Big Sheets Can Have Broad Appeal

Caption: Famed Chicago architect Daniel Burnham made no small plans, but then he didn’t have to precision-fold a 60-page poster to co-mail with a magazine. If you didn’t receive one with your issue of GAM, you can obtain a copy by contacting Angela Marshall of manroland at 630.920.3984, or amarshall@mru.com.

Polybagged with select issues of GAM is a five-by-six-panel poster that, when completely unfolded, has a 43.5×52.5´´ final trim size. It was reproduced on a large-format sheetfed press even bigger than the 56´´ 900 model making its debut June 24 in manroland’s U.S. Demo Center.

The German engineers who designed the 73´´ 900 XXL may have heeded this advice: Make no small plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood. Taken from famed architect Daniel Burnham, these words helped chart Chicago’s rebuild after the Great Fire of 1871. The city’s world-famous skyline—shown on the poster—soon will have an impressive new addition: the Chicago Spire, a 2,000´ skyscraper that will be the tallest free-standing structure in North America when it’s completed in 2011.

With its own mammoth proportions of over 6´ wide, the 900 XXL delivers more than triple—328% more—the printable area than a conventional 40´´ format. In February 2007, Chicago-based premedia giant Schawk, Inc. installed the world’s first 8-color-plus-inline coater version of this press in its Los Angeles print division, a former unit of Applied Graphics Technologies, acquired in 2005.

The VLF machine runs billboards, signage and POP for the major Hollywood movie studios nearby. Schawk made time in its busy spring schedule to squeeze the 10,000-sheet GAM-manroland job between press runs for “WALL•E,” the new Disney/Pixar animated film. GAM’s posters ran on Sappi 100-lb. Flo Gloss text, an FSC-certified sheet obtained from international paper distributor Spicers/PaperlinX. Schawk’s 105,000-sq.ft. LA plant itself is FSC-certified as well.

Making ready on the 900 XXL takes 60% less time than the firm’s 40-year-old, 6-color 77´´ Miehle carton presses, which Schawk still uses, notes Carl Taylor, the firm’s sales VP and a 26-year print marketing veteran. He attributes the new press’s 30-minute makereadies, in large part, to enhanced on-press software and closed-loop color via manroland’s printnet system. And staffing has been reduced, too, Taylor says, from four- to three-person crews. (See a video of the press in action at manroland.us.com.)

“Plus, we now have eight colors instead of just six,” Taylor adds. The new press runs so much faster: 10,000 iph vs. 2,800 iph. “It has all the automated bell-and-whistle technology that our 40´´ presses have. The 900 XXL is a great paper-printing press,” he says, speaking to its superior dot.

The poster was conceptualized by ad agency The Drucker Group. Schawk applied an internal color profile to the huge, 300-meg original image and corrected color on press. “A tremendous amount of control is available on the print console,” says Robert Godwin, Schawk’s VP business development.

In postpress, “When you fold that much paper, you’re going to have a lot of air,” Taylor explains. “The first fold is dead on, but then you get 'creeping.’” A carefully planned design allowed for these tolerances in the accordion fold’s execution.