Big Press Report: Functions Follow Format

Now that image quality and automation levels have been cranked up, large-format presses are appealing once again to commercial printers.

By Debora Toth, Project Editor -- graphic arts online, 12/1/2000

Commercial printers around the country are doing the math. Their conclusion: a large-format sheetfed press, i.e. one measuring over 50" in cylinder width, provides significantly more productivity in one pass than any smaller press. For example, a typical 28x40" sheet produced on a 40"-wide press is half the size of a 38x56" sheet produced on a 56" press.

Not only is the productivity higher, but manufacturers have dramatically raised the printing quality and operating technology of large-format presses in recent years. Automated plate changing, digital ink keying, spectrodensitometers, automated color output devices calibrated to prepress, and linkage to computer-to-plate systems have all been added to large presses, providing them with the same automation, speed, and quality found on 28" and 40" presses.

Also, while a large-format press does cost more than a 40" model, it is not double the cost.

"Since 1997 when we introduced our new line of 51"-, 56"-, and 64"-wide Rapida presses with levels of automation never before available on large-format presses, we've seen a substantial surge in sales, not only to packaging printers but to commercial shops as well," says Bob McKinney, director of marketing for KBA North America, which controls a dominant share of the large-format sheetfed market.

Doubling of production

McKinney continues, "In the past, a commercial printer would generally choose a 40" press. But now that the print quality, makeready, and manning on the Rapidas are just about the same, a printer can double production of an eight-hour shift. We feel our equipment provides some very compelling economic arguments for commercial printers."

In McKinney's view, automation levels on the big presses weren't up to competitive levels just five years ago. A printer had to have larger crews, plus operation of the equipment required more manual effort and skills. Thus, he says, advances in automation have made the difference in the economics of using large press formats today.

Makes sense to many

Adds Jerry Manzi, director of sales in the central region for MAN Roland Inc., "During the 1980s, 40" sheetfed presses dominated the market. But today, a large-format machine makes sense to a lot of printers and to a lot of different printers. We sell big presses to publication printers producing 32-page formats and to commercial printers for oversize work."

Manzi points out the investment advantages of buying big. He says, "A 56" press is rated at the same speed as a 40" press, yet it produces twice as much printing with the same amount of manpower and costs only 30% more. For example, a fully loaded six-color, 56"-wide Roland 900 with coater costs approximately $3.5 million, compared to a 10-color 40" press that costs from $3.8 million to $4 million or a 12-color 40" perfector that can run up to about $4.4 million."

Komori America, which markets a 38x50" Lithrone 50 sheetfed, has added productivity enhancements to its machine. "A large-format press used to run at slower speeds and required longer makereadies," says Doug Schardt, product manager for Komori America. "But we've added the same automation to our Lithrone 50 as we did to our smaller presses, which includes auto plate changing, auto makeready sequence, high-speed inking, and the K-ColorProfiler [Komori color management system]. Now that press offers very high quality output, coupled with double the productivity of a 40" press."

Run lengths and CTP

Komori sells most of its Lithrone 50 models to packaging and label printers, says Schardt. "Commercial printers haven't been attracted to the press for two reasons: run lengths have decreased, plus their prepress department is set up for standard-size presses," he says. "Also, the bigger presses are much more expensive than a standard 40" model. However, the 50" press could become very viable for commercial printers if longer runs come back."

Computer-to-plate systems are now available in formats to fit the larger machines. "In the past, a printer that had standardized on 40" machines had to redo its prepress department if it wanted to add a larger format press," says Manzi of MAN Roland. "Today, a number of CTP manufacturers offer VLF [very large format] platesetters, which has made the whole transition to direct-to-plate production that much easier."

What about quality levels?

Some printers that have looked at big presses over the years expressed concern about image resolution.

In Kansas City, Mo., one commercial printer, Midland Litho, is willing to attest to the present high levels of quality of large-format presses. The 67-year-old, family-owned operation, which is now equipped with eight large-format presses, has been certified by Hallmark Cards to print its products. This certification process, managers note, is an extremely stringent review of a printer's process and equipment.

"Until recently, larger presses just didn't have the speed, and makereadies could take as long as four to six hours," says Joe Grimmett, general manager of Midland Litho. "Frankly, until we installed the Roland 900, we had a hard time competing. Our gear had become outdated."

Last year, Midland Litho made the largest capital investment in its history, spending nearly $9 million to buy two Roland 900 presses and a Creo Trendsetter CTP system. Its other presses include three Rolands (800 six-color plus coater, 63" UV press, and 63" Ultraman six-color), two 60" Harris five-colors plus coater and UV, and a two-color Roland bronzing machine.

Says Grimmett, "We installed only the third Roland 900 in North America, a six-color with coater, but all of our customers embraced the press immediately. That prompted us to buy a second one, which was a seven-color plus coater. We're very pleased with the automation, auto plate loading, and digital workflow on these two presses. They're now the workhorses and the driving force behind our company; in fact, we produce as much as three-quarters of our work on the two Roland 900s."

Success in slitting

Prior to buying the big presses, Midland Litho had followed the nationwide trend toward the 40" size, installing one such multicolor machine. Then, when it installed its Roland 900s it found that much of its work was still centered around the 40" size. Its solution: develop a prototype slitter for its large-format presses that can slit one 56" sheet of board or paper into two 40" products.

"We did our first slitting job four months ago," reports Grimmett. "By utilizing the slitter, we enjoy the cost savings and quality of the big press, along with the high running speeds of a 40" press-but produce double the work in one-pass productivity. We can now compete against 40" printers and we do print lots of 40" work."

The Roland 900s produce high-end jobs, such as point-of-purchase displays, top-sheet labels for toy products, and candy boxes.

"Designers have gotten so creative," says Grimmett. "Hallmark, especially, is always pushing the envelope. Based on our experience, I think that printers that buy the right equipment and sell their jobs right will stay in the forefront."

Opportunity in merger

In 1999, Union Graphics, a northern New Jersey commercial printer, and MacNaughton/Einson Graphics, a billboard printer, merged to form Unimac Graphics, based in Carlstadt, N.J. The new company became a $45 million commercial printer located in a new 146,000-square-foot facility with 230 employees.

The pressroom contains four 40" Heidelberg Speedmaster 102 sheetfeds (two six-color CD models, and a six-color and an eight-color perfector), a single-color 36" Heidelberg, and a seven-color 78"-wide Harris, plus two webs (a four-color 22" Didde and a six-unit eight-page press).

Joining these is a new KBA Rapida 162, a six-color 64" five-over-one sheetfed equipped with UV coating.

Array of advantages

"When we looked at the 64" Rapida, we saw that we could print high-quality work with a lot more output," says George Amann, president of Unimac Graphics. "The 44x64" sheet is way bigger than two 28x40" sheets. Put another way, a 28x40" sheet will accommodate 1,100 square inches, but a 44x64" sheet contains more than 2,800 square inches, which is about two-and-a-half times more. When you consider comparable single-pass operation, the productivity gain is obvious."

Unimac operates the Rapida 162 at 11,000 sheets per hour (sph), producing large cosmetics displays for stores and retailers. The press can print from 70-lb. coated text up to 40-pt. board, providing wide flexibility.

Also, before buying this press, Unimac had to outsource its coating capability; now Unimac can UV coat its jobs in one pass for a fast finished product, giving clients a much shorter turnaround, according to Amann.

"The printing industry is taking a hard look again at bigger presses," reports Amann. "For many years, printers stayed away from large-format equipment because they couldn't see any advantages; the technology wasn't comparable and the quality levels just weren't competitive. For example, the big sheetfeds didn't have closed-loop spectrophotometers and no integration of CTP.

"Today, they do, and I think resolution is dramatically better. Manning is less, makeready is quicker, color consistency from one form to another is equal, and they're very versatile-we can shift production between a lot of different jobs. We're convinced that a large-format press offers a huge competitive advantage."

Focused on large formats.

When Continental Litho opened its doors for business in Scarborough, Ontario in June 1994, the commercial and packaging printer focused entirely on large-format sheetfed printing. The company, which now employs 12 people and operates two facilities, caters to clients in Canada that need point-of-purchase displays, maps, posters, computer boxes, and art reproductions.

Continental Litho also serves other printers that do not have large-format printing capability.

"We decided that there were too many 40" printers in our area," says John Ball, one of two founding owners. "There was only one other competitor in the large-format market but it was located in another part of town. Our niche is not nearly as big as the 40" market but we have enough work for two or three printers. Business could easily get saturated if more large-format printers start up."

At its founding, Continental Litho installed a six-color MAN Roland 800, a 63"-wide press. Six months ago, it added a second large-format press, a 56" Roland 900 six-color with coater.

"We got to the point where we needed to add capacity to grow, but we still didn't want to put in a 40" press," recalls Ball. "The Roland 900 is absolutely different from the six-year-old Roland 800. The new press has faster speed, better electronics, and newer technology. It has automatic plate loading and blanket wash. We can perform faster makereadies and turn around our jobs in much less time."

.and gaining an edge

Moreover, the new press has made Continental Litho more competitive in new markets, Ball contends. "The sheet size on the Roland 900 is 40x56"," he explains. "That means that we can print two 28x40" sheets in one pass. For a run of 100,000 pieces, for example, we can produce the job by running 50,000 sheets, so the new machine makes us very competitive in long-run work.

"In addition, the large sheet size allows us to produce multi-combination work by ganging the same job or several jobs on a single run. This saves our customers on makeready costs and lowers our output levels. Finally, with a substrate range of 40-lb. offset to 40-pt. board on the press, we can produce a tremendous variety of jobs on the same equipment."

Prepress shop turns to printing

Like Continental Litho in Canada, Stevenson-The Color Company found an overabundance of 40" printers in the Cincinnati region. The 75-year-old, family-owned firm, which evolved in the past five years from a prepress shop into a commercial and packaging printer, already had a 15-year-old 40" five-color Heidelberg and a two-color 50" Miehle sheetfed.

In April, Stevenson installed a Mitsubishi 5F, a 37x51" seven-color with coater.

"As a prepress shop, we had been doing a little printing over the past 20 years," says Tim Ludtke, plant manager for Stevenson. "We used the 40" press primarily for some packaging, limited-edition prints, sales sample runs, and paperback book covers, and the 50" two-color for packaging and retail point-of-purchase signage."

But when managers decided that the company needed to move into printing in a serious way, they realized they needed to replace the older equipment. Says Ludtke, "We were moving into high-quality retail signage for supermarkets, department stores, and cosmetics, clothing, and jewelry retailers. Signage printing calls for a larger sheet size; the 51" Mitsubishi fits this market perfectly."

Before purchasing the press, Stevenson performed a three-year research project to determine the right press type and size. It found that there had been major recent advances in the quality and technology of large-format presses. The 5F model it selected features semiautomatic plate mounters, speeds up to 15,000 sph, and substrate range from 60-lb. paper up to 40-pt. board.

Adding volume and capability

Since its installation, the new press has added volume and capability. "The Mitsubishi has increased our accounts simply because of its capabilities, such as on-press coating" says Ludtke. "Coating provides protection for packaging work; gives designers access to a variety of dull, gloss, or matte finishes; and provides us with faster turnaround. We are also finding efficiency rates that are 30% to 40% higher than those of our older presses."

In the next three months, Stevenson plans to add a CTP system, which will boost productivity and quality even further. "We've always been a full-service provider that's never said 'no' to a job," says Ludtke. "We think quality and service set us apart, but now we're also the only commercial printer in our region equipped with a press over 50" in size."