In 1963 a farm was acquired in a rural area near the village of Wallkill, New York. In subsequent years, additional property was obtained, which significantly increased the size of the available area. For many years, these farms produced vegetables, fruits, meat, and dairy items to feed the Bethel family. At first, it was intended that these facilities be used only for farm purposes. However, printery space in Brooklyn became limited. So in 1970 construction began on a printery at Wallkill. In 2004 the entire literature production operation in Brooklyn—including pressroom, bindery, and shipping—was moved to a newly built printery at Wallkill.
FARM DEPARTMENT. Farming operations provide produce and beef for the United States Bethel family. In addition, this department cares for the landscaping that enhances the appearance of the facilities.
FOOD DISTRIBUTION. This department cares for the processing and storing of food for Brooklyn, Wallkill, and Patterson. This arrangement simplifies the task of providing quality meals.
PRINTERY. The printery at Wallkill includes a pressroom, a bindery, and a shipping department.
Pressroom. The pressroom includes five web offset presses and two sheetfed offset presses. The web presses have automatic splicers that make paper-roll changes without slowing or stopping the operation of the machine. Two of these presses can each print up to 90,000 magazines, brochures, or signatures an hour. Book and Bible signatures are gathered, bundled, and stacked on pallets automatically. The sheetfed presses print covers, endsheets, letterheads, and envelopes. One of these presses can print up to 15,000 full-color sheets an hour. Most functions of the presses are electronically monitored and controlled from the operator’s console.
Bindery. The hardcover bindery line is more than a quarter of a mile long and is made up of 33 machines connected by 70 conveyors. It can produce up to 50,000 hardcover books and deluxe Bibles a day. With the use of automation, book parts for hardcover publications are handled only at the start of the line. Book parts (called signatures) are collated, bound, and trimmed. Then the covers are attached. Cartons of finished books are automatically sealed, labeled, and stacked onto a pallet. At the end of the line, books are ready to be shipped. The paperback book line assembles and packages as many as 100,000 books a day.
Two casemaker machines produce up to 80,000 covers for hardbound books a day. Embossing machines stamp the titles on the covers that will be joined to the books. To produce deluxe Bibles, trimmed signatures are fed into the gilding machine, where gold-colored foil is applied by means of heat and pressure. Up to 5,000 Bibles a day can be gilded. After covers are attached, each Bible is shrink-wrapped and packed for shipment.
Shipping Department. Literature requests from more than 12,000 congregations in the United States and the Caribbean are processed each month. A computer system calculates the size of the shipment and selects the appropriate cartons. A half-mile-long semiautomated conveyor transports each order to a special platform where consignments of literature are prepared for shipment. A portion of the literature produced in the printery is exported to countries all over the world, usually by ocean freight. The rest is shipped directly to congregations or to literature distribution centers in the United States, normally by means of commercial carriers.
Source: www.jw.org