Perfecting Becomes Popular

With the four-page sheetfed press a bright point in today's heavy equipment market, the half-size perfector model certainly helps to add some of the light. With smaller shops moving up to multicolor work and larger shops with 40"-wide equipment seeking a machine for short-run work, the perfector yields an added bonus of being able to provide one-pass productivity for two-sided printing.

Says Doug Schardt, system product manager for Komori America, "The versatility of the convertible perfector, being able to print straight or both sides of the sheet, helps printers get more bang for their buck."

"The new perfector has made a huge difference to our plant and productivity," says Rich Dunn, vice president and general manager of Quebecor World Dubuque. "It's become an incredible asset to our facility. Typically it used to take us two days to print a job, plus a day for drying. Now we can complete that job in a matter of hours, plus the quality is second to none."

At the Print 01 show this month, sheetfed press manufacturers are introducing or displaying half-size presses, many with perfecting capabilities.

Heidelberg is showing its new Printmaster 74 press in a four-color perfecting version. "The machine, PM 74-4-P, offers a sensible level of automation at an attractive price, which is ideally suited for growing printers that are on a budget," explains John Dowey, Heidelberg USA's vice president in charge of sheetfed presses.

He adds, "Since the press uses the same basic components as the fully featured Speedmaster 74, plates and blankets are the same, which provides a stepping stone to a higher, more automated level. Also, we think that printers looking at presses in this format size need the versatility of perfecting, which lets them produce one-over-one or two-over-two work."

KBA's newest sheetfed, the Rapida 74, which is available with as many as 10 printing units, will be equipped with perfecting capability in the first quarter of 2002.

MAN Roland installed its first eight-color Roland 300 perfecting press in North America at Swiss Print & Graphics, Ltd., Rexdale, Ontario, near Toronto. The company, founded in 1984, maintains a complete prepress, pressroom, and bindery operation, along with warehouse services. Capabilities range from single-color jobs up to full-color national campaigns, including wide-format color imaging.

The Roland 300, which MAN Roland describes as a commercial printing press with the "productivity" format, is available in up to eight units, equipped with up to three perfectors and a coater. The press, rated at 15,000 sheets per hour straight or perfecting, features Pecom networking and extensive automation, says the manufacturer, ensuring short makeready and high productivity rates.

Shinohara USA is exhibiting its Model 75 VIII P, an eight-color 23x29" convertible perfector.

In the meantime, the one-two punch of printing four-up sheets and a perfecting option is prompting a sales surge.

"As printers look for a competitive edge, the Speedmaster 74 perfector has become a very popular model for us," says Dowey of Heidelberg. "In fact, we now sell more than half of the SM 74s equipped with perfecting in the eight- and 10-color market. Typically a perfector in this size was a five- or six-color model with a coating unit, set up to print four-over-one or four-over-two. Now, we see a lot more printers going for an eight-color press that runs four-over-four, or sometimes even a straight-eight with coating."

Dowey adds, "Everyone's looking for press capability that's a little bit different because most shops now offer five or six colors with coating. Granted, the hourly rate on the eight-color is a bit higher, but the net output can be up to double the production, especially considering the savings in one-pass production, one makeready, one press OK, and no load turning."

Being able to produce straight or perfecting jobs led Eastwood Litho, a Syracuse, N.Y. commercial printer, to install a 10-color Speedmaster 74 press in January 2001.

"We were growing and needed a new press to alleviate the bottlenecks on our 40" two-color and 25" five-color perfecting presses," says Patrick H. Mohr, co-owner of the second-generation family-owned business, which Patrick's father, Justin, established in 1946. "The five-color was fine when our typical run length was 2,000 to 5,000, but then we moved into runs of 40,000 to 50,000. Some really long jobs tied up the press for a week, which created a big problem. Now we can put that work on the perfector and turn it around in half the time."

Today, Patrick and his brothers, Mark J. and Andrew F., run the 31-employee shop in an 18,000-square-foot facility. While most clients are based in the region, Eastwood Litho is expanding its reach into the state's southern tier, in part by offering straight and perfecting work produced on the new press. It is attracting seven- and eight-color jobs that it could not produce before.

"The Speedmaster perfector was a big investment for us," says Mohr, "but since it's convertible, we can go from a straight 10-color job to five-over-five work, with different variations in between. The automation has reduced our turnaround and increased our productivity. We're able to use our CIP3 technology to set the ink fountain keys and our operators can makeready all 10 units in about 15 minutes."

Mohr concludes, "It's been a trying year because of the slowing economy, but we've increased our productivity by at least 50%."

For Shinohara, at least 90% of all 23x29" Model 75 presses sold in the U.S. are equipped with a convertible perfector unit, and most buyers claim that they use the perfecting capability on more than 30% of all their production runs.

Typically, this manufacturer configures its four-page multicolor sheetfeds with the perfecting system located between units two and three, which allows two-over-two work on a four-color machine, two-over-three on a five-color, and two-over-four on a six-color. On Shinohara's newest addition, the perfecting system is located between units four and five, allowing for four-over-four work.

The 23x29" format presented a lot of production versatility to PrintGraphics Inc., a 25-employee shop located near Portland, Ore. in Beaverton. The company, equipped with a 28" Komori six-color with coater and a 23x29" single-color MAN Roland press, wanted to replace (and upgrade) a 40" two-color perfector built in 1979.

"We were seeing a lot more four-color work coming into our shop," says Frank Gargalis, co-owner of PrintGraphics. "We wanted to print two-over-two, yet keep the same plates for our other presses. We also were looking for a lot more automation."

In early 2000, PrintGraphics chose to install a 23x29" Shinohara four-color perfector; this year, it added a Fuji computer-to-plate device with a digital Pictroproof system.

"The combination speeded up turnaround, makeready, and production, and it's given us sharper dots and higher quality," says Gargalis. "We're printing longer runs, such as 5,000 to 10,000 annual reports and school photo albums, plus we're able to attract more business from our client base—which makes us more competitive. We can keep the same plate size and handle the paper only once through the perfector."

Over the years, sheetfed perfecting had its problems with marking and streaking and the necessity of turning over a wet sheet in the press, but manufacturers have been working to eliminate those problems.

"We think that our unique perfector design and automatic changeover have eliminated many of the problems associated with perfecting," says Komori's Schardt. "For example, we replaced single-diameter cylinders with double-diameter impression and transfer cylinders throughout the press to minimize transfer points and the risk of marking."

He says Komori also does not use special cylinder grippers to turn over the sheet, which the company says is a major advance in technology. Since perfecting and straight grippers are the same, he notes, there's no extra movement and thus no undue gripper shaft wear.

Quebecor World Dubuque is known in Iowa and beyond as a web printer, but it found it needed a new sheetfed perfector press to produce covers and inserts in up to six colors for the work it produces for the educational market. A year ago, the 250-employee firm replaced a slow, 20-year-old four-unit sheetfed with a new 28" Komori six-color perfector whose 13,000-iph rating was more than triple the output.

The Dubuque plant specializes in serving the professional and college textbook market; it produces some three million books per month. Just 10% of its output consists of catalogs, government directories, materials for organizations, and specialty trade books.

"Since reprints make up about 60% of our work, press computerization and automation was important," says Rich Dunn, vice president and general manager. "By next year we'll be able to key in the job number to automatically set ink fountains and color adjustments, which should cut our waste by a third."

Dunn adds, "The new press has the same format size as the one we replaced, so we can still use our standing film for reprints. All these advantages are important in today's economic climate. Even though other plants are struggling, we're growing by 30% to 35%."

Some printers use the four-page press as a stepping stone into full-size commercial printing.

Vision Graphics, established in Phoenix 25 years ago as a large distributor of computer supplies on the West Coast, emerged as one of the state's largest copy-duplicating services. But for the last eight years, managers have been eyeing expansion into the commercial printing market, steadily adding a four-color Heidelberg GTO, one- and two-color Quickmasters, and a two-color SORZ.

But owner Linda Enright knew that a new faster, more automated press was a necessity if the 15-employee shop was to broaden its customer base. Last December, Vision Graphics installed a six-color Speedmaster 74 perfector with aqueous coating.

"Our work has mainly consisted of four-color jobs in runs seldom exceeding 20,000 copies," says Enright. "The new press is a great choice because we can offer a more complete range of printing services to our local clients, whose work doesn't call for a 40" sheet size. It also has opened up new markets where we previously couldn't compete, especially single-pass perfecting."

Today, Vision Graphics is competing for longer runs, specifically one- and two-color jobs as well as post cards printed four colors over one. A new market is books and catalogs, from 24 to 60 pages, produced in even longer runs.

"We recently perfected a five-over-two pocket folder, delivering the job in just two days," reports Enright. "Our clients were very happy that they needed to make only one press check."

The SM 74 at Vision Graphics features a Vario system for hickey-free printing, auto plate loading, roller chillers, CIP4 interface, non-stop feeder and delivery, and 15,000-iph rating.

"The press has helped us quadruple our output and collapse our turnaround times," says Enright. "A job that once took 32 hours now takes no more than 11."

While Vision Graphics operates a complete bindery in its 11,500-square-foot facility, it is planning to add more equipment. "Computer-to-plate is on our list," says Enright, "and we've added enough electrical lines to run a 40" press."