Printing-Converting-Packaging-solution

[Sparky]

I will try to explain in detail what I am looking for. We print and collate and cut and package and mail a Nationally known coupon product that goes to the post office for bulk mailing at 30,000 mailings 4 times a month.
Here's my question:
Situation: we print 3.5 x 8.5 6-up on 11 x 17 1/2" waste cut-off and the rest are chop cut. the printing is done on 11 x 17 on several different weights of stock i.e. 24# standard 60#text, and the covers are 80#cover stock. the number of pages varies from book to book such as 21 pages for a small book to 44 pages for a large book. Once printed the 11 x 17 is cut down to 8.5 x 10.5 (3 up) for the collator. then collated and hand jogged and stitched in 6 places (2 on each up) in a 2 stage stitcher. then gathered and cut down to single books and boxed for the post office.
This is an extremely labor intensive process and we would really like to find out if anyone else has done something similar and can help in finding proper collating and stitching equipment to help make this process go easier.

Does this strike a cord with anyone?

[TigerPress]

We produce some small books for golf courses called yardage books. They are usually about 4x7". We print the books 2up (various size signatures depending on the number of pages, usually 19x25) fold and saddle stitch them. The books are stitched and face trimed on the stitcher to 8x7" and then cut into 2 books. In the case of coupon books, you may only need one staple per book since the folded book is more secure. You can use various stocks, but they would have to be positioned in the stack to fold correctly. Of course you would also be limited to page counts divisable by 4.

[Sparky]

The finished product is 3.5 x 8.5 and the post office requires 2 staples in each one. They are like a ticket book with each page being a tear out coupon. So its virtually a "stack" of pages stapled at the left edge. I wish I could upload a jpeg and post what they look like but I'm going to have to describe them as best I can.

Thanks for the reply though.

Sparky