Improving saddle stitching line using affordable embedded system

Abstract

In most printing factories, the stitching machine is considered as a significant tool in accomplishing the printing process cycle, such as in the Printing House of the University of Kufa (PHUK), complete their jobs using a cheap manual machine, and thus this leads to an increase in the number of employees and work hours. That is because the automated stitching machine of production is very costly. A decent printing house design maximizes production with a minimum investment in new equipment parts. However, a decent PHUK layout alone cannot reach the intended aims unless firmly linked with a developed production line of an automated stitching machine for the purpose of reducing cost, time, and efforts. This article focused on designing and developing automatic saddle stitching machines for folded paper sheet products such as newspapers, magazines, catalogs, exam sheets, etc. using accommodate devices such as Arduino and infrared sensors. Furthermore, the proposed design is applied in PHUK successfully and it showed that the cost of the stitching machine and the manpower is reduced by 60 percent, also the time is reduced by 70 percent. Finally, one of the significant implications of this work is using IT in management of resources.