Offset Printing - Sheet-Fed

YOU MIGHT remember hearing something about the ballots used in Florida for the 2000 election. For one Miami in-plant, that controversy started a chain of events that led to the recent acquisition of a new four-color press. “After we had hanging chads, we went to electronic voting,” explains Steve Schmuger, graphic services manager for the Miami-Dade County General Services Administration. “There was a great deal of dissatisfaction with the touch-screen voting.” In fact, the state ordered counties to cast aside their touch-screen machines and return to paper ballots, to be read by optical scanners. Suddenly, this 21-employee in-plant had to produce several million

Allstate Print Communications Center, the largest corporate in-plant in the country, has just installed its first used press, a six-color, 40? Komori with a coater. “It definitely was a change in philosophy,” remarks Jerry Grouzard, print communication manager at the Wheeling, Ill.-based in-plant. “For years it was ‘new or nothing.’” But due to the state of the economy, he says, it was more like “used or nothing” this time around. The $184 million operation would have had a tough time justifying the cost of a new six-color press this year, he says, and likely would have had to wait a year or more to

WESTMONT, IL—09/12/08—manroland announced it is offering for the first time online price quotes for its Roland 50 and Roland 200 presses through the company’s web site. Printers can review information about the small format presses and receive a reply directly to their email. The link can be found at www.manroland.us . “This is just another example of how we are challenging the conventional thinking about sales and service to customers,” said Vince Lapinski, manroland CEO. “The technology is available to get the process started, so why not make it easier for people to get information from us? It’s a smarter way to

THE QUESTION of whether or not to replace an aging offset press with a digital printer has nagged many in-plant managers. So when Millersville University hired a consultant last fall to analyze the five-employee Printing & Duplicating operation, it was no surprise when he recommended the shop decommission its sheetfed presses and go digital. What is a surprise is that, half a year later, this southeastern Pennsylvania in-plant just finished installing, not a NexPress, but a five-color, 19x26˝ Adast 755CP offset press. The decision to stick with offset—what’s more to upgrade from a two-color to a five-color press—was a complicated one, explains Barbara Buchanan,

ALEXANDRIA, VA—August 11, 2008—IDEAlliance today announced that it has launched a new website to provide G7 information and news for the growing G7 community around the world. The new website contains a new Q&A as well as new materials about the ISO inks that are recommended for implementing G7 on sheetfed offset presses. Background The development of G7 was prompted by print buyers who were frustrated by proofs and prints that had matching dot gain but clear visual differences. Print buyers asked for metrics that more closely relate to the visual appearance of a printed image. For buyers it is critical

HEIDELBERG, GERMANY—August 6, 2008—As a result of the keen interest shown in the new Heidelberg Eco Printing Award at drupa, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) has decided to extend the closing date for entries by a month to the end of August 2008. This means that any printshop around the world that is equipped with at least one sheetfed offset press now has until August 31, 2008 to submit an entry for this illustrious award. The prize will be awarded to the most sustainable printshop and innovative stand-alone solutions for environmental protection in prepress, press, and postpress. For more information on the entry conditions, go

RESTON, VA—August 6, 2008—To better understand printers’ views on the future of sheetfed lithography, PRIMIR (the Print Industries Market Information and Research Organization) commissioned Reed Business Information to conduct a study entitled Trends in Sheetfed Lithography: 2006-2011. The study addressed the commercial, packaging and specialty market segments in areas such as characterization and analysis of capital equipment purchasing practices, press format and configuration preferences, automation, inline technologies, and environmental and safety issues. Commercial sheetfed printers interviewed report they plan to increase their dependence on automation in the coming years. Several printers attributed stabilized print prices and higher profit levels to on-press automation

Last week, press manufacturer MAN Roland (now rebranded as “manroland”) held a rededication ceremony at its Westmont, Ill., headquarters. The event, attended by local dignitaries, marked the U.S. unveiling of its new logo and branding. On hand at the ceremony were Kirk W. Dillard, Illinois State Senator; Patricia R. Bellock, Illinois State Representative; and Polly Jensen, President and CEO of the Printing Industry of Illinois Association. Each made brief statements, as did manroland CEO Vince Lapinski. After the company’s new logo was unveiled at the intersection of Pasquinelli Drive and East Oak Hill Drive, attendees took a brief tour of the facility,

MANY INDUSTRY pundits were quick to label Drupa 2008 “The Digital Ink-jet Drupa,” given the technology previews shown by Kodak, HP, Océ, Screen and Fujifilm. Nonetheless, traditional sheetfed and web offset press manufacturers were just as diligent in showcasing their visions of the future. The massive German trade show could just as easily have been called “The Large-format Press Drupa”; or “The Short-run, Fast Makeready Offset Press Drupa”; or even “The Value-added Press Drupa.” These themes were very apparent from Heidelberg, which filled two entire halls, networked with its JDF-based Prinect workflow management system. Among Heidelberg’s several press debuts and upgrades, the centerpiece

WILLISTON, VT—06/19/08—KBA North America, a global press manufacturer currently based in Williston, VT, is announcing that its corporate headquarters will be moving to Dallas, TX, in the summer of 2009. The relocation will join the KBA sheetfed and web divisions under one roof along with the sales, service and parts departments as well as the corporate demonstration center. “We’ve been headquartered outside of Burlington, Vermont for more than 20 years,” says Holger Garbrecht, KBA North America president and CEO. “But with our continued growth in all market segments it is the ideal time for us to move to a more central location to better