GPO Supercharges Operation With New UV Offset Press

A powerful new UV offset press is ushering in a new era of productivity at the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO), the nation’s largest in-plant.

Installed in mid October, the eight-color, 29x41.7” Koenig & Bauer Rapida 106 X LED UV offset press with a coater brings advanced automation technologies to the Washington, D.C.-based operation to ensure the timely, color-accurate production of important government materials. Printing up to 20,000 sheets per hour, even in perfecting mode, the press replaces three older Heidelberg offset presses whose maintenance needs were getting expensive.

Greg Estep

“The machines that we had, they’re greater than 20 years old,” explains Greg Estep, managing director of plant operations, on the eve of his retirement from GPO after 42 years in the printing industry. “We wanted to be more efficient. It allows us to be able to shorten the print cycle time. It gives us some automation. It has some smart technologies on it.”

That’s putting it mildly. The Rapida 106 X is one of the most advanced offset presses available, incorporating technologies more commonly seen on digital presses, like inline sheet inspection and quality monitoring, along with high productivity features like simultaneous plate changing on all printing units, simultaneous washing of blankets and impression cylinders, and LED-UV technology for instant drying and immediate finishing.

Marsha Smith, GPO’s manager of press, plate and bindery, is extremely impressed with the “smart technology” on the press.

“All the plates have a barcode … so you can't put the wrong plate on the press,” she notes. “You have cameras throughout the machine literally reading every sheet. So, the technology on the machine definitely was a factor for us.”

If operators encounter any press problems, she says, the remote maintenance module PressSupport 24 brings instant help. Technicians receive all the data they need at the touch of a button on the control console.

Color consistency has been excellent, she reports, enabled by features like QualiTronic ColorControl, which measures the ink densities on every sheet and calculates corrections to ink settings every 10 sheets. She’s also very happy with the press’s LED UV drying features, which allow jobs to move quickly into the bindery.

“The LED UV curing and drying instantly is critical to what we do here,” Smith says. “We don't have time for jobs to sit for days at a time.”

Thanks to the press, GPO is getting jobs finished faster, she says, increasing customer satisfaction. The Rapida 106 X is so productive GPO no longer needs to run a third shift to get work done.

“All of our multicolor press operators are on first shift now,” Smith says.

“One of the biggest benefits [of that] is being able to contact the customer in daylight hours when they have any type of queries,” adds Darrell Mahoney, assistant press manager.

The press is being used to print a variety of Congressional, White House, and agency work including Department of Homeland Security certifications, FBI cards, portraits, Notices of Action informing new citizens about their immigration status, covers for the Code of Federal Regulations, and much more.

Though already a big believer in inkjet technology, GPO elected not to put any of that work on its five Canon inkjet presses because its agency customers aren’t ready to move away from offset.

“The quality of a conventional press is so much sharper,” Smith says.

“There is a need to have an offset press for certain jobs,” Estep affirms, though he feels this will be GPO’s last  conventional offset press purchase. “We also know that our future is going to be hinged in the digital space.”

He hints that GPO plans to bring in another digital press in the months ahead. But that, he adds, will be out of his hands as he steps into retirement. Six-year GPO veteran Ravinder Birdi now moves into the role of managing director of plant operations at GPO.