Offset Printing
MAN Roland at drupa: WE ARE PRINT
Tuesday 04. March 2008 - Once again under the motto WE ARE PRINT, MAN Roland, the worlds second-largest press manufacturer and global market leader in web offset presses, will be in hall 6 at drupa 2008. The major themes are to be Value Added Printing on sheetfed presses,
Applied Innovations on web presses, PRINTVALUE for everything concerning services, pressroom products, networking, consultancy, and, last but not least, energy efficiency for sustainability of natural resources which is so important.
Value Added Printing for production efficiency and greater product value
Value Added Printing stands for higher production efficiency and product value. For commercial, publications and packaging printers, this means sophisticated applications and intelligent automation solutions for sheetfed and web presses.
In the past, short and very short runs meant that press makeready time exceeded actual printing time, despite the considerable progress made in automation. The ultimate goal for success is to spend more time printing and less time making ready. The ROLAND 700 DirectDrive is aimed directly at printing companies with most run lengths below 5,000 sheets and for whom ten jobs per shift is not the exception. Plate cylinder direct drive permits different makeready tasks that before had to be carried out in succession to be performed simultaneously. This has a dramatic effect on makeready times, with first users reporting that productivity is increased by up to 35 percent.
Then there are the QuickChange modules for the ROLAND 700 Direct-Drive and ROLAND 700 HiPrint which provide dramatic savings in makeready time and far fewer waste sheets as a result. QuickChange Job is for rapid job and substrate change-over; QuickChange Color saves time and costs through highly-precise ink slide settings, a Triple-Flow inking unit, and modified engagement sequences; QuickChange Coating is for switching quickly from one type of coating to another; and QuickChange Clamp provides rapid coating form change-over.
Differentiation through print products of higher quality and plus formats
Another drupa topic is to be oversizes. For small format presses this is called 0B plus (590 x 740 millimeters) and for medium format presses 3B plus (780 x 1,040 millimeters) and in many cases this adds up to one more row of multiple-up images on a sheet which means higher capacity with the same amount of time and labor. The same goes for large XXL-format presses and the ROLAND 900, XXL, in the 7B plus format. Here the 1,260 x 1,620 millimeters sheet size permits 48 DIN A4 images on a sheet.
Enhancement par excellence
With numerous inline modules, the ROLAND 700 HiPrint offers the best prerequisites for high quality printing. One, two or even more coating modules with the Ultima variant for instance provide the basis for a wide variety of inline enhancement with dispersion and/or UV coatings. The ROLAND InlineFoiler Prindor convinces with cold foil transfer in a quality previously only possible with hot foil stamping but without the system-inherent disadvantages (high temperatures that have an adverse effect on the substrate). Four-color overprinting of the foil creates the ultimate iridescent metallic effects. The ROLAND ColorPilot color control system and the ROLAND InlineInspector monitor the printing process to fully ensure consistently high quality.
Applied Innovations on web presses
Higher quality with low unit costs – this is what print buyers are demanding. Solutions for production cost management through new technologies, automation and networking are what are needed. Applied Innovations is the keyword for web presses and stands for continual goal-oriented innovations and groundbreaking optimization. These innovations however are confined to developments that provide real practical benefits for the user.
The best example of this is the APL fully-automated and robotized plate changing system which is available for all newspaper presses. It reduces plate changing time to a fraction of what was previously needed. With a double-circumference press like the COLORMAN, plate changing takes only 2.5 minutes – for the entire press. In addition, image data-oriented control systems make a big contribution to standardized processes, shorter makeready times and less paper waste. Cut-off register control has already proven its worth in practice for a long time and other similar developments are planned, such as image data measurement for color and register control, web edge control, and ink density control. QuickStart is an important feature that automates press acceleration and can reduce start-up waste from several hundred copies to less than one hundred.
Efficient large formats
Lower unit costs from the same resource base is also a demand placed on web presses: XXL formats – wider webs and larger formats – meet this demand. The format XXL COLORMAN has been producing successfully for some years already and with 24 instead of 16 newspaper pages and a maximum web width of 2,211 millimeters reduces costs by up to 20 percent compared to a 16-page press thanks to its compact, space-saving design and much lower maintenance requirements.
A world premiere was celebrated recently as the first 80-page LITHOMAN successfully started up at Druckhaus Fink. This is a new performance class: 2,250 millimeters web width, 1,240 millimeters cylinder circumference, and a maximum output of 3.2 million four-color DIN A4 pages per hour. This configuration with four double printing units and two system 2:5:5 folders provides the highest production variety. In the DIN A4 size this includes, besides 80-page production, 2 x 40, 4 x 20, 8 x 10,
6 x 12, 4 x 16 or 2 x 32 pages. The 80-page LITHOMAN opens up new potential for consistently high print quality, lower waste rates and high productivity.
PRINTVALUE for Added Value
PRINTVALUE is made up of four brands and services: printservices for support during the entire life cycle of a printing system, printcom for pressroom products, printnet for printing plant networking, and printadvice for consultancy services.
printservices stands for service and support that guarantees total customer care for the entire life cycle of printing systems. printservices covers process analysis, financing, project management, training, upgrades and store. For the customer this means individual consulting, concepts and planning for complete printing solutions, customized financing models for greater security, professional project execution through integrated project management, total support with system integration, fast reaction times for maximum press availability and high quality, safeguarding competitiveness through customized service and upgrade packages, and a service network with TeleSupport and TelePresence.
printcom stands for print competence and serves as a seal of quality for MAN Rolands range of pressroom products provided by best-in-class partners that are optimally matched to each application, production environment and printing system. The printcom product areas include blankets, washing agents, damping solutions, printing aids, silicones, coatings and inks, wash-up brushes, printing rollers, anilox rollers, lubricants and measuring instruments. printcom offers many advantages: faster commissioning, print process security, top print quality, higher press availability, minimized organization times, lower production costs, and also lower warehousing costs through coordinated and need-related logistics.
printnet networks print production processes into a complete workflow starting with data acceptance and continuing right through costing, DTP, prepress, printing and finishing. printnet covers the following areas: planning, editorial, advertisements, prepress, press and finishing. printnet provides users with greater production flexibility by linking different locations and branch offices, as well as more transparency and efficiency through central datakeeping, control and networking. Furthermore, it increases quality along the entire value adding chain, provides compatibility, and is user-friendly (JDF, XML, Web Interfaces). The modular system structure permits future expansion and the possibility to integrate existing systems safeguards the investment.
printadvice is the new brand that unites advisory services for both sheetfed and web press customers: investment guidance, building planning, organization, management, system configuration and process optimization. printadvice provides customers with bundled consultancy competence and they benefit from MAN Rolands many decades of experience in all aspects of printing. With this differentiated and comprehensive range of advisory services, printadvice is aimed at further strengthening customers competitiveness. printadvice identifies the potential of printing companies and sup-ports them in their strategic planning. Many of these services and tasks have already been provided by MAN Rolands subsidiary company EUROGRAFICA Systemplanungs GmbH.
Energy-efficient printing
Working together with the customer, MAN Roland seeks the best solutions for energy management in the plant and for the production process. This includes for example energy recovery, lighting optimization, and boosting the efficiency of drying equipment and compressed air systems, as well as meaningful upgrades, systematic maintenance, and print process standardization. The presses as such are optimized regarding short makeready times and reduced substrate waste levels.
The new MAN Roland presentation
The MAN Roland presentation at drupa will be in hall 6 once again. On 4,000 square meters, all business units are to be presented in a more concentrated, focused, and attractive manner than ever before. The new stand concept is characterized by a lot of space for presentations and discussions.