Big Web Deals Pace Recovery

For the past few years, commercial web offset capacity utilization had been badly hit by the global business downturn and the post-9/11 ad drought. Now, gaining trust in firming financials and rising ad page counts (the Publishers Information Bureau reported magazine pages rose 8.5% in September), a number of commercial and publication plants—even book printers and, significantly, newspaper plants—are dusting off proposals, or calling for new ones, and seem ready to invest.

During this period, the line between newspaper and commercial web work has been growing fuzzier. Newspapers are major consumers of commercial print, especially ad inserts but, increasingly, they sell print services, too. Newspapers did over $1.75 billion in contract printing sales, the Dept. of Commerce reports in the latest Census of Manufacturers, published in February. The papers also purchased $2.4 billion in print themselves. No wonder they are looking at CTP, color management and press lines that can produce commercial-caliber quality.

A case in point: Gannett's commercial unit, Action Printing, Fond du Lac, WI, has just taken delivery on a Dauphin 12-unit, 36″-wide DGM 440S line, to start up in January. Leaning toward commercial performance, it has three form rollers and three oscillators in the ink train, plus CIP3 presets, remote inker control and Quad Tech web guides.

Evidence that printers have moved quickly from proposal to order stage was clearly seen in blockbuster sales beginning around Drupa in May and deals at last month's Graph Expo. These contracts represented months of due diligence, of course. In addition, some of the web presses ordered earlier are just now coming on stream—a result of competitive battles that have seen a goodly number of major print contracts change hands since Graphic Arts Monthly's April report on jumbo webs.

On the equipment supply side, the most significant transition this year was the acquisition by Goss International of Heidelberg's web division, acquired in a deal that closed August 6. Heidelberg retains a minority interest in Goss, which has doubled in revenue and head count (4,000 employees). Goss adds such familiar brands as Sunday, M600, Mercury, and the Mainstream newspaper press to its line-up. Former Goss parent Rockwell International had previously ventured beyond newspaper markets when it acquired Hantscho and Baker-Perkins web systems in the 1980s, and also carries its C700 commercial insert press.

A host of technological advances are cutting the intervals between web jobs, as well as improving versatility and productivity. Autoplating, shaftless electronic drives, gapless and narrow-gap designs and, perhaps most dramatic, an evolving receptiveness to variable-repeat commercial presses in many formats: RDP Marathon, KBA's Compacta, Drent Goebel, Sanden, Muller Martini and, in the newspaper market, Mitsubishi and Goss. Goss' flexible concept press, for example, allows for a switch between broadsheet and increasingly popular tabloid formats. Goss also offers DigiRail, a digitally controlled inker for metering ink delivery, retrofittable to existing lines—both commercial and newspaper.

Hybrid web offset presses are appearing, integrating digital units, either direct-to-plate types (MAN Roland's Dicoweb and Wifag's Evolution newspaper presses) or digital—Muller Martini's Concepta can be fit with Versamark (inkjet) or Nipson (magnetographic) digital print units in the middle. At Graph Expo, Kodak showed a Rotatek offset web with a Versamark unit (see page 38). The New Jersey Record & Herald News is adding an Evolution web from Swiss-manufacturer Wifag. The newspaper publisher ordered it to allow later adoption of Wifag's direct-imaging system.

In May at Drupa, KBA launched the variable cut-off Compacta 217, a 16-page heatset shaftless, mini-gap web rated at 70,000 cph, a complement to its mini-gap Compacta 215. (KBA claims its 1997-vintage 215 was the first shaftless commercial web.) The 217's variable cut-off ranges from 21½″ to 24¾″, and it offers "perfecting imprinting" via a fifth standard print unit.

At Drupa 2004, Mitsubishi introduced its Reusable Plate System, RPS-X1, which uses a spray-on polymer coating and a laser-head imaging system to rewrite the image on the plate. Presently, the plate material can be rewritten up to 20 times, and plate life is rated at 100,000 impressions per imaging. After each run, the coating is washed off and a new coat applied.

In conjunction with RPS-X1, Mitsubishi introduced the Diamond 16 MAX-V web press with variable cut-off (21.5″ to 24.6″), based on the MAX Series platform. Different diameter plate and blanket sleeves fit over cylinders to change diameter. Both the RPS-X1 and MAX-V will be available the first half of 2006.

On the research front, Drent Goebel secured patents this year for its variable-repeat interchangeable cylinder cassettes. Late last year, Heidelberg Web Systems sued MAN Roland, alleging violation of patents related to the Sunday press blanket sleeve technology for web-offset printing, stating it won similar claims against Mitsubishi. Goss International is continuing the suit, currently in discovery phase, with trial set for next November in U.S. District Court in New Hampshire.

When MAN Roland reported over $60 million in web sales to U.S. printers at Drupa in May 2004, there was a measure of incredulity—since the only announced buys were a pair of webs to Quad/Graphics. But in August, Quebecor World augmented the story with a massive $330 million, 22-web press buy—effectively retooling its North American operations.

Quad/Graphics' Drupa deal went further, totaling $150 million. The three-year contract will see 10 of the Quad-style double-web, 64-page machines: eight Goss Sunday 3000/32s and two MAN Roland Lithomans (the first U.S. Lithoman 64-pagers). Quad also recently commissioned two other Sundays in Sussex, WI.

Following Drupa, more details were released from Quebecor World. To be included are combinations of 16 Lithoman and Rotoman presses at several plants. (The source for the six remaining webs is yet to be determined.) Announced so far:

• 64-page Lithomans for short- and long-run one- and two-color books.
• 48- and 64-page Lithomans for high- page-count, four-color commercial, magazine and book work.
• 48- and 64-page Rotomans for high-volume, high-quality magazines.

Other recent MAN Roland sales:

• Ripon Community Printers, Ripon, WI, added to heatset capacity in September, installing a Rotoman eight-unit, two-web—the first stacked conventional Rotoman in North America.
• Publication printer Lane Press, Burlington, VT, is adding a four-unit Rotoman in April 2005, to be commissioned in early summer.
• RR Donnelley's Denver directory plant will get a 3000-fpm, 81″-wide, 45½″ cylinder four-color heatset Lithoman directory press in early 2005. With closed-loop color control, auto roll-handling and auto bundling, it's a twin to one in Dwight, IL.

Sales or start-ups of webs by KBA, Komori, Mitsubishi, Sanden and Timsons were announced recently, and RFQs on web presses are on the rise. "We've been seeing serious budget quotation requests during the past year," says George Sanchez, director of sales and marketing for Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses. "The general commercial market has been the most active. We're seeing signs that printers are ready to begin placing orders," he says, and predicts a run-up in sales for the remainder of this year. Word has it Goss also will be making some announcements as deals solidify.

At Graph Expo, Goss International showed the rebranded—and wider—Sunday 3000/32 web-offset press, a 3000-fpm, 100,000-iph two-around by eight-page-wide gapless press capable of 32 pages on its 72″ web, debuted last year by Heidelberg. "This Graph Expo had special significance because it was our first chance to present the new Goss and our position as one of the major web-offset suppliers," says Bob Brown, CEO.

Adopting the wider Sunday this year were Wisconsin-based Arandell Corp. and Quad/Graphics. Arandell made a splash by announcing the first order for the 3000/32 in a five-unit, one-web configuration during Graph Expo last year. Quad/Graphics followed within hours, ordering two dual-web configurations, now operating in Sussex.

A $15-million expansion for Schumann Bros. Printing, Fall River, WI, announced in March, will see an eight-unit, two-web Sunday 2000 with autoplate and closed-loop color controls. In early 2005, Atlanta's Geographics plans to commission its Sunday 2000 web with the Automatic Transfer (AT) feature, allowing for on-the-fly transfers (such as a black plate change for languages) without stopping the press for a conventional makeready.

The AT feature allows one or more units to be brought on impression while simultaneously taking off another unit or group of units. Goss' AT maintains the straight web lead, without air bars or diverters, alleviating associated quality issues. Presses with two AT units can be used for single-color version changes. A press line with eight AT units can complete four-color changeovers without stopping.

KBA says the ability to switch web widths on the fly without impairing printing and folding quality has been a standard feature of two-across KBA newspaper presses for some time, and it is being specified for an increasing number of its four- and six-across Colora and Commander presses. Timsons, which placed a 48A web at Baltimore book printer Victor Graphics, boasts a similar capability on its ZMR models.

A unique application is seen at French printer La Galiote Prenant, which has commissioned the first Goss M-600 D, delivered direct from the Drupa show floor. The press is specified with a 62.5-cm. (24″) repeat cut-off, delivering to a VITS sheeter at up to 70,000 copies per hour.

Ft. Worth commercial printer Sprint Press is erecting a dual-web, 39½″-wide, 55,000-cph Compacta 215, expected to come on line the end of this year. The choice was made "based upon productivity and quality," says Bob Williams, Sprint Press president. He saw the 215 at Drupa, then watched it in action at Verona, Italy's Offset Print Veneta, where he saw "an extremely difficult job made ready and printing beautifully within one half-hour," says Williams.

Sprint Press' Compacta is being configured as eight in-line, double-printing couples for full-color plus spot color or coatings—standard requirements in its market. With dual webs, it will be able to produce 32-page full-color products, or 16-page copies featuring spot colors and coatings (up to 8 over 8) with one web. Despite a cylinder circumference of 22¾″, the 215's mini-gap allows for the still-popular 11″ bleed. Modular design means it can be extended later, if Sprint Press wants to add turner bars or a sheeter delivery.

Direct Mail Solutions, a Key Largo, FL division of BBF Printing Solutions, recently added a four-unit Sanden XP1500 capable of variable repeat from 17″ to 36″.

At Drupa, Komori displayed its System 38S full-sized 16-page web with a new folder to handle a variety of products, including direct mail and publication work. Komori says changeovers between jobs are shortened by one-step register adjustment, color matching, fold adjustment and plate changing. Komori KHS-AI (Advanced Intelligence) self-learning software recognizes start-up patterns over time, reducing intervals between jobs by getting into color on its own.

Capable of 60,000-iph, System 38S has a new folder (in Drupa demos it was preset using JDF data) that lends itself to direct mail, ad materials and magazines. Reduced power requirements earn the press an "eco-sensitive" badge, Komori says.

After its debut, "A lot of North American printers started to take a harder look at the machine," says Stephan Carter, Komori America president. Though not originally planning a U.S.-style 23 9/16″ cut-off, "it turned out China and the U.S. printers have the same cut-offs."

At Graph Expo, a four-unit System 38S was sold to Canada's 100-employee Prodigy Graphics Group, Brampton, Ontario. Established in 1976, Prodigy's weather-controlled, 150,000-sq.ft. plant near the Toronto airport handles a wide range of projects from resellers and print consultants—operating 60 sheetfed units. The 38″-wide web, which is Prodigy's first, comes on-line in mid-2005 and is the first full-sized web sold in North America by Komori in a number of years.

Cenveo Anderson Lithograph, Los Angeles, said at Graph Expo it would acquire a Mitsubishi Diamond 16 MAX M-Series 16-page, six-unit, one-web mini-gap press. Due in the late fall, it uses metal-back blankets to reduce cylinder gaps. Mitsubishi also installed a six-unit Diamond 16 MAX-M machine at Lithographix Inc.'s new facility in Hawthorne, CA, last spring. And, Motherall Printing also has installed a Mitsubishi Diamond 16 MAX web press system in its new plant in Dallas.