'Long' Perfectors Sweeten Market

Perfector presses are becoming a sweet and versatile asset for printers that are building or maintaining a successful clientele because the sheetfed machines can be switched over in a matter of minutes from straight, single-side printing to two-side, single-pass production, at rated speeds up to about 14,000 sheets per hour (sph).

Furthermore, the presses can be configured to allow printing with conventional inks, conventional inks with hybrid UV curing, in-line coating, and extended deliveries, for even more production versatility. Meanwhile, on-press automation such as plate changers and use of a CIP3/4 prepress data link speed set-up and makeready, minimize waste, and provide high-quality color images.

Heidelberg is the clear market leader in 40"-wide perfecting presses, with about 800 "long" presses—those with eight or more printing units—installed worldwide. Most of these are eight-colors but 10- and even 12-color machines are becoming popular in various world markets.

In North America, where about 150 long Heidelberg presses are running, the count includes 12-color, six-over-six perfectors operating at three sites: Lake County Press, Inc., Waukegan, Ill.; Japs-Olson, St. Louis Park (Minneapolis), Minn.; and Williamson Printing Corp., Dallas, reports John Dowey, vice president of product management for sheetfed products, Heidelberg USA. (About half a dozen other 12-colors are running in the United Kingdom and in Europe.)

Says Dowey, Heidelberg has received requests for presses longer than six-over-six. "In fact, one long perfecting customers has placed a 'gentleman's order' for an eight-over-eight to match his web presses," adds Dowey. "However, we do not see this as something that we can deliver in the next couple of years, but of course, we are always looking for new markets and unique ways to help our customers."

MAN Roland has more than 60 40" Roland 700 perfecting presses installed in North America, according to Christian Cerfontaine, MAN Roland's director of marketing. He says about 70% of the machines have six colors or more and nearly 20% are equipped with second perfectors.

A five-over-five is the largest configuration MAN Roland offers in the Roland 700 model. Says Cerfontaine, "Our 10-unit perfectors are installed at Quad/Graphics [Pewaukee, Wis.] and Dual Printing [Cheektowaga, N.Y., near Buffalo]."

One trend among printers buying perfecting presses is the installation of coaters both before and after the perfecting unit.

In about two months, Dynagraf Inc., a Canton, Mass. sheetfed and web commercial printer located 15 miles south of Boston, will become the first printer in the U.S. to install a coater before and after the perfector when it installs a five-over-five sheetfed from Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses.

"We've also sold a five-over-four perfector with tower coater to a printer in California," says John Santie, sheetfed product sales manager for Mitsubishi. "To date, we haven't sold a six-over-six press."

Says Jürg Spittler, who joined MAN Roland in the U.S. last fall as assistant vice president of sheetfed operations, "Double coaters are popular everywhere, including packaging printers and publication printers, who use them a lot for printing covers. We offer a full in-line solution for coating, perfecting, double coating, double perfecting, one-pass blister, in-line embossing, diecutting, perforating, in-line sheeting, in-line sorter, etc., with the same process off line with our new R700LV [single coater] and R700LTTLV [double coater]."

He adds, "One of the strongest trends is what we call 'added value inline' with embossing, diecutting, perforating system, and more on our new-generation MAN Roland coaters."

Spittler notes, however, that in-line production makes sense only if the automation and process controls are in place, for example, quick-change systems for any multiple coating press. Thus, the longer and more sophisticated the press becomes, the more critical is, for example, fully automatic plate loading and off-press makeready.

As part of a consolidation of two plants into one, Fenske Media Corporation opted to install new equipment, including a 40", eight-color Heidelberg Speedmaster 102. "We went from being a regional printer serving the inner mountain west to a national printer," says Dave Fenske, president, one of four brothers operating the second-generation business. "We wanted to keep offering high-quality commercial work, such as annual reports and magazines, as well as our direct mail specialty, but we needed to upgrade our equipment and consolidate our workflow."

In April, Fenske opened a 50,000-square-foot facility in its hometown of Rapid City, S.D., combining operations from a nearby plant with those from a plant in Billings, Mont.

The 40" eight-color replaced two- and four-color presses, plus a six-color perfector.

"The new perfector is an excellent press and a monster of a machine: its capabilities, time-saving devices, high quality, and straight or perfecting versatility make it perfect for us," reports Dave Fenske. "It's three or four times more productive and its Auto Plate feature holds down the number of operators we need and our makeready time."

He adds, "We've been able to add a double shift, so now we can give our customer the best possible service around the clock."

A printer seeking continual updating for a quarter-century is General Press Corp., a 65-employee sheetfed printer located 25 miles north of Pittsburgh in Natrona Heights, Pa., which has kept abreast of 40" press technology. In 1975, it installed the world's second six-color Roland 700, and 10 years later the world's second eight-color 700.

Since then, General Press has added a 29" six-color Roland perfector with UV coating, and in February it added a Roland 708PLV, a 40" eight-color perfector equipped with UV curing and in-line coating.

"MAN Roland said this is the most loaded press it has ever seen," says Jim Wolff, chief executive of General Press. "They said it looked like a flying submarine, but we bought the press because I've watched printing transition in Europe from paper to synthetic substrates as a result of recycling."

Wolff notes that purchasing the press was a production and marketing decision: "We can print everything from straight-eight to seven-over-one, plus we can handle packaging jobs on synthetic stock."

The new Roland can deliver finished work at up to 15,000 sph, 12,000 sph when perfecting. "Everything is computer-controlled," says Wolff. "Operators enter commands and type of stock, and the folder and delivery fit themselves. We've cut our makeready from one to two hours to just 30 minutes."

Lithographix, a $12 million, 70-employee operation in San Mateo, Calif. that's a satellite branch of its Los Angeles-based parent corporation, sought production versatility when it installed a 40", four-color Diamond 3000R perfector press, which is equipped with a coating unit and a Fuchs-DeVries dryer.

At the shop, where it joins six- and eight-color straight presses, the new machine is designated to print general commercial work for about two-thirds of its output, with the remainder consisting of two-over-two booklets for pharmaceutical items and medical devices.

"For us, the key to this press is the coating unit and dryer," explains Joe Billett, Lithographix's plant manager. "Since we can switch between perfecting and straight printing so easily and quickly, we needed a coating unit and dryer that could finish the jobs. On older equipment, it took up to two hours to change over; this takes just 15 minutes on the new Mitsubishi."

Last August, Quality Color, a 50-employee shop in Elk Grove Village, Ill., put in an eight-color Lithrone 40 perfector from Komori America, replacing a 40" four-over-two from another manufacturer. "Four-over-four is the niche, plus we can makeready the new perfector in half the time," says Jeff Pack, president of Quality Color.

Pack adds, "By having a CIP3/4 link to prepress, we can image the plates and set the ink fountains. That means we're closer to production at the start of the job and at our first pull; we're 90% there now, not 50%."

At the Print 01 exposition last fall, Komori America unveiled its Lithrone 40SP Super Perfector, designed to provide one-pass, two-sided printing without turning over the sheet. Sheets pass directly between Komori's standard double-diameter impression cylinders, each of which has a special ceramic jacket that ensures that cylinder surfaces are identical, providing print uniformity on both sides of the sheet.

Taylor Publishing, Dallas, bought the first Super Perfector; in May, Hagg Press, Elgin, Ill., bought the second machine.

"Conventional thinking about perfecting has always been to print one side, turn the sheet over in the press, then print the other side," says Doug Schardt, product manager for Komori America. "Our new Super Perfector changes that thinking since we print both sides of the sheet without turning it over. Without use of transfer cylinders, printers get the same print quality on the front and back. We've always considered this to be a huge problem with perfectors."

In a slightly different approach, Sakurai USA markets its 40", one-over-one 2102EPII sheetfed perfector, designed to fill the special niche of book production in the range of 5,000 to 10,000 copies.

"The old Miller sheetfeds took 15 minutes to change over," recalls Mike Grego, marketing manager for Sakurai. "With our 2102EPII, which is equipped with pushbutton automation and plate changing, the operator can set up the press in about 90 seconds. And instead of a 45-minute makeready, our machine requires just five minutes."