly to the sheet fed printer for printing on 90gram paper. It is then sent to a press. The barcode on the cover is scanned, which allows the server 60 to automatically find the Insides documents, and submits them for printing at the relevant digital printer.

There is a bank of digital printers, each having a printing set-up consistent with one of the identifier allowed printing-instruction components. The insides documents are printed (75) on SRA4 90gram paper, and are sent to binding (76) along with the cover. The cover and insides documents are loaded into a binder, barcode verified, bound and QC checked. The Bronze insides document is sent directly to sheet fed printer for printing on 90gram paper. The insides documents are printed (80) on SRA4 90gram paper, the document is checked (81), and is sent to binding (82). A generic cover and insides document is loaded into a binder, bound, and QC checked (111).

Digital Production

USB: Documents for USB production are sent directly to a digital production department. The production server 60 locates the job ticket in the database, prints a box label, copies (91) the document to a USB device,

QC checks (92) and packs (93), and a confirmation email is sent. The USB box is then sent to dispatch.

CD-R: Documents for CD-R production are processed in a similar manner. The server 60 locates (100) a job ticket in the database 61, and prints Jewel Case and Box labels. The document is burned (101) onto a CD-R, and an address is overprinted on CD-R and verified (102). The CD-R is packed (103) into a Jewel Case, shrink-wrapped, QC checked and boxed, confirmation email sent. The CD-R box sent to dispatch. A confirmation is transmitted (110) to the customer and the servers 30 and 32 are updated.

It should be noted that although there is a diverse range of operations above such as digital printing of inside pages, CD-R burning, label printing, digital printing of covers, and a wide variety of different types of printing with different printing resolutions and colour formats and paper grades, the same production control steps are implemented. The manufacturing system includes all of the manufacturing stations required for the different types of product and the server 60 receives identifier uploads and generates the necessary instructions for the next manufacturing stage. This is a very effective mechanism for production control, the initial XML order being propagated for routing of the book in initially digital form and subsequently in physical form through the manufacturing stations.

Dispatch The paper documents are barcode scanned (111), a confirmation email is sent to the customer, and a dispatch label is printed (117) and applied to a cover sheet. Step 117 is also performed for the digital products. The document address and quantity QC is checked (113) and boxed for shipment. Documents that are for delivery directly to customers are sent via courier service, which offers a 24 hour delivery service with full traceability.

It will be appreciated that the manufacturing system produces books in an efficient manner even though the quantities per book may be very low, even as low as one. Also, print-shop quality is achieved. The XML order structure initiates automation and forms the basis for automatic generation of the multi-component identifier, which in turn drives the manufacturing process. Excellent efficiencies in production are achieved by virtue of a streamlined workflow that enables the production of thousands of books per day with minimal human intervention.

The invention is not limited to the embodiments described but may be varied in construction and detail.

Claims

W 2- 13 -Claims

1. A book manufacturing system comprising:

5 an order server (30) comprising means for interfacing with customers to receive book orders, and for generating an electronic order including book manufacturing parameters and an address for at least one document of content for the book;

0 a production server (32, 60) for parsing the book order to automatically generate a unique multi-component identifier for the book in which at least some identifier components specify book manufacturing stage instructions, for writing said identifier to a production database (61) job ticket and to each of a plurality of documents for the book, 5 a plurality of digital printers linked with the production server (32, 60);

wherein the production server (32, 60) comprises means for generating document printing instructions according to the job ticket (61), and for 0 transmitting (71) said instructions to selected digital printers, and each digital printer comprises means for operating in response to said instructions to print (73, 74) book pages or a cover in which at least one page includes the unique book identifier;

5 a plurality of manufacturing stations each for performing a manufacturing stage downstream from printing, for receiving printed pages or a cover, for reading the printed identifier, and for transmitting at least a component of the identifier to the production server;

0 the production server comprising means for automatically transmitting manufacturing stage instructions to manufacturing stations in response to receiving an identifier upload, and each manufacturing station comprising means for operating (76, 82, 111) in response to the received manufacturing stage instructions to perform the manufacturing stage and route the pages to a next manufacturing station.

2. A book manufacturing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the electronic order is structured with a plurality of sections, at least some sections specifying a manufacturing stage parameter set or a book content document, and wherein the electronic order is in a mark-up language.

3. A book manufacturing system as claimed in claim 2, wherein a section specifying a content document includes a content category of cover, insides, or divider and text or image content format.

4. A book manufacturing system as claimed in claim 3, wherein a section includes an order time stamp.

5. A book manufacturing system as claimed in claims 3 or 4, wherein a section specifies a render type.

6. A book manufacturing system as claimed in any of claims 2 to 5, wherein the production server comprises means for generating an identifier component corresponding to each electronic order section specifying manufacturing stage parameters.

7. A book manufacturing system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the manufacturing stations include stations for page folding laminating, drilling, die cutting, binding, assembly, and collation.

8. A book manufacturing system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the production server (32, 60) comprises means for transmitting instructions to manufacturing stations to write (91, 101) the book contents to a digital medium, and the production system comprises manufacturing stations for labelling and verifying said medium.

9. A book manufacturing system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the production server comprises means for performing content image processing (42) to generate the content-printing instructions.

10. A book manufacturing system as claimed in claim 9, wherein said image processing means comprises means for rotating (152) the content.

11. A book manufacturing system as claimed in claims 9 or 10, wherein said image processing means comprises means for cropping (154) the content.

12. A book manufacturing system as claimed in any of claims 9 to 11, wherein said image processing means comprises means for determining (155) if a document is electronically locked, and for splitting the document into page- sized sections for printing without unlocking the document.

13. A book manufacturing system as claimed in claim 12, wherein image processing means comprises means for:

rastering (156) the document to provide a bitmap,

regenerating (157) an electronic-format document from the bitmap, and

splitting (158) said document.

14. A book manufacturing system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the rastering means comprises means for opening the document in a restricted context and for generating a raster image of each page.

15. A book manufacturing system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the each raster image is compressed.

16. A book manufacturing system as claimed in claims 14 or 15, wherein the regenerating means comprises means for generating an empty shell document and for writing the raster images to said shell document.

17. A book manufacturing system as claimed n any of claims 13 to 16, wherein the image processing means comprises means for writing the bitmaps to an audit log file, and the production server comprises an audit means for retrieving the bitmaps keyed on the unique identifier for verification of content of a book including a document which was supplied in locked form.