Johan Laurent · Director of Business Operations · Standard Finishing Systems
At PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas, Morten B. Reitoft meets Johan Laurent from Standard Finishing to look at a production line that demonstrates just how far automated finishing has come.
The concept is straightforward: start with digitally printed rolls containing different jobs and finish them automatically into stitched, trimmed, stacked and banded products — even when format, page count and thickness change from job to job.
But making that happen requires much more than fast hardware.
Ultimate Tech handles imposition and dynamic barcode information, allowing each job to carry the instructions required further downstream. The Hunkeler unwinder and cutter read those instructions and automatically adjust the cut length, while the Horizon iCE StitchLiner Mark V adjusts stitching, jogging, trimming, and production speed according to the individual job.
The same line can also accept cut-sheet work via the Horizon HSF-50 feeder, so customers are not locked into a single production method. Roll-fed jobs, cut-sheet applications and separately fed covers can all enter the same automated finishing environment.
At the end of the line, the new Palamides Gamma 502 HO receives information about the format and product thickness, automatically adjusts its jogging and pressing functions, and creates stacks and bands the finished products, ready for packing — or potentially for robotic palletizing.
For Johan, the important development is that automation is increasingly making short-run roll-fed production practical. What once required considerable setup and operator intervention can now be prepared in the workflow and executed automatically through the entire line.
And Standard’s role is becoming increasingly solution-oriented. Depending on the application and customer’s existing equipment, the company can integrate Hunkeler, Tecnau, and other technologies upstream of Horizon finishing rather than forcing every customer into exactly the same configuration.
Different jobs. Different formats. Different page counts.
One connected production line.
Watch Morten B. Reitoft’s conversation with Johan Laurent from Standard Finishing at PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas.
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Fri September 25th
Bonjour #3· Deborah Hutcheson/AGFA and Ford ...
On the third and final day of PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas, Morten B. Reitoft and Pat McGrew sit down with Ford Bowers, President & CEO of PRINTING United Alliance, and Deborah Hutcheson from Agfa to look back at three busy days — and forward to where the industry is heading. The newly completed Las Vegas Convention Center has given PRINTING United more room to bring the industry's different parts together. Commercial print, wide-format, apparel, promotional products, packaging, software, finishing, and automation increasingly exist side by side rather than as separate industries. And that convergence may be one of the most important takeaways from this year's show. PRINTING United 2026 brought together more than 800 exhibitors across approximately one million square feet, with equipment, software and applications representing almost every part of the print ecosystem. Deborah has experienced that convergence directly at Agfa's booth. Customers aren't simply asking about faster printing equipment anymore. They want flexible automation, fewer touchpoints and technology that can grow as their production requirements change. AI is becoming part of that conversation as well. The PRINTING AI Pavilion returned this year with presentations and discussions about how artificial intelligence can move beyond the hype and become part of real production, workflow, and business processes. Ford admits there was initial concern that printers might be hesitant about AI, but the response at the show suggests the opposite: companies increasingly want to understand how to use it rather than whether they should. But technology is only half of the challenge. PRINTING United Alliance is also investing heavily in education and career development. Student Day brought young people from very different disciplines into the exhibition — not only graphic communications students, but programmers, engineers, chemists and others discovering that print offers far more career opportunities than they may have imagined. Deborah describes conversations with students who were surprised by the variety of technologies and applications they encountered. And Pat overheard perhaps the best reaction possible from young visitors walking into another part of the show: “I didn't know you could do that.” That curiosity matters. As automation, software, robotics and AI become increasingly important, the printing industry needs an entirely new mix of skills — and attracting those people requires showing them just how broad and technologically advanced the industry has become. Now the work begins again. Ford explains that planning for PRINTING United 2027 is already underway, but the Alliance will first evaluate everything from education and Student Day to hall layouts, signage, AI programming and visitor flow to understand what worked and what can be improved. Because just like the companies exhibiting here, the show itself has to keep evolving. Print takes all of us. Watch Morten B. Reitoft and Pat McGrew's conversation with Ford Bowers from PRINTING United Alliance and Deborah Hutcheson from Agfa as they wrap up PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas.